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The federal government says local shelters in Ottawa and Cornwall won’t face an influx of people when it ends its lease at the DEV Hotel and Conference Centre in Cornwall at the end of July.
More than 500 people have been living temporarily at the building while awaiting decisions on their claims for asylum in Canada, according to Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada. The federal government has been leasing the former Nav Canada training centre for emergency accommodation since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. IRCC began housing asylum seekers there in 2022.
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IRCC said it had been working with local agencies to find long-term accommodation for the residents before the end of the lease.
“IRCC has been working with the vast majority of claimants at the DEV for many months to enable them to transition to permanent housing and will continue to do so intensively in the coming weeks,” Isabelle Dubois, a communication advisor at IRCC, said in an email.
“IRCC is available to support during this transition period and we will ensure that no additional strain will be placed on the surrounding shelter systems, including the City of Ottawa, given its proximity to Cornwall.
“The department is currently assessing capacity in other IRCC-run hotel sites in Ontario, as a contingency, to accommodate claimants who may be unable to find permanent housing by July 31, 2024,” she said in her email.
IRCC also operates temporary accommodations in Ottawa, Niagara Falls, Windsor, Kingston and Mississauga.
The City of Ottawa says it has been told none of the asylum claimants will be placed here.
“The City of Ottawa is in regular contact with Immigration, Refugee and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) regarding the closure of the DEV Centre in Cornwall. IRCC has informed city staff that households leaving the DEV Centre will not be placed in Ottawa,” Kale Brown, the city’s manager of homelessness systems and operations, said in an email.
As of Wednesday, 514 people were living at the DEV Centre, although that number had been declining daily, Dubois said.
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