Ottawa Considering Plan to Relocate Thousands of Asylum Seekers From Ontario and Quebec

The federal government is preparing a plan to relocate tens of thousands of asylum seekers from Quebec and Ontario to other locations across Canada.
Speaking to reporters on Sept. 11, Immigration Minister Marc Miller said he has been having discussions over the summer with his provincial counterparts about what a “fair distribution” of asylum seekers would look like in Canada.
“Our teams have been working on models on what that would look like, and we came up with a set of facts and figures about what each province should be taking based on population weight,” Miller said at a national caucus meeting in Nanaimo, B.C. “That means that some provinces should take on more to ease the pressure on provinces like Ontario and Quebec.”
According to a federal government briefing document obtained by The National Post, a total of 235,825 people are currently seeking asylum in Canada, with most making their claims in Ontario and Quebec. A redistribution of asylum seekers would result in many of them being sent to other, less populous provinces.
The distribution ratio would result in Alberta receiving around 28,000 asylum seekers, British Columbia receiving over 32,500, and New Brunswick receiving 4,952. Other provinces would receive fewer claimants, with Manitoba receiving 1,378, Saskatchewan getting 7,075, Nova Scotia getting 6,131, Prince Edward Island getting 943, and Newfoundland and Labrador getting 3,066.