CIMM - Interim Housing Assistance Program - Nov 25, 2020

Key messages

• The Government of Canada is committed to working collaboratively with its municipal and provincial partners to help alleviate the exceptional pressures they are facing with respect to providing temporary housing, including for asylum claimants.
• The Interim Housing Assistance Program was extended for one year to help provinces and municipalities address interim housing costs resulting from increased volumes of asylum claimants in recent years and rising costs from the COVID-19 pandemic.
• Through these Supplementary Estimates, the Department is seeking incremental funding of $242M for the Program to enable partners to address these pressures and ensure that asylum claimants can be temporarily housed until permanent housing can be secured.
• Including the $102.5M that was re-profiled from 2019-2020 into 2020-2021, total funding for the Program in 2020-2021 would be $344.5M.

Supporting facts and figures

• The 2020-2021 Supplementary Estimates (B) include $242M for the Interim Housing Assistance Program to provide funding to provinces and, if necessary, to municipalities, to compensate for interim housing costs incurred in 2020 as a result of increased asylum claimant volumes over the past few years. This funding will enable partners to address interim housing financial pressures, which have been exacerbated by the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, and ensure asylum claimants can be temporarily housed until permanent housing can be secured.
• An amount of $97.5M (out of the $242M) will be allocated to the Settlement Program contribution in order to reverse the temporary transfer processed in Supplementary Estimates (A) to increase the grant authority pending approval of this $242M funding.
• Total funding for the Program for 2020-2021 is $344.5M, taking into account the incremental funding being requested in Supplementary Estimates (B) and the $102.5M that was re-profiled from 2019-2020 to 2020-2021 in Supplementary Estimates (A).
• Given the continued pressures asylum claimants have placed on Quebec and Toronto’s shelter systems, it is expected that these jurisdictions will continue to receive a significant portion of funding under the Program. Any funding requests from other jurisdictions will also be assessed.

Background

• Increased volumes of irregular and regular asylum claimants since 2017 have placed pressures on provincial and municipal social services. Some provinces have positioned these pressures as a federal responsibility, pointing in particular to a backlog in the asylum system and a perceived inability to control irregular migration.
• In March 2019, the Government created a grant entitled the “Interim Housing Assistance Program” in order to cost-share with provinces (and, if necessary, municipalities) interim housing costs incurred in 2017 through 2019. The primary objective was to provide temporary assistance to allow provinces to adjust to new asylum pressures and to increase interim housing capacity.
• An amount of $474M ($150M in 2018-2019 and $324M in 2019-2020) was approved through past Estimates in order to compensate provinces and municipalities for extraordinary costs related to the provision of temporary housing to asylum claimants. To date, the Department has issued payments totaling $371.5M to the following provinces and municipalities: Quebec ($250M); Manitoba ($8M); British Columbia ($6M); the City of Toronto ($88M), the City of Ottawa ($17.1M). Peel Region ($2.2M), and the City of Hamilton ($220K).
• If volumes spike following the removal of current border measures to prohibit entry into Canada, the pressures that have been experienced to date by provinces and municipalities may be intensified, particularly should international flights into the United States resume as many asylum claimants transit through the United States to make their claims in Canada. As a result, it will be even more important to support provinces and municipalities in 2020 to reduce the risk of homelessness for asylum claimants when the current border measures expire.
• The Interim Housing Assistance Program was recently extended to March 31, 2021. This will allow IRCC to conclude an outstanding commitment to Quebec to provide the province with funding for 2019 costs, as well as to address jurisdictions’ interim housing pressures in 2020 that have been exacerbated by the pandemic (i.e. increased costs of physical distancing and cleaning, and longer than average stays in the short term). The Department is currently in discussions with both Quebec and Toronto on financial compensation through the Program.
• In October 2020, the Minister sent a letter to the Mayor of Toronto noting that the Department was offering the City a payment of $23M for interim housing costs incurred from January to June 2020. Officials are working to finalize an agreement to issue the payment; as such, this information has not yet been made public.