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More than 32,000 asylum seekers have arrived in Canada so far this year, and roughly 80 staff from the immigration department have been reassigned to help with the influx of irregular border crossers in Quebec, a joint House of Commons committee heard Thursday.

On average, $15,000 to $20,000 is spent by different levels of government on each asylum claimant, according to Michael MacDonald, director general of the operations sector of the citizenship and immigration department, though “it very much does vary.”

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MacDonald and other officials from the RCMP, the Canada Border Services Agency and the immigration department delivered a briefing on asylum seekers Thursday morning to the House of Commons committees on public safety and immigration.

Between January and August, 13,211 asylum seekers have entered Canada through irregular border crossings, the vast majority in Quebec.

The 32,000 total asylum seekers who have arrived in Canada this year represent “a fairly significant increase” over last year, when the total for the year was just under 24,000, MacDonald said.