Canada and Ontario can afford dignified shelter for refugees: Our reputation can’t afford our failure

Safety. Protection from persecution, oppression, and trauma. That’s what people seek when they come to Canada as refugees. They come for a safe place to recover and rebuild their lives. And Canada has benefitted immensely from the contributions they have made to our economy and our society.  

In Toronto, we pride ourselves on being a welcoming, safe haven for refugees. We have a duty to live up to that. Safety doesn’t just happen. All orders of government have to act to ensure refugees find even the most basic element of safety: shelter.  

In the summer of 2023, people seeking asylum were sleeping on the sidewalk in front of the City’s shelter intake office because they couldn’t get a space in a shelter. Community organizations stepped up to provide temporary accommodations for more than 200 people while the City negotiated federal funding for refugee services.  

Two years later, the City is facing the same conundrum. Last week, the federal government announced that it would cut its funding for Toronto’s refugee services, leaving the City short by $107 million for next year alone. 

It seems less like a broken system, and more like no system at all.  

Governments at every level have a duty to provide shelter immediately, and without exception, to every person. This is every government’s minimum core obligation under international human rights law. Federal, provincial, and municipal governments each have a role. When governments allow people to be homeless, they fail to live up to this legal obligation. 

Much of the conversation about shelter spaces and refugee services has rightly revolved around Prime Minster Carney and the federal government, but they are not the only government with a duty to protect.  

Refugee intake and settlement is not officially on the province’s docket, but we have ample evidence that the Ontario government is willing to meddle in other governments’ business when it wants to. For example, it proposed removing bike lanes from three major roads in Toronto, which falls solidly under the City’s purview, and which would come at an estimated cost of $48 million (nearly half of the City’s projected shortfall on refugee shelter services). 

Premier Ford’s decision to ignore support services for refugees comes at a cost – but it’s the refugees themselves who will pay the price. 

The province’s money, and they do have the money, could be better spent on much needed services for people who are looking for a safe place to shelter each night. It could be used to shore up the City’s emergency shelter system, which is already struggling to keep its head above water. It could be used to build and maintain long-term, adequate housing. 

We should not get distracted by conversations about jurisdiction. Canadian constitutional wrangling doesn’t help us solve this urgent problem in front of us. All three orders of government must innovate to find solutions that work for refugees and refugee claimants who need shelter, now. 

Any solutions that require the City to contribute equal funds are misconceived. Municipalities have weak fiscal capacity, as they have to rely on property taxes to raise money and cannot use income or sales taxes. Further, cities spend 80 per cent of their money on services such as police and fire services, water and sewage, and roads, which are essential and mandated by the province. These inelastic expenses plus the lack of ways to raise funds mean that municipalities don’t have the flexibility to deal with sudden spikes in need, such as providing shelter for refugees. So they have to turn to provincial and federal governments for the resources to serve these needs. 

At the root of it, the problem is not about jurisdiction, or money, not really. It’s about people. It’s about how our governments live up to commitments we have made on the international stage to protect people and their human dignity. 

Solutions have to start with the first available step, then proceed on to the next one, and the one after that. Governments of good faith will work together on that first step, and the ones that follow, rather than let innocent people suffer. 

The solutions might not be straightforward; they might be quite complex and call for hard work to figure out jurisdiction, service delivery, and payment. Complex is okay. Complacency, delay, and inaction are not. Governments can look to Jordan’s Principle for guidance: first, provide the services so that people get what they desperately need; work out how to pay the bill afterwards. 

The reality is that the City needs money to operate shelters for refugees. If the federal and provincial governments shirk their responsibilities, the City’s only option is to raise the $107 million by raising property taxes. Perhaps Toronto should introduce a new levy that will ensure the money goes where it is intended, and name it the “Carney-Ford Special Property Tax Levy.” That would ensure we all remember why the City had to do it.