Years after several individuals and the Toronto Star attempted to uncover what was being discussed in a WhatsApp group chat between Ontario’s “Big City Mayors,” the chat logs have been disclosed, revealing that mayors were concerned about a lack of provincial and federal support for homelessness and about increasing refugee and migrant populations.
The Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario ruled at the end of August that the chat logs were akin to an email chain and should be available for the public to read, following three separate freedom of information requests seeking disclosure.
A look at the 101 pages of chat logs spanning about 18 months, which were provided to Juno News by one of the applicants, shows that many mayors were frustrated with the provincial and federal governments over a lack of assistance in dealing with their respective cities’ homelessness crises, an increase in asylum seekers, and a surge in immigration caused by federal Liberal policies.
The chat logs start on July 15, 2023, with representatives from Guelph asking other cities and their mayors whether they were also experiencing overwhelmed social services and a surge in refugees entering their cities.
Others discussed conversations with the then-Immigration Minister Sean Fraser, who allegedly indicated that there would be no additional assistance to deal with the influx caused by the feds’ immigration and refugee policies beyond the “existing Federal dollars and programs in the medium term.”
One representative from Niagara said that the surge in refugees into Niagara has been “putting strain on our already full shelters for the last several months.”
Mayors, including Ajax Mayor Shaun Collier, acknowledged that many of Ontario’s “big cities” were experiencing capacity issues with the “recent flood of asylum seekers” that had been brought into their cities.
“Ajax has had over 200 in the last 2 weeks. Regional resources are exhausted. Of our 200, approx half are documented and in the system so the Feds have or are supposed to have provided funding for them,” Collier said in one message.
Collier also noted that social services to support and house the new refugee claimants had now been made the region’s responsibility.
Mayors and city representatives discussed homeless encampments, addictions and public disorder as well. A common theme among many mayors was that the provincial and federal governments weren’t doing enough to help cities address the issues.
Oakville Mayor Rob Burton was particularly critical of the Liberal government’s immigration and refugee intake policies, noting that mass immigration “broke the housing market” by increasing demand that municipalities were not prepared for.
“Ottawa broke the housing market with an unsustainable and unpredicted and unprepared for increase in demand from their massive increase in immigration,” Burton said in 2024.
Hamilton Mayor and former Premier Andrea Horwath, on the other hand, responded that immigration was needed but that the federal and provincial governments failed to account for where all of those “needed” immigrants would live.
Waterloo Mayor Dorothy McCabe even complained that municipalities were not adequately consulted about immigration and refugee targets before the federal government set immigration policy.
McCabe complained about Ukrainians arriving to study in Waterloo and discovering they did not qualify as refugees for purposes affecting tuition. She called the situation “untenable.”
“The federal government needs to start talking to municipalities before they set their immigration and refugee targets,” she said.
When Premier Doug Ford said Ontario was “pouring money in” for shelters, Burton, Oakville’s mayor, claimed that the money was “news to Halton,” and St. Catharines Mayor Mat Siscoe joked that “Niagara would also like to know the location of the money spigots.”
Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow pushed for immediate federal and provincial help after an influx of asylum seekers, and the other mayors discussed municipalities being left to handle accommodation and associated costs.
Health-care funding was another topic of concern, as the mayors privately discussed presenting a united position to Ontario, demanding additional hospital and health funding. Chow told the group she would support what the group decided.
When will people realize we are being ruled from the top down with no one representing the will of the citizens. When someone of power makes decisions without any input from the people that's not democracy. Carney and Trudeau were running this country like they were Kings. That could onlyean they are controlled by others because why wouldn't you want to do what's best for your country. Leaving the doors wide open created a big problem that we never had before. I honestly believe Carney is instructed to destroy the Canada we once knew.
The Liberals systematic way of bankrupting the Country!!! You will own nothing and be happy, the Globalist Agenda 2030 and it has only gotten worse. Carney is fine tuning what Trudeau was in place to start!!!