As Canada continues to receive a surge of asylum seekers, a community group in Ontario's Niagara region is grappling with an increasing number of requests for assistance. Deanna D'Elia, the general manager of employment and immigrant services at the YMCA of Niagara, says her organization is already providing language assessments, assisting with school registrations and accessing community resources, but they have seen an unexpected surge of hundreds of asylum seekers in the past seven months. This surge has only intensified after the federal government began transferring more migrants to Ontario from Quebec, with Quebec's shelter system reaching capacity.
The Regional Municipality of Niagara says the federal government is doubling the number of hotel rooms for asylum seekers in the region, but officials are worried about their ability to provide services. Adrienne Jugley, the commissioner of community services for the region, says the dramatic increase has raised concerns about their local resources' ability to respond. She believes that Niagara Falls was selected because it has a large number of hotels, but her region lacks affordable housing, leaving her to worry about where people will stay once, they leave the federally funded hotels.
Jean-Sébastien Patrice, the executive director of community food service MultiCaf in Montreal, notes that demand to help asylum seekers remains high, with more than 700 asylum seekers registered to receive services from his organization, up from 62 three years ago. He said he thinks transferring asylum seekers who want to go elsewhere to other provinces could allow organizations like his to provide a higher level of assistance to those who remain, but that must be accompanied by additional funding.
The surge in demand has highlighted the need for collaboration and strategic planning between organizations that provide support for newcomers, as well as additional resources to help settle asylum seekers in the communities where they are being placed.
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