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.