Some provinces the Liberals want to force to receive the lion’s share of asylum claimants being relocated from Ontario and Quebec have outright rejected Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s proposal.
The first premier to strike down the idea was New Brunswick Premier Blaine Higgs.
“Yesterday, provincial officials were invited to a conference call in which it was shared by federal officials in Ottawa that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberal government is considering a plan to send 4,600 asylum seekers to New Brunswick without providing any financial assistance,” said Higgs. “We are calling on the Liberal government to drop this plan and, instead, deal with the backlog of asylum claims that their failed policies have created.”
He added that the 4,600 asylum seekers would represent a more than tenfold increase in the province’s number of asylum seekers.
According to Federal Immigration Minister Marc Miller, Quebec and Ontario have taken in disproportionate numbers of asylum seekers. Therefore, he said other provinces must take on more to ease the pressure on Canada’s two biggest provinces.
“Notably, the allegations by Premier Higgs are largely fictitious. We at no times have said that we would impose asylum seekers on provinces without financial compensation,” said Miller.
Miller added that he wasn’t sure why Higgs was “floating that number.”
According to a Liberal government briefing document obtained by True North, there are 235,825 asylum claimants where a decision has yet to be rendered. If each claim was accepted under the proposed redistribution, asylum claimants in New Brunswick would rise from 384 to 4,568, an increase of nearly 12-fold.
An even bigger increase would be seen in Nova Scotia, whose asylum claimants would increase from 397 to 5,734, a more than 14-fold increase.
Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston followed by saying that the province does not have the capacity to absorb thousands of asylum seekers.
“Nova Scotians are caring, compassionate people, but we will not be taken advantage of by the federal government,” said Houston. “We cannot let the failure of federal policies derail our plan, and we have communicated to Trudeau’s cabinet that any attempt to ship asylum seekers to Nova Scotia will be challenged.”
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith did not mince words in her own statement on the matter.
“Section 95 of the constitution is clear – immigration is an area of shared authority between the federal government and the provinces. Yet, the Trudeau Government’s unrestrained open border policies permitting well over a million newcomers each year into Canada is causing significant challenges, and it’s simply not sustainable,” said Smith.
She added that while Alberta represents 11.8% of Canada’s population, it currently supports around 22% of Ukrainian evacuees. According to Smith, excessive immigration has increased the cost of living and strained public services.
“We are informing the Government of Canada that until further notice, Alberta is not open to having these additional asylum seekers settled in our province. We simply cannot afford it,” said Smith.
“Clearly, there’s a responsibility of provinces to take on asylum seekers to ease the pressure on their colleague provinces in Ontario and Quebec. And we expect provinces to follow suit. But in no circumstances will we be doing this without compensation or without consent from the provinces,” said Miller.
While not currently a provincial premier, Conservative Party of BC Leader John Rustad chimed in and expressed his dismay with Trudeau’s proposal.
“We are a welcoming province, but Trudeau’s failure to provide the necessary resources is a betrayal of both the newcomers and the communities already struggling to make ends meet,” said Rustad. “The federal government needs to step up, provide the support necessary, and address the backlog of asylum claims that their failed policies have created.”