Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow tours Revivaltime Tabernacle Church, where African and Black refugees and asylum seekers have received emergency shelter, on July 28.Tijana Martin/The Canadian Press
Toronto needs more than $100-million in additional federal funding to help support shelters for the city’s growing refugee population, Mayor Olivia Chow said at a press conference on Thursday.
“Our shelters are full,” the mayor said. “We need the federal government to step up.”
Despite what appeared to be tense jousting on social media earlier in the week between the mayor and Marc Miller, the federal Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship, Ms. Chow said there is no fight happening between her office and the federal government.
“We are working together. Maybe we can communicate better,” she said. Nevertheless, the $5-million that has been offered is “a drop in the bucket,” Ms. Chow said.
On Monday, she sent a letter to the Minister of National Defence and the Minister of Emergency Preparedness requesting use of federal armouries for emergency shelter.
“The situation in Toronto is dire,” Ms. Chow wrote. “As of Nov. 13, 2023, refugee shelter occupancy is at 3,900 with an additional 1,212 refugees supported outside of the City’s shelter system. Compared to only six months ago, this is a 50-per-cent increase.”
Hundreds of people are turned away each night because there are no beds available, Ms. Chow noted.
In a tweet Wednesday evening that included Ms. Chow’s letter, Mr. Miller said he agrees no one should be left outside in cold weather.
“We have offered $5M to partner with the City of Toronto to open the Better Living Centre at the Exhibition Place to create more safe spaces to keep people out of the cold. This option remains,” he wrote.
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The city is already working to open the Better Living Centre, Ms. Chow wrote in a tweet in response.
“We need more space and resources for this crisis, including the armouries, a reception centre and real funding to support the 5,100 – and growing – refugees the City is supporting,” she went on to say.
In July, the federal government announced it would give Toronto $97-million to provide shelter spaces for unhoused asylum seekers.
Ms. Chow said on Thursday the city needs more than $100-million in additional federal funding to pay for shelter space for refugees.
The city is sheltering close to 11,000 people in the shelter system and outside the shelter system in bridging hotels and programs run by the Canadian Red Cross. More than 5,100 of these people are refugee claimants. This number continues to increase on a weekly basis, Russell Baker, a spokesperson for the City of Toronto, said in an e-mail.
The outstanding balance to cover current costs to support temporary emergency accommodations for refugee claimants in Toronto this year is $103-million, he said.
In a statement e-mailed to The Globe and Mail, Mr. Miller’s office confirmed the $5-million offer to partner with the City of Toronto on increasing capacity at Exhibition Place.
“Work toward a longer-term solution is ongoing,” wrote Julie Lafortune, a spokesperson for Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada.
“The government of Canada has been, and will continue to be, there for the province of Ontario and the City of Toronto during these critical times. There is no simple answer but we are confident that with full engagement from all levels of government, we can implement real long-term, sustainable and compassionate measures that will ensure that the most vulnerable newcomers to Canada have a roof over their heads,” Ms. Lafortune said in the e-mail.
Ms. Chow stressed the need for urgency.
“Winter is coming,” she said.