Ontario Premier Doug Ford speaks to the media during the meeting of Canada’s premiers in Huntsville, Ont., last week.Nathan Denette/The Canadian Press
Ontario Premier Doug Ford is retracting a vow he made last week to have his province issue its own work permits to asylum seekers in the face of what he said were federal government delays that have left refugee applicants in limbo.
“I don’t want to take the responsibility off the federal government,” Mr. Ford told reporters outside his office at Queen’s Park on Monday. “But in saying that, if you have a pulse and you’re healthy, you need to be working.”
Mr. Ford said he has concerns about reductions in federal funding for refugee claimants and Ottawa’s plan to stop paying to house of asylum seekers in hotels as of the end of September, which he said Prime Minister Mark Carney had not mentioned to him. The Premier said the system of processing asylum applications was backlogged and that supports for refugees were costing Ontario $1-billion.
Speaking last Wednesday at the end of a premiers’ conference, Mr. Ford had said asylum seekers were waiting over two years for work permits, and that he would step in and issue them so that refugee claimants are not left idle on social assistance. However, the federal government said it takes it on average 45 days to issue permits to claimants who have submitted complete applications.
Premiers push for more power over immigration as Ford takes aim at federal minister
On Monday, Mr. Ford acknowledged that his two-year estimate came from speaking to people who said they had been subject to waits like this in his own Toronto riding.
“We aren’t getting the data. All I know is, on Airport Road in my area, there’s people that have been sitting there for two years,” Mr. Ford said. “So they need to explain.”
The Premier and his counterparts from Canada’s other provinces and territories had agreed to seek more autonomy over immigration at their meeting last week in Huntsville, Ont. Their final communique also said they would assert their constitutional authority, shared with Ottawa, over immigration, citing Quebec’s powers in the area and adding that the move could include issuing provincial work permits.
On asylum seekers specifically, the document said the premiers were urging Ottawa to accelerate the processing of asylum claims and to ensure that accepted asylum seekers can fully participate in society.”
At the premiers’ closing press conference last Wednesday, Mr. Ford appeared to go further, saying Ontario was finished waiting and that he would soon be issuing his own work permits for asylum seekers, who he said were “sucking of the system, non-stop – not their fault.”
Opinion: The last thing Canada needs is premiers mucking up immigration even more
In an e-mail on Monday, Isabelle Buchanan, a spokesperson for federal Immigration Minister Lena Diab, said that refugee claimants must submit a complete claim for refugee protection online and undergo a medical examination.
Once the claim is determined to be eligible to be referred to the Immigration and Refugee Board, a work permit is issued “within about two weeks” by mail, Ms. Buchanan said.
The average processing time is 45 days, the statement says, and that the government is not responsible for delays related to medical exams or if a claimant has failed to provide an updated mailing address.
Speaking to reporters on Monday, Mr. Ford’s Labour Minister, David Piccini said the federal government’s refugee system had fallen well behind, with 280,000 asylum cases that have not been processed, with 140,000 of those in Ontario.
The Premier said Ontario would offer the federal government help with personnel to issue more work permits, if requested.
Mr. Ford also complained that many refugee applicants lacking work permits were working illegally.
“A lot of these folks that are here, they want to work. We’re paying them to sit around, which is crazy. Then they’re out there standing on certain corners within the city, and contractors have come by, pick them up and they are paying cash under the table,” Mr. Ford said.