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Some people see a dark, xenophobic subplot in the dispute between Trudeau and Premier Doug Ford. In reality, Ford is cranking up the pressure on Trudeau to do something substantial to deal with this federal issue. Tory, meanwhile, has been asking for federal help for months, in his polite way, and the results have been scant.

From the municipal perspective, there are two elements to the refugee housing problem. One is capacity and the other is cost. The shelter systems in both Ottawa and Toronto are clearly inadequate to handle the unexpected increase in refugees, but it wouldn’t have been rational to create a much larger shelter capacity, just in case. Even had that been done, the issue of who pays for refugees remains.

The shelter systems in both Ottawa and Toronto are clearly inadequate to handle the unexpected increase in refugees.

The refugee situation is, at its heart, a series of practical problems. How can we quickly process refugee claims? How can we house them? Who should pay? These are issues our federal government should be able to solve.

It’s disturbing to see Ahmed Hussen, the federal minister of immigration, trying to turn the refugee situation into an opportunity to imply that conservative politicians are against people coming from other countries. He chastised Ford for calling the would-be refugees “illegal border crossers,” instead of the preferred euphemism of “irregular migrants.”

In fact, crossing the border except at official points of entry is illegal, but once a person makes a refugee claim, the charge is stayed until the claim is adjudicated.