PACP - Supplementary Estimates (A), 2020-2021- The Interim Housing Assistance Program - Nov 24, 2020

Key Messages

• The Government of Canada is committed to working collaboratively with its municipal and provincial partners to help alleviate the pressures they are facing with respect to providing temporary housing, including for asylum seekers.
• Incremental funding for the Interim Housing Assistance Program will provide financial support to provincial and municipal governments to continue to address extraordinary interim housing pressures resulting from increased volumes of asylum claimants in recent years and rising costs resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Supplmentary Messages

• The Government extended the Interim Housing Assistance Program for a one year period, until March 31, 2021.
• Total funding available under the program for 2020-2021 is $344.5M, taking into account the $242M requested in Supplementary Estimates B and the $102.5M that was reprofiled from 2019-20 to 2020-21 in Supplementary Estimates A.
• This funding is intended to be used to provide financial assistance to support provinces and municipalities in the provision of temporary shelter spaces for asylum claimants. This includes some outstanding funding for 2019 as well as costs incurred by jurisdictions in 2020 in response to the pandemic.
• Given the pressures we are seeing related to asylum claimants’ use of interim housing, we expect Quebec and Toronto will be recipients under the Program, but other jurisdictions may also report pressures and receive support from the federal government if required.

Supporting Facts and Figures

• As of November 16, 2020, $371,520,000 in total had been provided to jurisdictions:
  • Quebec ($250,000,000 for 2017 and 2018),
  • the City of Toronto ($88,000,000 for 2017-2019; $17,000,000 of which was for the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area Regionalisation Plan),
  • the City of Ottawa ($17,100,000 for 2017-2019),
  • Peel Region ($2,200,000 for 2017-2019),
  • the City of Hamilton ($220,000 for 2018 and 2019),
  • Manitoba ($8,000,000 for 2017 and 2018), and
  • British Columbia ($6,000,000 for 2017-2019).
• The 2020-2021 Supplementary Estimates (A) included a grant authority of $200M for the Program, including the following :
  • $102.5M sourced by the re-profile request of unused funding for the Interim Housing Assistance Program from 2019-2020 into 2020-2021
  • $97.5M internal transfer from the Settlement Program contribution to the grant for the Interim Housing Assistance Program.
• In 2020-2021 Supplementary Estimates B (which were tabled on October 22, 2020), incremental funding of $242M is being sought, in which $97.5M will be allocated to the Settlement Program contribution to reverse the temporary transfer processed in Supplementary Estimates (A) that was meant to increase the Program’s grant authority pending approval of this $242M funding.

Background

• Increased volumes of irregular and regular asylum claimants since 2017 have placed pressures on provincial and municipal social services. Some provinces have positioned these pressures as a federal responsibility, pointing in particular to a backlog in the asylum system and a perceived inability to control irregular migration.
• In March 2019, the Government created a grant program - the Interim Housing Assistance Program (IHAP) –in order to cost-share with provinces, and if necessary municipalities, for interim housing costs incurred in 2017 through 2019. The primary objective was to provide temporary assistance to allow provinces to adjust to new asylum pressures and to increase interim housing capacity.
• Increased asylum claims during the first few months of 2020, and the resulting pressures on shelters, have been made more acute by the COVID-19 pandemic. If volumes spike following a resumption of international travel and the removal of current measures at the border, the pressures that have been experienced to date by provinces and municipalities will persist and may be intensified. As a result, it will be even more important to support provinces and municipalities in order to reduce the risk of homelessness for asylum claimants when the current border measures expire.
• The Interim Housing Assistance Program was recently extended to March 31, 2021. This will allow IRCC to conclude an outstanding commitment to Quebec to provide the province with funding for 2019 costs, as well as to address jurisdictions’ interim housing pressures in 2020 that have been exacerbated by COVID-19 (i.e., increased costs of physical distancing and cleaning, and longer than average stays in the short term). The department is currently in discussions with both Quebec and Toronto on financial compensation through the Program.