Having welcomed asylum seekers for almost two years, the City of Cornwall is asking the federal and provincial governments for “urgent financial support”. The southeastern Ontario municipality is asking for its “fair share,” noting that other urban centers have obtained funding.
“There has been a request from the City for several years to at least cover our expenses […], but we didn’t have the funds. We see what is happening elsewhere in the country, then we wonder why,” summarizes Duty Mathieu Fleury, chief administrator of the City of Cornwall.
At the end of January, Ottawa announced it would release $362.4 million to facilitate the reception of asylum seekers. Some $143 million was granted to Toronto, and 100 million to Quebec. But the City of Cornwall regrets having received nothing. “In the meantime, new arrivals continue to arrive and municipal resources continue to be compressed,” we read in a press release published on February 27.
Asylum seekers now represent almost 2% of the population of this municipality, which has around 46,000 inhabitants. “Our community — based on population — has welcomed more asylum seekers than others, including Toronto. […] It’s time to get our fair share,” Mr. Fleury wrote.
Financial impacts
In July 2022, nearly 5,500 asylum seekers were transferred to Ontario at the request of Quebec, which wanted Ottawa to find solutions to manage the influx of arrivals via Roxham Road. Some of them were hosted at the DEV Hotel and Conference Center in Cornwall.
“What has become more and more evident over the months and years is that there is a loss of access,” said Mr. Fleury, giving as an example the inability for Cornwall to access at the gymnasium and swimming pool of this complex. By no longer being able to rent rooms to tourists, the municipality is also deprived of “revenue from the municipal tax on accommodation”.
But the “central issues” are linked to the cost of “social services”, such as housing, daycare services, or even the remuneration of City employees to take care of the Ontario Works program, which offers welfare. “With the loss of revenue and the increased need for municipal resources, the financial impacts today amount to more than a million dollars,” writes the municipality. And “we realize that the municipal services that went to the residents of our community are now crumbling,” adds Mr. Fleury.
“Some will stay in Cornwall, then we want them to be welcomed,” specifies the former municipal councilor of the City of Ottawa. But “it is still a heavy burden for a small municipality like us to continually absorb this pressure, without having financial support. […] We don’t want to make money, but we don’t want it to cost us money.”
At the time of writing, neither the federal Department of Immigration nor the Ontario Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing had responded to questions from the Duty.
Welcoming city for French speakers
Added to these challenges is a housing crisis. A Palestinian asylum seeker met in early March by The duty hopes to one day be able to bring his family back to Canada. After a year in his hotel room, he looked to rent a house, but it would cost him “over $1,700.” “It’s too much money,” he laments.
Pierre, who we will use a fictitious name for security reasons, also prioritizes bringing his daughter and finding a job. But his Congolese scientific secondary school diploma is not recognized, and the French speaker has “a big problem with English”, which he does not speak.
Anyone wishing to settle in Cornwall has been charmed by the welcome of the population and the possibility of expressing themselves “a little” in French, in this city which has adopted a policy of bilingualism. “When you leave home, never expect to be happy straight away. [Mais] when you go outside, see how welcoming people are […], it still makes you love the city, the country a little. »
This contact with the host community, from the first moments, is essential, according to the director of operations of the Association of Francophone Communities of Ontario of Sturmont, Dundas and Glengarry (ACFO SDG), Sonia A. Behilil. “It’s in the first 60 to 90 days that we can create a bond with the community that will change their entire experience,” she explains.
Although it no longer collaborates directly with Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada and the DEV Hotel and Conference Center, the ACFO SDG continues to make its community network available to better integrate these newcomers, ranging from access to school French-speaking people to the provision of furniture, low-cost clothing and food gift cards for families who leave the hotel, “who pay their rent, but who, as a result, do not have the means to feed themselves” .
“We welcomed allophone people who are today Francophiles and we are proud of it”, but the work of community organizations “is not sustainable”, warns Mme Behilil. “Yes, we are good in the community, we are good locally, but until when? […] We don’t have the funding. »
This report is supported by the Local Journalism Initiative, funded by the Government of Canada.