Of course, this is all anecdotal evidence based on my own experience, because we do not know exactly how many people live in Canada without status to begin with. About ten years ago, I heard the estimate of 200,000 in Toronto and one million across Canada, but I have no idea whether that's legitimate or not. If there are 200,000 in Toronto, then one million in Canada sounds high. I think the majority will live in cities like Toronto, Vancouver, and Montreal.
We do assist people without status living in Toronto. Some of them come to us because they want to get status. In general, if you do not have status it is harder for you to get government assistance to begin with, because of all the different rules. For sure, most of them will not have any health care from the government whatsoever, unless they have a refugee claim. Even that door has now been closed, as you know.
Many would not be seeking government assistance because they fear being found out by the government that they have no status. I would venture to guess that a very small percentage of this number of non-status people are here and seeking government assistance. Still, it's important. If that is the issue, why we are making it so hard for people to come, then maybe having a way to study that issue is important.
That figure can be obtained. If you want to find out if they're on assistance, then seeking cooperation from social assistance administrators will help, because they will have information about the status of their clients. There may be other ways of getting the information as well.