![]() ![]() They see, on average, 100 families a day, and the infusion of 3,000 new vulnerable people is stretching them to their limits. In addition to the food bank, they also provide homelessness prevention supports and other services, and served the equivalent of one in 10 residents last year, she said. So we’re asking, ‘What’s the plan?’ ”ĭemand in the community was already very high. “A lot of people are counting on it to feed their families and pay their mortgages and pay their rents. whereas these folks are just staying in the rooms,” he said. “A tourist is going to spend money in restaurants, the attractions, the casinos, the wineries. He said he’s concerned about the impact on the coming tourism season, which he describes as the “the goose that lays the golden eggs here.” “And, you know, we weren’t really sure how much we can handle, and at what point it would become disruptive, because we’ve never been through anything like this before.”Īfter a video call with Sean Fraser, Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship, and his staff last month, the mayor said he still doesn’t know how long the hotel rooms are booked for. And then we were told 1,700 and 2,000 were the next steps,” he said. But as the numbers began to grow, he said the mood has shifted. “We’ve got lots of rooms, we’ll do our part and help out as much as we can – that’s kind of the attitude as it started,” he said. The city has upwards of 16,000 hotel rooms, Mayor Jim Diodati said, and at first the IRCC contracts seemed like welcome news for hotels that have been struggling after three years in a pandemic. With a population of 95,000 people, Niagara Falls depends heavily on tourism and is known as much for the massive falls that straddle an international border as it is for the garishness of its main drag, lined with haunted houses and wax museums. With its stunning vistas, Clifton Hill promenade and other attractions, Niagara Falls is a tourist town whose large supply of hotel rooms initially seemed up to the task of housing the asylum seekers.
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