An asylum seeker who has been in Canada since November 2024, heads back into their Niagara Falls, Ont. hotel, Jan. 30, 2025. The federal government started housing asylum seekers in hotels in 2017 as a temporary measure to support overcrowded shelters.Fred Lum/The Globe and Mail
The federal government says it has spent $1.1-billion to house asylum seekers in hotels since 2017, on top of $1.5-billion it has given provinces and cities to help pay for refugee claimants’ upkeep.
Ottawa began housing asylum seekers in hotels in 2017 as a temporary stop gap as shelters were overwhelmed by increasing numbers. It started block-booking rooms to help relieve the burden on provinces and towns to accommodate the rising number of claimants.
Asylum claims have increased dramatically from 50,365 in 2017 to 173,000 in 2024 in Canada. Most arrive in Ontario and Quebec, particularly in Montreal and Toronto.
Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada said the federal government is currently footing the bill for rooms and meals for a total of 500 asylum seekers in one hotel in Quebec and four in Ontario. The average cost for each claimant is $132 a day – down from $199 a day in January, 2004, it said.
An internal briefing on asylum housing drawn up in March for then-immigration minister Rachel Bendayan, who was replaced in the role by Lena Diab in May, said the department is currently maintaining about 3,500 beds “for contingency purposes.”
“While the provision of housing and supports to asylum claimants falls under provincial/territorial (PR)/municipal responsibility, as an emergency response, the federal government began to backstop overwhelmed shelters by directly running hotels in 2017,” the briefing paper says.
The numbers have dropped since March when IRCC was accommodating 1,474 asylum claimants in seven hotels across Quebec and Ontario, according to the document.
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The IRCC’s “transition binder” for the previous minister to brief her on issues, including asylum and housing, said that “$66.6-million has been secured to continue hotel operations until September, 2025.”
It said the department is working to relocate asylum seekers to other provinces in return for federal financial support through the Interim Housing Assistance Program.
At its peak in late 2023, IRCC was renting rooms in 46 hotels from Vancouver to Atlantic Canada at an average cost of $205 a night.
Last year, the government began issuing “notices to vacate” hotels to incentivize asylum seekers to search for accommodation in communities. This led to 13,000 asylum seekers leaving hotels from January, 2024, to March of this year, the document says.
NDP immigration critic Jenny Kwan said renting hotel rooms for asylum claimants “does not make any sense” and the government needs to find a sustainable and more affordable way to house people after they arrive here.
Conservative immigration critic Michelle Rempel Garner said that “when the average Canadian hears that somebody with an asylum claim is staying in a hotel, there’s a justified sense of unfairness.”
In the middle of a housing crisis, she said, “these are the types of expenditures that undermine Canadian acceptance for immigration.”
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Before MPs went on their summer break, the government introduced Bill C-2, which seeks to cut the volume of asylum claims, including by restricting asylum hearings at the Immigration and Refugee Board to people who came to Canada less than a year earlier. The bill would also stop people who cross the border illegally from the U.S. from having their cases heard.
Isabelle Dubois, a spokesperson for the immigration department, said “IRCC-funded hotels were always a temporary measure to support local shelter systems as the use of hotels is not a sustainable, cost-effective solution.”
“During their stay, asylum claimants are provided with resources and assistance to find housing, employment, education and other necessities and are expected to transition to independent living as soon as possible” she added.
In response to complaints from provinces – especially Quebec – and cities about the cost of accommodating a growing number of asylum seekers, the federal government launched the Interim Housing Assistance Program in 2019.
It has disbursed about $1.5-billion through IHAP to help provinces and cities pay for the cost of accommodating asylum seekers, IRCC said.
In the 2024 budget, the government committed another $1.1-billion over three years to extend IHAP, with a fresh focus on affordable accommodation.
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The City of Toronto, which in 2023 faced a crisis with asylum seekers sleeping on the streets, has received $669.7-million in federal funding since 2017, IRCC said. The province of Quebec has received $542.7-million, British Columbia has received $14.4-million, and the city of Ottawa has received $105.7-million.
Peel Region in the Greater Toronto Area, which includes the cities of Brampton and Mississauga, has received $97.8-million.
Earlier this year, the largest shelter for asylum seekers in Canada was opened in Peel Region. The reception centre, funded with just over $22-million in IHAP money, has the capacity to accommodate 680 claimants not far from Toronto Pearson international Airport.
In the city of Ottawa, IHAP funding has been used for room rentals in hotels, motels and shelters, and for the short-term leasing of housing units.
In 2024, the nation’s capital incurred $54.7-million in total expenses for asylum claimants: $51.9-million in funding was provided through IHAP.
Kale Brown, interim director of housing and homelessness at the City of Ottawa, said it is awaiting confirmation of further federal funding for 2025 to 2027.
“Many newcomers, including asylum claimants, are currently staying in the city’s shelter system,” he said. Transitional housing programs for asylum seekers, he added, helps “free up resources and space for those experiencing homelessness.”