A migrant takes a photo of a new border sign at Roxham Road, an unofficial crossing point from New York State to Quebec for asylum seekers, in Champlain, N.Y., on March 25, 2023.CHRISTINNE MUSCHI/Reuters
Ottawa’s proposal to relieve immigration pressure on Quebec and Ontario by resettling asylum seekers more equally across the country will meet resistance from British Columbia, no matter which party wins the Oct. 19 provincial election.
Immigration has not been a central topic in the campaign, but it has exacerbated the housing crisis that has dominated debate. Both the NDP and Conservative leaders say they oppose the plan to shift tens of thousands of asylum seekers to B.C. without a commitment from the federal government for financial support.
Since 2022, British Columbia’s population has increased by 380,000, mostly newcomers from outside of Canada. That rapid growth is having a negative impact on key areas such as housing and health care services.
NDP Leader David Eby said in an interview that population growth is a good thing because British Columbia needs to attract skilled workers.
“But we’ve got to make sure that when they get here, they’re supported,” he said. “So for example, 70 per cent of people who use our food banks have been in Canada for two years or less, and that’s just not an outcome from our immigration system that I’m hoping for.”
Mr. Eby said he wants to avoid a polarized debate around immigration, but Ottawa’s push to get B.C. to take asylum seekers “is obviously a non-starter proposal, a daft proposal from the federal government about British Columbia taking 36,000 migrants – I mean, where are they going to go?”
The New Democrats, in their election platform, say B.C. should have the same powers over immigration policy as Quebec. “Returning to a program of focusing on recruiting and retaining skilled immigrants in areas of demand … is something that we’ll do a better job of than Ottawa has.”
Meanwhile, B.C. Conservative Leader John Rustad has described the effort to redistribute asylum seekers to the province without a commitment of financial support as “a reckless decision.”
“Justin Trudeau and his Liberal government are dumping thousands of asylum seekers on B.C. without a plan or funding, all while our province grapples with an unprecedented housing crisis,” Mr. Rustad said in a Sept. 11 statement.
“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.”
The pressure on Ottawa has been led by Quebec Premier François Legault, who last week demanded that the federal government force half the asylum seekers in his province to move elsewhere, including people who have already settled there.
On Thursday, Mr. Legault’s government introduced legislation to give itself new powers to cap the number of international students in the province. The number of non-permanent residents in Quebec has increased to 600,000 from 300,000 in the past two years.
Across the country, temporary residents are driving up the population, and the federal government has acknowledged that the numbers are not sustainable.
Immigration Minister Marc Miller announced in March that he would take steps to rein in the number of temporary residents in Canada, which includes study and work-permit holders, their family members and asylum claimants. Since that time, the number of temporary residents has increased. As of July, there were more than three million temporary residents – making up 7.3 per cent of the total population.
In the coming weeks, Mr. Miller is expected to announce a cap on the number of temporary residents that Canada will accept in 2025.
Dan Hiebert, professor emeritus at the University of B.C.’s Centre for Migration Studies, said the challenge is the same from Quebec to B.C.: Canada is not building housing at a rate fast enough to accommodate the number of newcomers it accepts.
The tension between provinces over allocations and resources began to rise after the pandemic led to a significant increase in the number of temporary foreign workers, asylum seekers and international students coming to Canada.
Prof. Hiebert, who studies the impact of immigration on housing and communities, said Canada will continue to need immigration as its population ages out of the work force faster than the number of young Canadians enter the job market. But bringing in more people creates additional demands for public transportation, health care, housing and education.
“How willing are we to pay for the cost of growth?” he said. “That’s a conversation I don’t think Canadians have had.”