Lisa MacLeod, Ontario’s minister of children, community and social services, announces an end to the province’s basic income pilot project on July 31, 2018. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chris Young

The Ontario government says costs to social services are “escalating” as irregular migrants continue flocking to the province’s biggest cities.

“Let’s be very clear: There is a failed border policy in Quebec that’s having an impact in Ontario,” said Lisa MacLeod, minister of children, community and social services. “Right now, we are $200 million and counting. We are asking the federal government to come to the table.”

Last night, Quebec elected François Legault to the premier’s chair in a historic election that brought a third party to power for the first time in 50 years. Legault won, in part, on a platform that promised to cut the number of immigrants to the province.

But for MacLeod, today was business as usual: Ontario and Quebec will continue to work together to “make sure that the federal government pays for its border-crossers,” she told reporters at Queen’s Park.

Costs to the province have shot up over the summer, MacLeod said, adding she didn’t yet have an exact figure.

“There is no integrity in the system,” she said. “Ontarians don’t have confidence in what the federal Liberals are doing.”

MacLeod is echoing a previous call to the federal government to foot the bill for costs Ontario taxpayers are incurring due to an increase in irregular migrants.

Earlier this summer, MacLeod testified before the Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration that $74 million is needed to fund the cost of maintaining Toronto’s shelter system alone. Another $12 million is needed for the increased demand on homeless shelters in Ottawa, plus $3 million for support services lent to the province by the Canadian Red Cross, and $20 million for legal bills and children’s education.

The federal government announced this summer it would give $11 million to Toronto to alleviate pressure on the city’s temporary housing.

Part of the money would be used to rent hotel rooms for about 450 irregular migrants who had been staying in college dorms after city shelters started turning them away. Initially, the government said the migrants would only stay in hotels until Sept. 30.

Now, they’ll be staying an extra four weeks in hotel rooms while officials continue to look for a long-term housing solution.

Meanwhile, a pilot project in the small southwestern Ontario municipality of Chatham-Kent is underway. iPolitics learned last week that five families were transported from the border town of Lacolle, Que., and relocated to hotels in the small community, where they will live for the next two months. Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada is paying for the hotel rooms, said Nancy Caron, a department spokesperson.

The goal of this triage system is to integrate families into Chatham-Kent by matching them with appropriate jobs, long-term housing and social services. Caron said the successes and failures of this initial pilot will inform the creation of a province-wide triage system, even as fewer irregular migrants cross into Canada.

The RCMP apprehended 1,747 irregular migrants between official border crossings in August, a jump from 1,634 in July. This is the second consecutive month of increases after a downward trend that began in May.

Still, while 8,800 irregular migrants crossed into Canada in July and August last year, fewer than half that number entered the country this summer.

The Ontario Conservatives said this summer they would not support a triaged system in the province.

So even if this project works for Chatham-Kent, MacLeod said she doesn’t believe the same strategy would work in big cities.

“(Compared to) the costs for cities (of) almost a million people, like Ottawa or Toronto, (the pilot project) is very small,” she said.