Since the beginning of the year, the arrivals of asylum seekers via Roxham Road have made headlines every week. In four questions this week, The duty attempts to provide nuanced answers to this complex phenomenon. Today: deciphering the costs related to asylum applications.
The arrival of asylum seekers via Roxham Road generates certain costs related to the services provided to them, from emergency accommodation to additional places in schools. As with other immigrants, Ottawa pays the majority of the bill, but an additional amount is periodically subject to negotiation with Quebec.
On the one hand, the federal government transferred $697 million to the province during the 2021-2022 fiscal year. This annual transfer, calculated according to a formula set out in the Canada-Quebec Accord of 1991, is mainly used to ensure the operation of the provincial ministry of Immigration, Francisation and Integration (MIFI).
On the other hand, this federal subsidy does not directly cover certain services provided to asylum seekers. The MIFI nevertheless finances some in turn, such as the Regional Program for the Reception and Integration of Asylum Seekers (PRAIDA), which notably offers temporary accommodation.
Since the rate of arrival of asylum seekers accelerated in Roxham in 2017, negotiations on the additional amounts necessary to cover the expenses of Quebec are taking place. Details of the requested envelopes have yet to be revealed, however. The expenses would amount to “several hundred million dollars,” wrote Prime Minister François Legault in his recent letter to Justin Trudeau, urging him to reimburse them.
A badly heard cry from the heart?
The impression remains all the same that the “reception capacity” has been “exceeded”, as Mr. Legault has repeatedly claimed.
On January 24, aid organizations for asylum seekers cried out, saying they were “overwhelmed” by the arrivals. “We are hitting a wall,” said Stephan Reichhold, director general of the Roundtable of organizations serving refugees and immigrants. And even if Quebec very quickly released $3.5 million to support them, they also demanded a permanent increase in their funding. “We’re very happy, but that doesn’t solve the funding issues, it’s a plaster “, he says today.
Asylum seekers have access to “survival services”, he points out. Other immigrants benefit, among other things, from longer support — for job search, for example — and from full-time francization supported by allowances.
To say that the reception capacity has been “exceeded” is it therefore exaggerated? This capacity is a function of “political will”, replies Mr. Reichhold. He cites the example of the special program set up for Ukrainians, thanks to which close to 178,000 people have already arrived in Canada. “We are not saying to take away services from Ukrainians, we are saying that giving access to the same services to asylum seekers would take a lot of pressure off and make life easier for everyone,” he summarizes.
In the debate on Roxham, “we often present reception capacity as something stable, immutable, as if we could not increase it”, also abounds Mireille Paquet, holder of the Research Chair in Politics of Immigration from Concordia University.
She also invites us to prepare for the future by taking into account the world situation: “We need a real dialogue at the national level, it’s a new reality so maybe we have to take the decision to put money in structures. »
What costs?
Temporary accommodation is the first resource to which asylum seekers can turn. The PRAIDA currently has a capacity of more than 1200 places divided between shelters and hotels. This program is funded by the MIFI, which is in turn funded by the federal government. The federal government also rents hotel rooms in the Montreal region and in Ontario to accommodate people who have just arrived in the country.
Health care coverage is entirely covered by the Interim Federal Health Program (IFHP), as indicated by the Régie de l’assurance maladie du Québec to general practitioners.
The integration of children in schools is covered by Quebec. However, asylum seekers have not had access to subsidized childcare services since 2018.
Legal aid is also covered by Ottawa, since immigration is an area of federal law, assures Stéphanie Valois, president of the Quebec Association of Lawyers and Lawyers in Immigration Law (AQAADI).
The long delays before obtaining a work permit also push asylum seekers to ask for financial assistance of last resort, a provincial expense.
These long delays are a bone of contention between the two levels of government. “The longer it takes to process a request, the more the costs borne by the provincial and municipal administrations increase”, noted already in 2018 the Office of the Parliamentary Budget Officer of Canada.