Liberals spent over $100M housing asylum seekers in Niagara Falls hotels

Numbers revealed the asylum seekers stayed for 113 days and cost $208 per person, though Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada noted the actual amount was likely higher due to some omissions.

Liberals spent over $100M housing asylum seekers in Niagara Falls hotels
Vladimir Mucibabic - stock.adobe.com
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Close to 5,000 asylum seekers sent to hotels in one of the country's most prominent tourist hotspots cost Canadian taxpayers more than $100 million over the last year, according to numbers released by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC).

The funds spent spanned a one-year period between Feb. 1, 2023, and Feb. 1, 2024, and were released by IRCC in response to an order paper question from Conservative MP Tony Baldinelli, who represents the area in Parliament.

Numbers revealed the asylum seekers — most of which coming from Nigeria, Venezuela, Kenya, Turkey and Colombia, as Global News reports — stayed for 113 days and cost $208 per person, per day.

The report, however, was “incomplete” for multiple reasons according to IRCC. First, officials weren't monitoring expenses during the early portion of 2023; second, IRCC “has not received most of the invoices” from Jan. 1, 2024, onward.  

“Our system was once the envy of the world but is now filled with fraud, chaos, backlogs, and delays, disadvantaging genuine immigrants,” Conservative immigration critic Tom Kmiec told Global News in a statement.

In March 2023, Rebel News reported how around 2,000 of the city's 16,000 hotel rooms were being occupied by migrants. Thousands of asylum seekers who illegally entered Canada at Roxham Road in Quebec were shipped to Ontario, with the majority arriving in Niagara Falls.

“What I can tell you is that the treatment here has been very excellent for us and I am totally grateful,” said one migrant who spoke to CTV News Toronto in 2023. 

The Roxham Road crossing was officially closed last year following a meeting between Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and U.S. President Joe Biden.

The agreement reached between the pair did little to stem the tide of asylum requests, with Trudeau International Airport in Montreal now serving as a new hotspot.

In January, Quebec Premier François Legault said the continuing strains are pushing the province to a "breaking point." IRCC was warned two years ago that increasing immigration numbers were contributing to Canada's cost of living crisis.

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