The federal government is looking to buy hotels to house an increasing number of asylum-seekers, Immigration Minister Marc Miller told the Globe and Mail.

Ottawa wants to reduce the cost of accommodating refugee claimants, he told the newspaper in a recent interview. Options include buying hotels and converting them to housing, the Globe reported.

In recent years, the federal government has taken out long leases on hotels to help provinces house thousands of refugee claimants. This year, Ottawa has covered the cost of providing approximately 4,000 hotel rooms for 7,300 asylum seekers, the Globe reported while citing Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada as its source.

Under one scenario, federal and provincial officials could be installed in the converted hotels to provide front-line services to asylum seekers waiting for their cases to be heard.

“These numbers aren’t going down drastically any time soon,” Miller told the Globe.

Between the last election in 2021 and January 2023, Ottawa spent about $94 million on entire hotel bookings to accommodate asylum-seekers, according to figures obtained through an access-to-information request, the newspaper reported.

The bookings were made at 10 hotels in Montreal and others in Niagara Falls, Ont., and Ottawa. The federal government also spent about $100 million on accommodating asylum seekers between February 2023 and February 2024, the Globe reported while citing official figures provided by Conservative Niagara Fall MP Tony Baldini.