August 21,2025
RED FM News Desk
Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow is raising concerns after learning the federal government plans to cover only a fraction of the funding the city needs for refugee and asylum seeker housing.
In a letter to City Council, Chow said Ottawa informed Toronto it would fund just 26% of the city’s projected 2025 shelter costs. She described the shortfall as a “cut,” noting it amounts to a $107 million gap—the equivalent of more than a 2% property tax hike.
Chow stressed that providing shelter for refugee claimants is a federal responsibility and argued the city and province cannot bear the costs alone. Toronto had requested $671 million from Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada earlier this year but was offered only 39% of that amount for the period from January 2025 to March 2027.
City officials warned the funding gap represents about 1,800 beds—roughly 25% of spaces provided by community partners. Demand has grown sharply, with the number of refugee claimants in city shelters rising from about 530 people a night in September 2021 to a peak of nearly 6,500 in August 2024. As of August 8, refugees and asylum seekers made up about 40% of Toronto’s shelter population.
Chow also pointed to a recent unanimous motion by Ontario’s Big City Mayors urging Ottawa to cover at least 95% of municipal refugee shelter costs. She said the shortfall comes at a time when 3,500 refugees and asylum seekers are depending on Toronto’s emergency shelters.
The crisis began in spring 2023, when hundreds of asylum seekers arrived in the GTA, with some forced to sleep outside city intake offices. The situation worsened after Toronto briefly turned away African refugees from shelters, directing them to federal programs instead.
The federal government, for its part, has said demand has outpaced available funding and noted it has provided $1.5 billion to municipalities since 2017, including nearly $670 million to Toronto.
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