With only 20 rooms vacant, Toronto is within seven days of evoking an emergency plan to house the growing number of refugees settling in the city after crossing the U.S.-Canada border, Mayor John Tory says.

"We could not, cannot and should not be doing this alone. If these daily arrivals continue, as we expect them to, to some degree or another, we will be in a position within the next seven days, where we will need to open an emergency reception centre," Tory told a news conference Friday.

As of Thursday, there were 2,683 refugee claimants in the Toronto shelter system, accounting for 41 per cent of the shelter population. At the current rate of arrivals, the city expects refugees will make up 54 per cent of the spaces by November.

"We are seeing on average 10 new refugee claimants added to our shelter system each and every day. Already, we have added 1,080 motel beds to our refugee program within the shelter system," Tory said. "We have an overall responsibility to shelter people who are in need of shelter, but we’re trying to get help from other governments to establish a separate way of dealing with refugees" and avoid the capacity issues of the shelter system.

As of late April, 7,612 asylum seekers have crossed into Canada between official ports of entry this year ‐ up from 2,749 by this time in 2017.