The federal parliamentary budget officer has requested information from the Ministry of Immigration to update the costs to taxpayers of failed asylum claims, which stood at up to $33,700 per person in 2018.
Budget Officer Yves Giroux wrote a letter to Immigration Minister Marc Miller on April 19, calling for the ministry to provide all documentation relating to the costs of the Immigration and Refugee Board (IRB).
The letter, obtained by Blacklock’s Reporter, also requested projected future costs relating to asylum claimants and statistics on processed claims for those arriving in Canada with an Electronic Travel Authorization, the authorization used by individuals flying into Canada. He also asked for the maximum number of appeals able to be filed by failed asylum seekers, along with the average number of appeals filed.
The data is to be made available no later than May 3, so that the office could provide the information to parliamentarians, the letter stated.
A prior report from the Budget Office, published in 2018, said the average cost per migrant was $14,321 and projected the cost to rise to $16,666 per migrant by 2019.
However, the report also noted that costs per migrant could increase up to $33,738 if a failed asylum seeker used up all of the appeals in his or her case and was ultimately removed from Canada.
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In total, the report claimed the various organizations that deal directly with illegal migrants, from the RCMP and CSIS to the IRB and Canadian Border Services Agency (CSBA), cost taxpayers more than $340 million in 2018.
Canada has seen a surge in illegal entries and asylum claims since 2022. A total of 20,598 illegal entries were recorded by the IRB in 2018. Following the end of pandemic travel restrictions in 2022, the number rose back up to 20,896 illegal entries for 2022 and jumped up to 31,475 entries in 2023.
The federal government has also spent hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars on housing asylum seekers in various parts of the country, including more than $100 million for hotel rooms in Niagara Falls alone last year.
The House Citizenship and Immigration Committee in February asked Mr. Miller about the ongoing issues with illegal immigrants entering the country.
“When it comes to asylum seekers, generally, we’re facing historic flows,” Mr. Miller told the committee, but could not answer why the government has not reimposed visa restrictions on Mexican nationals due to the rising number of Mexicans seeking asylum in Canada.
Just days after his testimony, Mr. Miller announced the federal government would be reinstating visa requirements for Mexican nationals.
Quebec Premier François Legault has also called on the federal government to slow the influx of new illegal arrivals, sending a letter to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in January that argued his province was at the “breaking point.”
“We are very close to the breaking point due to the excessive number of asylum seekers arriving in Quebec month after month,” Mr. Legault told the prime minister. ”The situation has become unsustainable.”
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