A Chilliwack home
for chinese migrants WebPosted Sep
13 1999 9:34 AM PDT
VANCOUVER - Attorney General Ujjal
Dosanjh hopes the former Canadian forces base in Chilliwack
can be of use in the housing crisis for the hundreds of
migrants who have landed on B.C. shores.
Most of the migrants are living at CFB Esquimalt, but it's
bursting at the seams.
Dosanjh says the empty military base at Chilliwack could be
used to house some of the migrants.
The base was closed in 1996.
Chilliwack Mayor John Les says the proposal makes sense,
given the dormitories that remain vacant there.
But Chilliwack's MP, Reform's Randy White thinks it's a bad
idea.
He says, "They're not dealing with the problem. All they're
doing is expanding facilities when the vast majority of people
in Canada want them to deal with it immediately and send them
back if they're here on a bogus basis. So I think the
Chilliwack base is a bit of a red herring. If they're running
out of space, they must be planning on allowing more to come
in, I guess. That's wrong."
White says reactivating the base to house migrants and
refugee claimants in detention is a waste of resources.
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