New Brunswick Premier Blaine Higgs has released a scathing critique of the federal Liberals’ decision to relocate 4,600 asylum seekers to his province without any financial support. 

Higgs released a statement on social media, stating that he was just informed by the Trudeau Liberals that they’re about to receive the migrants, no questions asked.

“This is an increase of more than 10 times our current level of asylum seekers,” Higgs stated.

“Do you think Moncton could handle potentially thousands of more people without the financial support of housing to back that up?” he stated.

Higgs added that New Brunswick is a welcoming province, but said “this would stretch our healthcare and education systems far beyond what they can handle. And we do not have enough housing to make sure both newcomers and people currently living in NB have a roof over their heads.”

The Premier called for the Liberals to “drop this plan, and instead, deal with the backlog of asylum claims that their failed policies have created.”

Quebec requests redistribution

‘The development comes after Primer Minister Justin Trudeau and Quebec Premier Francois Legault met over the summer to discuss immigration, where Legault asked the federal government to redistribute asylum seekers throughout the rest of the country.

According to Legault, “Quebec has done more than its fair share” when it comes to immigration, providing support to 60,000 asylum seekers out of the over 1 million immigrants who came into Canada in 2023.

Immigration Minister responds

Immigration Minister Marc Miller responded to Higgs on Wednesday evening, calling his statement “highly irresponsible.”

“While we expect every province to do their fair share in the federation when it comes to asylum seekers, nobody said we’d force New Brunswick to take 4,600 asylum seekers,” Miller said.