OTTAWA — Federal Immigration Minister Ahmed Hussen — who criticized Queen’s Park’s views on asylum seekers — is no longer on a government task force overseeing the response to asylum seekers, a move cheered by his Ontario counterpart.

Lisa MacLeod, Ontario’s minister of children, community and social services, said she was “encouraged” that Hussen was removed from the Ad Hoc Intergovernmental Task Force on Irregular Migration and replaced by former Toronto police chief Bill Blair, who was recently promoted to cabinet.

Blair was named to the new position of minister of border security and organized crime reduction, with responsibility for the issue of refugees who have been crossing into Canada from the U.S., mostly into Quebec.

New Brunswick MP Dominic LeBlanc was confirmed Monday as the new chair of the task force, replacing Transport Minister Marc Garneau. LeBlanc became minister of intergovernmental and northern affairs and internal trade in the July cabinet shuffle.

MacLeod welcomed the change, suggesting it was a chance to reset relationships on the file between Ottawa and Queen’s Park.

“I do think that the federal government started off on the wrong foot with our administration,” MacLeod said Monday following a meeting of the task force.

She took aim at what she called “stunts” by Hussen, adding, “I’m glad to see that he has been removed.”

MacLeod said she has already spoken several times with Blair and that LeBlanc has also reached out. “I think the relationship has been a very positive one to start with,” she said.

Relations with the newly elected government at Queen’s Park got off to a strained start when Hussen was critical of Premier Doug Ford’s comments about border-crossers and the impact they were having on services in the province.

Hussen last month called Ford’s comments “divisive.”

“It’s fear-mongering and it’s not Canadian. It’s very dangerous,” Hussen said at the time. “Ontario sadly has chosen the language of fear. They’ve chosen to intentionally use language that could potentially criminalize asylum seekers in the minds of Canadians.”

MacLeod had sought an apology from Hussen and on Monday accused him of using “divisive rhetoric.”

“I just feel it became more a matter of rhetoric, who’s Canadian, who's not, irregular, illegal. The words around that became far more important than actually fixing the problem,” she said.

Officials in Ottawa dismissed suggestions Monday that Hussen’s removal from the committee was a result of his disagreements with Ontario’s new government.

Mathieu Genest, a spokesperson for Hussen, said that Trudeau has appointed Blair to be the main contact on the issue and that he will represent the government on the intergovernmental task force. While Hussen and Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale will support that work, they will no longer be formal members of the task force, Genest said in an email.

Speaking at a news conference, MacLeod voiced frustration that Ottawa has not yet moved on Ontario’s demand for $200 million in funding to reimburse it for costs incurred so far assisting border-crossers who have come to Ontario.

Those expenses include $90 million in social assistance; $12 million in emergency shelter costs for the city of Ottawa and another $74 million for shelter costs in Toronto; $3 million in emergency coordination costs with Red Cross; and $20 million in education costs.

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MacLeod originally demanded the funding last month in a letter sent to Social Development Minister Jean-Yves Duclos. She said the only progress made so far was “federal cabinet musical chairs,” a reference to the recent cabinet shuffle in Ottawa.

“We are expecting the federal government to come to the table with a significant financial contribution,” she said.

Toronto Mayor John Tory spoke out earlier this year, demanding federal funding to offset the costs of sheltering refugees in the city. Ottawa has since promised $11 million for the city with the possibility of more financial aid to come.

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