By David RiderCity Hall Bureau Chief
Jennifer PagliaroCity Hall Bureau
In an urgent letter, Mayor John Tory is telling the federal government that Toronto can no longer handle the influx of refugee claimants and will no longer do so without emergency financial help from senior governments.
In the letter, obtained by the Star on Monday, Tory states that Toronto welcomes all newcomers “but we need the appropriate support and leadership of both Ontario and Canada,” and that the city scrambling to find emergency shelter for each new wave of arrivals is not sustainable.
“What’s needed is proper housing and proper supports, something the city cannot provide on its own,” the letter states.
Council will consider a report from city staff at a meeting that begins Tuesday.
The pressing problem saw the city begin to house refugee claimants in college dormitories starting in May. But those spaces are available only until the beginning of August. At that time, the city has no plan for how to house 800 people currently in those temporary spaces.
Tory’s letter says continuing to house them would require closing multiple community centres and cancelling public programs.
That, Tory wrote, is “a step the city is not prepared to take.”
The blunt letter adds that after a recent announcement of $11 million from the federal government to help Ontario with housing, “no details about how or where this funding will be used have been made available.”
The city says the direct costs of housing refugee claimants in 2017 and projected costs for 2018 are $64.5 million and counting.
Tory writes that Toronto has a long history of welcoming newcomers and supports the federal refugee program, “but responsibility for these populations does not end at the border, and we simply can no longer contend with their housing needs alone.”
full story at https://www.thestar.com/news/city_hall/2018/06/26/toronto-cant-handle-influx-of-refugee-claimants-tory-tells-ottawa.html