The Toronto Zoo will soon become home to a blind baby moose who was rescued near Ottawa earlier this month.

The two-month-old baby moose, now named Cedar, was found by an animal rescue group on a rural road in Hawkesbury, Ont.

Cedar was brought to Holly’s Haven Wildlife Rescue, where he spent the last three weeks getting professional veterinary aid and care.

“The moose calf was blind and wandering on its own with no sight of a mother,” said Lynne Rowe, the rescue organization’s director of operations.

Rowe said staff immediately set up a room to assess Cedar’s health, and found he has partial sight in one eye. By the next day, a small outdoor enclosure was created for him to move into.

While Rowe said they would usually turn to Aspen Valley Wildlife Sanctuary in Rosseau, Ont., to secure permanent shelter for rescued animals, they were told the sanctuary was at capacity with moose.

So Rowe shifted gears and reached out to the Toronto Zoo, which they said felt like a “fantastic alternative.”

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In order to get Cedar to the zoo, Rowe had to obtain approval from the provincial Ministry of Natural Resources. It came in within a day of applying.

“Moose cannot be taken out of the wild to be put in a zoo,” Rowe explained. The only way a native Canadian animal like a moose can end up in an enclosure is if it is deemed unfit to be released back into the wild.

Dolf DeJong, CEO of the Toronto Zoo, said the zoo has a suitable moose enclosure and would be happy to welcome Cedar.

A full zoonotic disease scan and other risk assessment steps will be taken before the move.

“Anytime you’re moving ungulates around the province, that’s really important,” DeJong said.

“Our veterinarians will connect with their veterinarians now so we can get a full understanding of Cedar’s condition and make sure we’re able to provide that support he needs for him to thrive.”

DeJong said the best-case scenario would have been for the animal to be healthy and released back into the wild.

But there are upsides to this alternative solution.

“Many Canadians don’t have the chance to see a moose, have never realized that they are massive, incredible animals with really fun diets and some really unique adaptations,” he said.

“And if he needs a forever home, we’re excited to be able to share that story and to provide that care for him.”

At this time, DeJong said there is no set date for when Cedar will be moved to the zoo or when visitors can see him. The priority is making sure Cedar is in good health, he said.

“This is a visually impaired moose who will have his list of challenges. So our team will be doing their homework to make sure he’s got the highest probability of success possible,” he said.

“He’s certainly been through a lot,” DeJong said. “It’s an honour and a duty we don’t take lightly.”

Cedar will continue living at Holly’s Haven until he is cleared by vets to be in good shape to travel and all required paperwork at the zoo’s end is complete, Rowe said.

“I’m very eager to see him settled into his new place,” Rowe said. “I will definitely visit him at some point in the future.”

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The federal government is pushing back against Ontario Premier Doug Ford’s claim it takes two years for an asylum seeker to be given the right to work in Canada, saying the average processing time is actually less than two months.

Ford made the claim on Wednesday afternoon at the end of a three-day leaders’ summit in Huntsville, Ont., where the country’s premiers agreed to look at ways to use their constitutional powers to hand out work permits.

“They’re waiting over two years, and they’re just sucking off the system — not their fault,” Ford said, describing asylum seekers living in hotels near his home. “The fault falls under immigration that it takes over two years to get a work permit.”

The federal government, however, said the claim it takes two years to get a work permit is simply not true.

A spokesperson for Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada told Global News that, since 2022, asylum seekers have been able to apply for a work permit as part of their request to stay in Canada.

That request, they said, is made through an online portal and includes checks like a medical exam. Once a claim is determined as eligible to be referred to the Immigration Refugee Board, a work permit is issued within two weeks, the spokesperson said.

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“The average processing time for work permits to be approved is 45 days,” they said.

The experience for asylum seekers is likely somewhere between the 45-day and 730-day estimates. Syed Hussan, the executive director of the Migrant Workers Alliance for Change, said both figures seemed off.

“It’s taking sometimes up to six months, up to five months for some people,” he told Global News. “Some people are getting them in 45 days, it’s just inconsistent beyond belief. But four to six months in some cases is a pretty long time, but it’s certainly not two years.”

Ford made the claim as he launched a plan to use provincial power to hand out more work visas, generally an area of federal responsibility.

The premier said he planned to rely on Section 95 of the Constitution, which allows provinces to make decisions about immigration on the condition they don’t clash with existing federal legislation.

According to officials in his office, work is now underway to study how to make the move, with no timeline yet or concrete plan on how to proceed.

Ford said he wanted to do everything he can to help asylum seekers find jobs while they wait for their applications to be assessed.

“I have a tremendous amount of asylum seekers that are up in Etobicoke in the hotels. They’re healthy, they’re willing to work, they’re hardworking people,” Ford said.

“They want to get out there and they want to be like every other Canadian. They want to find a job, they want to be able to first start off renting a condo or part of a house and then buying a house.”

Hussna, however, said the message represented a change of tone from Ontario’s premier.

“This to me seems like just a political talking point,” he said. “A way to rage bait and rage farm and look like — the same premier who has been on an anti-immigrant rampage, who has been saying we’ll take care of own first.”

Back in 2018, Ford said the province had to “take care of our own” before pushing for immigrants to move to northern Ontario.

After briefly removing land from the Greenbelt for new housing in 2022, the premier said the move was necessary because of rising immigration. That year, Canada broke its record for new immigration with 430,000 newcomers.

“He’s been really in this divine and conquer, pitting migrants against everyone else to cause a distraction, and now suddenly he’s the champion of refugees working,” Hussan added.

“It’s completely bizarre.”

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