Under pressure from Toronto and Quebec, Trudeau government announces $362.4 million in new refugee supports
Tonda MacCharles, Victoria Gibson, Toronto Star
Under pressure from the City of Toronto and Quebec to foot a bigger portion of the bill for asylum seekers, the federal Liberal government announced $362.4 million in new money to shelter refugees nationwide.
Immigration Minister Marc Miller refused to reveal how much of that will go to Toronto, saying only it will be a “significant amount” and revealed in the coming days.
Meanwhile, Quebec will get $100 million or nearly 28 per cent of the new funds, he told a hastily organized news conference outside the House of Commons on Wednesday. That’s less than a quarter of the money that province has demanded.
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Loly Rico, executive director of Toronto’s FCJ Refugee Centre, also sees the depth of need across the city today — when, as its intake opens each Monday, a crowd of 70 to 80 people arrive looking for aid. Rico is not optimistic Toronto will receive the full amount of funding it has requested.
“We welcome the help — the support the federal government is doing,” Rico noted. “We are hoping that (the $250 million) will come, because if not, we’ll go again into the situation we’ve seen last year.”