Quebec asks Ottawa for $1B to cover rising costs of asylum seekers

The Quebec government is calling on Ottawa to reimburse $1 billion — the amount the province says it has spent to welcome a growing number of asylum seekers.

At a news conference Tuesday, Immigration Minister Christine Fréchette, Education Minister Bernard Drainville, Social Solidarity Minister Chantal Rouleau and Jean-François Roberge, minister of Canadian Relations, said the increase in new arrivals may soon become untenable for Quebec's education network and social services.

The province says it spent $576.9 million in 2023 on social services to support migrants. It says that is on top of the $470 million it spent in 2021 and 2022.

As of Dec. 31, 55 per cent of asylum seekers currently residing in Canada — 160,651 people out of 289,047 — are in Quebec.

«This is completely unreasonable,» Fréchette said. «Our capacity to provide services to asylum seekers has limits.»

The province is asking the federal government to relocate asylum seekers more equitably throughout Canada and to slow the influx of asylum seekers entering the country by tightening Canadian visa policies.

It also wants Ottawa to close loopholes that it says would allow criminal groups to infiltrate Canada and to reimburse the province for all costs linked to welcoming asylum seekers from 2021 to 2023.

Roberge, who is the minister responsible for relations with the rest of the country, said the federal government's «passive attitude» toward Quebec's reception of asylum seekers «must absolutely end.»

Fréchette pointed to the four Atlantic provinces, which together received a total of 380 asylum seekers in 2023, compared to Quebec's 65,570.

A spokesperson for Quebec's immigration minister said since Roxham Road closed in March 2023, the five main countries of