The federal government is set to end its long-running program involving the funding of hotel rooms for asylum seekers.
Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) has announced that the hotel funding will end this fall. Federal funding has been used to house asylum seekers in hotel rooms across the country since 2017, costing Ottawa upward of $1.1 billion.
Department spokesperson Isabelle Dubois told The Epoch Times in an email that the agency will continue to support those still living in the hotels until Sept. 30, and “remains committed” to supporting asylum seekers as they transition.
Dubois said that the IRCC will work “with service providers to assist with housing, employment, and essential services.”
IRCC leased rooms at hotels as part of a “temporary measure” through its Interim Housing Assistance Program (IHAP) to support local shelters but it was not a “sustainable, cost-effective solution,” Dubois said.
Ottawa started using hotels to “backstop overwhelmed shelters” in 2017, according to a March IRCC report. While hotels across Canada have been used to accommodate refugees, the majority of claimants have been housed in IRCC-run hotels in Toronto, Ottawa, and Quebec.
Ottawa pledged an initial $50 million in June 2018 to assist the provinces and municipalities that have borne the majority of the housing costs. Of that, $11 million was given directly to the City of Toronto.
“We have a clear plan for managing asylum seeker pressures and continue to act to support our partners,” then-Immigration Minister Ahmed Hussen said at the time. “Toronto and Montreal, as major population centres, face the greatest challenges when it comes to housing asylum claimants, and we will continue to work with them to come up with long-term, workable solutions to those challenges.”
The program has witnessed a large growth in asylum claims since then. The number of those seeking asylum in Canada jumped from 64,000 annually in 2019, to more than 143,000 in 2023. The IRCC and the Canada Border Services Agency saw more than 171,000 asylum claimants last year, largely in Quebec and Ontario.
The hotel housing program was at its “peak” in 2023, when 46 hotel sites were used to house asylum seekers from Vancouver to St. John’s, the report said. Rooms were roughly $205 per night, and there was “no enforcement” on the length of stay.
The program is still supporting approximately 485 asylum claimants in four Ontario hotels and one Quebec hotel, Dubois said.
“IRCC’s planned transition from hotel operations to more sustainable and cost-effective alternatives allows the federal government to return to its core role in the asylum space while supporting provinces and municipalities through the Interim Housing Assistance Program (IHAP) to develop their own long-term, cost-effective housing solutions,” Dubois said.
IRCC says its new strategy includes reception centres designed to offer immediate short-term accommodation and various services to asylum seekers. One such centre is located in Peel, Ont., Dubois said, noting that government funding for IHAP is also supporting “transitional housing options” in Ottawa.
The agency has said it will renew its focus on relocation to different jurisdictions, including provinces with more affordable housing and employment opportunities.
The shift will reduce costs to Canadians and “improve outcomes for claimants,” the email said.
The government said it has spent more than $2 billion on the “interim housing needs of claimants” since 2017, which includes $455.4 million in funding for the City of Toronto, $440.9 million for Quebec, and $65.3 million for Ottawa.
The Canadian Press contributed to this report
