QUEBEC — A spokesman for Quebec's employment minister says the provincial government will hand out welfare cheques to several thousand asylum seekers next week.
Simon Laboissonniere says an estimated 4,000 people will get money for the month of September.
The minimum basic monthly payment will be $623, while there will be an additional sum depending on the recipient's family status.
The three-day operation will take place at Montreal's Palais des congres convention centre, beginning next Wednesday.
Laboissonniere said it is easier to hand out the cheques in one place.
Once they have received the cheques, the asylum seekers will be asked to leave their temporary shelters and seek permanent accommodation.
Employment Minister Francois Blais is expected to hold a news conference in Quebec City on Thursday afternoon to discuss the measures.
Nearly 10,000 people have been apprehended at the border since the start of the year as they've sought to enter Canada in order to claim refugee status — almost equivalent to the total number of claims filed for all of 2013.
Of those who have arrived this year, nearly 7,000 have arrived just since July, the vast majority at an unofficial crossing point between Quebec and New York.
UP TO 2,300 ASYLUM SEEKERS ENTERING QUEBEC THROUGH U.S. ARE UNDER 18: MINISTER
MONTREAL — Up to one-third of the 7,000 people who have crossed illegally into Quebec from the U.S. in the last six weeks are children, the province's immigration minister said Wednesday.
Quebec's education department is considering running programs for the kids — including teaching classes — inside the temporary shelters set up to house refugee applicants in the Montreal area, said Kathleen Weil.
"We received the demographic statistics last night," Weil told reporters after meeting with the Intergovernmental Task Force on Irregular Migration, which included the prime minister.
"We need the children to feel secure," she said. "They are here for an uncertain amount of time. The education department is looking into what to do with the kids in the meantime."
The task force was created to help provinces and the federal government co-ordinate a response to the roughly 7,000 people — mainly Haitians — who have crossed the Quebec-New York state border in the last six weeks.
Up to 2,300 are under 18 years old, Weil said.
They began entering Canada illegally after the Trump administration said it may end "temporary protected status'' for Haitians in the U.S., which was granted following their country's massive 2010 earthquake.
The influx of thousands of people in such a short time has strained Quebec's resources, especially its housing infrastructure.
Despite the challenge, Weil said "we've noticed a slowdown" of people entering daily in Quebec. "Is that a trend? We're not sure."
Opposition politicians in Quebec have criticized the federal government's handling of the border crossers, some calling for Trudeau to suspend international agreements forcing Canada to accept people entering through illegal border points.
Ultra-nationalist and other right-wing and anti-immigration groups have become increasingly vocal in the province, and have demanded the federal and provincial governments stop welcoming border crossers.
Weil said there is no question about closing the border.
"Once you step into our country, it triggers the asylum process," she said.
