The City of Ottawa is acting because the federal government — which didn't control the number of refugee claimants it could handle — has not.

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Ottawa’s heated debate over refugee housing misses the main point. We’re getting too caught up in a federal foul-up that requires a federal fix. Rather than squabbling over locations and building styles, we should be asking why the city is stuck with this problem.

For years, the federal government failed to come to grips with the fact that its immigration system didn’t have the capacity to handle the increasing volume of refugee claims. Under Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, claims for asylum have shot up dramatically. Statistics Canada says that there were about 16,000 refugee claims in 2015. Two years later, there were more than 50,000 claims.

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After a dip during the pandemic, the numbers really took off, rising........

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