The federal government has announced it would be providing an extra $210 million to fund interim housing for asylum seekers, and around half of that money will be for Toronto, where dozens of refugees compelled to sleep on the sidewalk outside a shelter are being moved to a church in North York.
Immigration Minister Sean Fraser made the announcement recently and said that $97 million has been earmarked to support Toronto refugees who are not being backed under federal programs.
He said: “This will put us in a position where the City of Toronto will not have any concerns about the federal share of costs to ensure that they can provide housing to them, should they choose to re-extend access to the shelter system in Toronto to asylum seekers who up until recently have been denied that access.”
While reacting to the development, the Mayor of Toronto, Olivia Chow, said in a statement that the funding announcement is a “welcome first step” but that more needs to be done to mitigate the crisis.
Chow said: “It will not meet the needs of refugees arriving in Toronto and across the region. It may however provide a short-term stop gap.”
She said she is working with the city manager and senior staff to determine what more can be done “immediately.”
While talking to reporters at an unrelated news conference, Ontario Premier, Doug Ford told reporters he has talked to refugees in his riding and what they really want is jobs.
Doug said: “They’re all healthy, they all want to work, so the feds have to speed up the working permits. Each of these people sitting around for — what is it — literally four months, four or five more months, that’s unacceptable.
“All they want is a better life.”
He said the federal government must provide Toronto with extra funding to the tune of $150 million.
He said: “I’m going to be all over the federal government to make sure that we get these people back on their feet. You can’t just drop people and say okay, we’re all done. It doesn’t work that way.”
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