Federal departments spent at least $50.6 million on hotel bookings for illegal border crossers and lawful refugee applicants since 2015, piecemeal figures show. No department attempted a complete costing of illegal immigration since the Budget Office put expenses in the billions, according to Blacklock's Reporter..Cabinet in an Inquiry Of Ministry tabled in the Commons said the Department of Immigration and Department of Public Works combined booked hotel rooms worth $50.6 million. Of 63,740 foreigners known to have stayed in the hotels, at least 26,305 were illegal immigrants, said the Inquiry..The figures were requested by Conservative MP Michelle Rempel Garner (Calgary Nose Hill) who asked, “How many hotels has the government contracted for housing asylum seekers or refugees?”.The two departments said they’d signed contracts with operators of a total 35 hotels. The locations were Boucharville, Brampton, Chatham, Cornwall, Etobicoke, Dorval, Fredericton, Lacolle, Lethbridge, Mississauga, Montréal, Niagara Falls, Ottawa, St-Jean, St-Laurent, Toronto, Windsor and Winnipeg..Hotel keepers who received the largest contracts were the Dev Hotel and Conference Centre in Cornwall, ON ($30 million), Quality Hotel & Suites Toronto Airport East ($2.9 million), Travelodge Montréal Airport ($1.9 million) and Marigold Hotel in Brampton, ON ($1.2 million)..No federal agency to date estimated the total cost of illegal immigration, including shelter, food, clothing, transportation and education during the average two-year wait for rulings on admissibility to Canada..The Parliamentary Budget Office in a 2018 report Costing Irregular Migration Across Canada’s Southern Border estimated federal costs at up to $1 billion over three years or an average $14,321 per illegal immigrant, rising to $33,700 depending on lengthy appeals..“As parliamentarians we’ve been repeatedly stonewalled by the Liberals on what the total costs have been to date,” Conservative MP Larry Maguire (Brandon-Souris, MB) told reporters at the time. “We finally have those numbers and they are staggering.”.The Inquiry figures excluded expenses on numerous affiliated contracts to suppliers at specific locations. By example, the Commons ethics committee was told last October 17 federal agencies spent $136.6 million accommodating illegal immigrants at Saint-Bernard-de Lacolle, QC..The Department of Public Works said it alone awarded 30 contracts to accommodate illegal border crossers at Lacolle worth $108.6 million. Additional leases totaled $28 million including contracts awarded to Pierre Guay, a local businessman and Liberal Party donor..Contracts to Guay’s companies included leasing vacant lands to house winterized trailers and the Department of Immigration booking every room in his border hotel since 2018..“Our accommodations are excellent,” testified Guay.
