Citizenship and Immigration Committee on April 28th, 2008

[Jim Karygiannis, Liberal, Scarborough—Agincourt, ON]

Yes.

[Les Linklater]

I believe it's being absorbed into the department's communications budget.

[Jim Karygiannis, Liberal, Scarborough—Agincourt, ON]

How much money do you guess you'll be spending?

[Les Linklater]

I don't want to venture a guess, but I can certainly go back and look for a figure.

[Jim Karygiannis, Liberal, Scarborough—Agincourt, ON]

Would you be able to provide that to us in this committee within the next 10 business days?

[Les Linklater]

We'll certainly look into it and do our best.

[Jim Karygiannis, Liberal, Scarborough—Agincourt, ON]

Since you're going to do that, could you also provide for us how much money the minister spent on advertising Bill C-50 in the last month?

[Les Linklater]

I think that question is probably best addressed to the minister when she appears.

[The Chair, Conservative, Norman Doyle]

Yes.

[Ed Komarnicki, Conservative, Souris—Moose Mountain, SK]

I have a point of order.

[The Chair, Conservative, Norman Doyle]

I think it's been dealt with.

[Jim Karygiannis, Liberal, Scarborough—Agincourt, ON]

Mr. Chair, with all due respect, since Mr. Linklater--

[Deepak Obhrai, Conservative, Calgary East, AB]

There's a point of order here.

[The Chair, Conservative, Norman Doyle]

Point of order.

[Ed Komarnicki, Conservative, Souris—Moose Mountain, SK]

We are not studying any aspect of Bill C-50 here today. We'll have an opportunity to do so, and the question can be put at the appropriate time.

[The Chair, Conservative, Norman Doyle]

That's a valid point of order. We will be dealing with it at another point.

[Jim Karygiannis, Liberal, Scarborough—Agincourt, ON]

Since Mr. Linklater is going to be looking at facts and figures and how much money was spent in advertising, I thought he could save himself some trouble when looking at the rest of it.

[The Chair, Conservative, Norman Doyle]

Does anyone from the Bloc require three or four minutes?

Mr. Vincent.

[Robert Vincent, Bloc, Shefford, QC]

My questions are for Mr. Cabana. I will try to be brief and to run through them all in one minute, to allow you two minutes to respond. I will be referring mainly to your speaking notes. You mention recommendation 31 of the Advisory Committee's report and note the following:

At first glance this may appear to provide a simple and immediate solution for enforcement, I wish to echo the words of Mr. Linklater in acknowledging that this issue is very complex.

In what way is this issue very complex?

[C/Supt Mike Cabana]

Getting back to the comment I made earlier about the RCMP's role in enforcing the act's provisions, the complexity, to our way of thinking, stems from the fact that evidence must be gathering and introduced to the courts. The legislative tools to meet the RCMP's needs are already in place. Adding this specific tool would not help the RCMP address the problem of criminal organizations. It would not help us play that that role. It only adds to the complexity of having to administer investigations currently before the courts and of gathering evidence that is admissible in court. That is what makes this issue complex.

[Robert Vincent, Bloc, Shefford, QC]

How many of your investigators are assigned specifically to investigating immigration consultants?

[C/Supt Mike Cabana]

At this time, sir, we have no one assigned specifically to investigating immigration consultants. As I explained, we launch investigations at the request of partner departments. The focus of these investigations may be organized crime, corruption or human trafficking.

[Robert Vincent, Bloc, Shefford, QC]

How is organized crime involved? If you have no investigators and receive no complaints, then the organized crime element can do whatever it wants. If offenders are not caught and if no one suspects anyone, you do not investigate, because you do not have the personnel.

What do you do then?

[C/Supt Mike Cabana]

I am sorry, but obviously, I did not make myself clear. We have investigators who are part of the immigration program.

[Robert Vincent, Bloc, Shefford, QC]

But they are not available.