Good morning.
Last week at the annual premiers’ meeting in Halifax, B.C. Premier David Eby issued a cry for help from Ottawa for more support for the burgeoning numbers of newcomers arriving in the province.
He said last year, British Columbia added 180,000 new residents, well in excess of 10,000 per month.
“That’s great and that’s exciting and it’s necessary, and it’s completely overwhelming,” he said, noting the influx amounted to the population of a new city every year and not sustainable.
“Our schools are full. We are unable to keep up with housing starts, despite significant and record setting rental housing and housing purchase starts.”
It was a dramatically different tone than the one set by then premier John Horgan in a triumphant news release upon release of Statistics Canada numbers for 2021. Some 100,797 people came here that year, the highest annual total since 1961.
At the time, Horgan enthused the new arrivals had picked British Columbia, because “they know that by investing in people, we are building a stronger province.” Ravi Kahlon, who was then jobs minister, added that attracting record numbers of newcomers is an important strategy in tackling a labour shortage and driving innovation.
In the 2021 news release, the government noted roughly one third of the new arrivals came to British Columbia from elsewhere in Canada. The other two thirds came from abroad.
Eby wasn’t making a distinction during his comments last week.
Quebec has called on Ottawa to provide more funds to other provinces so they can step up to take on some of the asylum seekers that have strained resources in Quebec and Ontario. Only Manitoba and Newfoundland said they’d be willing, provided Ottawa helped support the resettlement.
Eby noted that British Columbia takes the third-highest number of asylum seekers. The data shows it’s a far distant third, but one that has been growing at a swift pace.
Federal immigration data shows between January and May of this year, Ontario took in 40,240 asylum seekers, up from 16,250 over the same period last year. Quebec took in 28,165 this year, just slightly ahead of last year’s 26,220.
By comparison, some 4,390 people claimed asylum in British Columbia. For the same period the year prior, the number was 2,385. In Alberta, the numbers jumped even more dramatically: 3,740 this year compared to 1,165 last year.
Eby and Alberta Premier Danielle Smith both complained they haven’t received any of the extra money Ottawa has given to Ontario and Quebec over the past year to aid in the resettlement of asylum seekers.
Quebec was given $750-million from Ottawa this year to buttress its stressed social infrastructure.
Eby’s office said neither the province nor any of municipalities in British Columbia have received any federal funding, including any money from the $1.1-billion Interim Housing Assistance Program for cities and provinces to stop the newcomers from becoming homeless.
But Aissa Diop, spokesperson for Immigration Minister Marc Miller, said British Columbia has not applied for that fund since 2019.
Still, she said the minister’s office acknowledges that other provinces besides Ontario and Quebec are also grappling with rising numbers of people seeking asylum. She said the minister hopes to have a plan in place within the coming months.
“We will keep having those conversations about how can we work collaboratively to make sure that asylum seekers feel supported, but provinces also feel supported,” she said.
This is the weekly British Columbia newsletter written by B.C. Editor Wendy Cox. If you’re reading this on the web, or it was forwarded to you from someone else, you can sign up for it and all Globe newsletters here.