Manitoba, N.L., only provinces to offer publicly to take asylum seekers from Quebec

The premiers of Manitoba and Newfoundland and Labrador are so far the only leaders to publicly volunteer to take in asylum seekers to ease pressure on Quebec, despite a joint call from all premiers for would-be refugees to be distributed more evenly across the country.

During a news conference Wednesday in Halifax at the close of a three-day summit of Canada’s premiers, several provincial leaders said they are facing similar pressures from immigration, and would not commit to accepting more people.

Quebec Premier François Legault says his province can no longer support the high number of asylum seekers who have arrived in recent years. On Wednesday, he said “several” provinces are open to accepting more would-be refugees from Quebec, but he wouldn’t name them.

Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew said he’d be prepared to welcome more asylum seekers, especially francophones, but only if the province gets more money from the federal government.

“We have the housing needs, the health-care and social needs in Manitoba, and so … we really do need the federal government, who has the fiscal resources to be able to move the needle here, to do so,” he said.

Newfoundland and Labrador Premier Andrew Furey also said he told Legault his province would be “happy to proportionally share” the number of newcomers seeking refugee status.

In a joint release Tuesday, the provincial and territorial premiers said they support a “fair distribution” of asylum seekers across Canada. They called on the federal government to “expedite assessment of genuine asylum seekers entering Canada and to work with provincial and territorial governments to determine the appropriate number of accepted asylum seekers.” They also said Ottawa must provide “appropriate funding”