IRCC, Deputy Minister, Transition Binder, 2024 - Asylum: Housing and FPT

Issue

• Record numbers of asylum arrivals in Canada have placed strains on overburdened provincial and municipal shelter systems and other services. Faced with capacity and funding challenges, municipal and provincial partners continue to urge the federal government to provide predictable, adequate funding for temporary accommodations for asylum claimants, while also requesting federal assistance to build new capacity specific to the asylum claimant population.

State of Play

• In 2022, Canada received 92K asylum claims, a record number to date. In 2023, in spite of the expanded application of the Safe Third Country Agreement (STCA), Canada received a high of over 145K arrivals. The volumes are straining the asylum system and having direct impacts on communities.
• Interest in the Interim Housing Assistance Program (IHAP) has been high since the July 2023 renewal announcement. For calendar year 2022, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) disbursed IHAP payments to just three jurisdictions – the City of Toronto, the City of Ottawa, and the Province of Quebec (totaling $129.6M). For 2023, the Department is on track to process claims and issue payments to at least ten municipalities and provinces. Total requested funding is expected to significantly exceed the $212M currently available.
• On November 24, 2023, IRCC announced a funding commitment of $7M to the Region of Peel to open a new reception centre near Pearson International Airport to provide temporary shelter and streamlined services to asylum claimants. The centre, currently targeting to open in spring 2024, will be operated in partnership with community organizations who work closely with this population. In the face of increasing challenges, jurisdictions are stepping up with new solutions; however, they are also looking for support and funding from the federal government in implementing those solutions.
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• As of December 28, 2023, IRCC’s hotel footprint consists of approximately 4,000 rooms (in 34 hotels, housing approximately 7,500 claimants in Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, and British Columbia).
• The Department continues to have productive conversations through the intergovernmental operational table, established by the Deputy Minister of IRCC, with the Government of Ontario and impacted municipalities, as well as relevant federal partners, to focus on logistics, assets, options, and emergency preparedness. Responses to immediate shelter pressures for claimants requires support and engagement from multiple levels of government, and this forum has been serving as an important senior-level mechanism to jointly identify cross-jurisdictional solutions and ensure a common understanding of the challenges.
• Given the ongoing affordable housing challenges, claimants are increasingly unable to find affordable accommodations and require emergency shelter. Once in shelters, they stay longer given the housing and rental markets.

Key Messages

• The international migration and forced displacement situation requires pan-Canadian collaboration and engagement, and the Government of Canada remains committed to working with Federal- Provincial-Territorial (FPT) partners and service providers to find solutions.
• On July 18, 2023, the Government announced a one-year renewal of the IHAP until March 2024, with an investment of $212M, to help mitigate funding pressures on jurisdictions providing housing and shelter for asylum claimants in 2023.
• In addition, IRCC has been working with the most impacted provinces and municipalities to relieve pressures through the provision of temporary accommodations (hotel spaces) to asylum claimants in need.
• Co-operation between all orders of government is fundamental to ensuring asylum claimants are supported and we appreciate the significant role that provincial and municipal partners have played and continue to play in providing temporary shelter and services to asylum claimants.

Next Steps

• IRCC will continue to engage with Ontario, Toronto and other municipalities, and federal partners, via the Deputy Minister-level operational table to coordinate current support.
• Final allocations from the current IHAP envelope will be proposed to the Minister and efforts continue with regard to confirming the Department’s forward plans related to interim accommodation support.
• IRCC will also continue working with Housing, Infrastructure and Communities Canada and Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation to explore options under their homelessness and housing mandates to increase housing infrastructure for asylum claimants.

Background

• Asylum volumes are difficult to predict and are influenced by many factors. Some of these are external to Canada’s control including a historic level of globally displaced populations due to conflict, instability and climate change. Canada has not been immune from the global migration crisis. Claim intake can also be generated by public policy decisions (i.e., within Canada’s control), such as the lifting of visa requirements or relaxation of visa screening.
• While the volume of irregular arrivals has decreased significantly since the expanded application of the Canada-United States STCA to the entire land border (including internal waterways) on March 25, 2023, there has since been a substantive increase in the numbers of claimants arriving at Canadian international airports (specifically Toronto and Montreal), overwhelming shelters in Toronto and Quebec’s shelter system, PRAIDA, in Montreal. As well, inland claims have also been increasing. Calendar year 2023 was a record year for asylum arrivals, with over 145K claims, compared with 92K in 2022.
• Provinces and municipalities are generally responsible for the provision of housing and social services to asylum claimants while they await determination of their claim by the Immigration and Refugee Board. Federally funded settlement supports are available to claimants only after an individual is granted protected person status. The federal government does provide access to Interim Federal Health supports and funding for legal aid, as well as access to work permits.
• Provinces, municipalities and service agencies have maintained that the federal government should provide some or all support for housing and services for this population, as claimants are in Canada based on international obligations and other federal decisions on policies, treaties or humanitarian responses.

Housing

• The Interim Housing Assistance Program (IHAP) was created to cost-share with provinces and, if necessary, municipalities, expenses incurred in providing interim housing to asylum claimants. The primary objective was to provide temporary assistance to allow provinces to increase interim housing capacity, reducing the risk of homelessness for claimants. Eligible expenses under IHAP include accommodations, meals, transportation and triage. IRCC paid out almost $700M to provinces and municipalities, including over $450M to Quebec and $215M to the City of Toronto, under IHAP for costs incurred between 2017 and 2022. To note: Quebec’s request for reimbursement of its 2021 and 2022 non-housing expenses ($403.4M), remains pending.
• On July 18, 2023, IRCC announced a one-year renewal of IHAP with $212M in additional funding, including an allocation of $97M to the City of Toronto, for expenses incurred in calendar year 2023. Instalment payments totaling $50M have been disbursed to Toronto, Ottawa and Peel Region, with the remainder of the current funding envelope to be allocated by March 31, 2024.
• In addition, IRCC has been providing temporary accommodations via hotels in several municipalities across Canada. IRCC began providing these accommodations in 2020 to meet COVID-19 public health requirements, then, beginning in November 2021, to backstop Quebec’s shelter capacity for irregular arrivals claiming asylum. Following Quebec’s announcement in February 2023 that it had reached its capacity to support new arrivals, IRCC began transferring almost all irregular arrivals out of province, largely to Ontario, but also to Eastern Canada.
• Supports for interim housing through IHAP and federally-funded hotel spaces were intended to be temporary, but asylum claim volumes have risen significantly, while the length of stay in IRCC’s hotels and local shelters is getting longer due to significant affordable housing challenges, which impact claimants’ ability to transition from interim housing to longer-term accommodations. This has prompted partners to press for additional federal support. Government partners and local organizations, which work directly with asylum claimants, recognize that claimants require targeted support to secure employment and affordable housing.