IRCC Minister Transition Binder 2023: Housing and FPT

Issue

• There are increasing calls from municipal and provincial partners for the federal government to provide funding and temporary accommodations for asylum claimants. [Redacted]

State of Play

• In 2022, Canada received 92,000 claims; [Redacted]. This well exceeds previous volumes and is straining multiple elements of the asylum system, including having a direct impact on communities.
• Provinces and municipalities are generally responsible for the provision of housing and social services to asylum claimants while they await the determination of their claim by the IRB.
• Federally funded settlement supports are available to claimants only after an individual is granted protected person status by the IRB. The federal government does provide access to Interim Federal Health (IFHP) supports and funding for legal aid, as well as access to work permits.
• With the significant decrease in irregular arrivals following the implementation of the expanded Safe Third Country Agreement in March 2023, IRCC began drawing down its footprint from 46 hotels and 5,633 rooms, to 35 hotels and 3,911 rooms in six provinces as of July 17, 2023. Current funding [Redacted]  
• [Redacted]
• Toronto and surrounding jurisdictions have also been flagging that they too are feeling the strains of rising volumes on their shelter system, in particular as a results of high airport arrivals, with Toronto having to turn asylum claimants away from their shelters. This has recently received significant media coverage.
• Since 2017, the Government has been providing support to provinces and municipalities, on a cost-sharing basis, to reimburse expenses incurred in the provision of interim housing to asylum claimants through the Interim Housing Assistance Program (IHAP). On July 18, 2023, IRCC announced a one-year renewal of IHAP with $212M in funding, including publically allocating $97M to the City of Toronto.
• While the City of Toronto welcomed additional funding from the federal government as a first step to address its shelter crisis, [Redacted]
• While federal support for interim housing and hotels were intended as a temporary measure to allow time to jurisdictions to adjust to the change in volumes, jurisdictions now see federal support as a fundamental requirement as the rise in volumes outpaces their ability to build/fund capacity.

Key Messages

• The international migration and forced displacement situation requires pan-Canadian collaboration and engagement, and the Government of Canada remains committed to working together to find solutions.
• On July 18, 2023, the Government announced a one-year renewal of the Interim Housing Assistance Program (IHAP) until March 2024 with an investment of $212M in funding, to help mitigate funding pressures on jurisdictions providing housing and shelter and asylum claimants in 2023.
• Given the significant decrease in irregular arrivals between the ports, the temporary accommodations for these claimants that IRCC has set up is being gradually released as rooms are vacated. However, IRCC will continue to engage with provinces and municipalities to ensure our hotel operations and its ramp down is conducted in a measured and humane manner.
• 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

• Appropriations for IHAP funding will be undertaken in fall 2023 through the Supplementary Estimates B process, making grants available by early 2024. [Redacted]
• Current funding [Redacted] for IRCC temporary accommodations [Redacted]
• IRCC is developing options to reform the asylum system, [Redacted]
• IRCC will also continue to engage with Toronto and Ontario via a DM-level operational table to coordinate support and will work with Infrastructure Canada and Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation on options under their homelessness and housing mandates.

Background

• Asylum volumes are difficult to predict and are influenced by many factors, including a historic level of globally displaced populations due to conflict, instability and climate change. The system is currently only funded to process 50,000 claims, while current volumes and forecasts exceed that level [Redacted]
• While the volume of irregular arrivals has decreased significantly since the expanded application of the Canada-U.S. Safe Third Country Agreement 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 PRAIDA in Montreal. As well, inland claims are also increasing. These volumes are beginning to come close to weekly irregular levels seen during the 2022 surge.
• Given the high volumes, claimants are currently facing longer than usual wait times for eligibility determinations. IRCC and the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) are collaborating to streamline processes and work through the current backlog. The backlog had been impacting the issuance of work permits for claimants. To respond to this, the Government issued a Temporary Public Policy in November 2022, which expedited the issuance of open work permits prior to eligibility determination to allow asylum claimants the opportunity to access employment and support themselves financially.
• While benefiting from the expedited open work permit process to be able to seek employment, claimants have limited access to dedicated federal programming support. Unlike resettled refugees, asylum claimants are ineligible to access federally-funded settlement services programming prior to an IRB decision, and are also facing an affordable housing market in crisis.
• Claimants have access to limited federal support (i.e., IFHP and legal aid), as well as provincial social assistance, and any municipal or provincial services where permanent residency is not required (e.g. K-12 education).
• 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.
• Since the surge in irregular arrivals in 2017, IRCC has maintained that lack of shelter for claimants is not only a health/safety risk to the individuals, but a significant public confidence risk to the asylum and immigration systems. [Redacted]

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 has been providing temporary accommodations via hotels in several municipalities across Canada. IRCC began directly providing temporary accommodations (hotels) in 2020 to meet COVID-19 public health requirements, then backstopping Quebec shelters in November 2021 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.
• To date, IRCC has paid out $698.8M, including $450.9M to Quebec and $215.4M to the City of Toronto for costs incurred from 2017 to 2022. IHAP requests for 2022 housing expenses have been paid (Quebec, Toronto and Ottawa). [Redacted]
• While the announcement of a one-year extension of IHAP with funding of $212M, included reference to $97M for the City of Toronto, no other specific allocations were provided. Amounts per jurisdiction are usually set following the submission of requests for reimbursement and allocated based on the envelope available.
• This initiative was always intended to be temporary, and with the significant reduction of irregular arrivals following the implementation of the Safe Third Country Agreement Additional Protocol, IRCC is now reducing its temporary accommodations footprint. [Redacted] As of July 17, 2023, this hotel footprint now consists of approximately 3,911 rooms in 35 hotels housing over 5000 claimants, in Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Newfoundland and BC.