Evidence of meeting #47 for Citizenship and Immigration in the 39th Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was million.
A recording is available from Parliament.
3:45 p.m.
Chief Financial Officer, Finance Branch, Department of Citizenship and Immigration
No. We basically have spent the money that was related to the public notice campaign for a little over a million dollars. That's been spent out of this money, sir.
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Chief Financial Officer, Finance Branch, Department of Citizenship and Immigration
Out of this money.
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Liberal
Jim Karygiannis Liberal Scarborough—Agincourt, ON
Which practically is Bill C-50, the backlog.... I read your ads in a number of languages. This was targeted towards Bill C-50.
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Conservative
Diane Finley Conservative Haldimand—Norfolk, ON
Our objective was to make sure immigrants, who are the most affected by the proposed immigration reforms, would be able to get the facts directly. It's been shown that many immigrants use ethnic media, not mainstream media, as their main source of information. We wanted to make sure they had the facts, and that's why we conducted this.
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Liberal
Jim Karygiannis Liberal Scarborough—Agincourt, ON
Minister, two weeks ago you made a commitment to provide this committee with a list of newspapers in which the department placed advertisements with respect to the proposed changes to the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act. Did you bring that with you today, Minister?
3:45 p.m.
Conservative
Diane Finley Conservative Haldimand—Norfolk, ON
There was a package just submitted to you in response to most of the questions that had been asked by the committee. We are still waiting for details and confirmation of the rest, and we'll be providing those very shortly.
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Liberal
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Conservative
Diane Finley Conservative Haldimand—Norfolk, ON
I did not bring it today. We will be providing it very shortly.
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Conservative
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Liberal
Jim Karygiannis Liberal Scarborough—Agincourt, ON
You promised us, Minister, two weeks ago that in two weeks we would have it.
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Liberal
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Conservative
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Liberal
Jim Karygiannis Liberal Scarborough—Agincourt, ON
Okay.
Minister, you indicated that the department advertised in approximately 100 ethnic media outlets at a combined cost of a million dollars. Correct?
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Conservative
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Liberal
Jim Karygiannis Liberal Scarborough—Agincourt, ON
Minister, I have several rate cards showing the average costs, and I will read them to you: $800, $375, $315, $600, $450, $220. When I do the math, Minister, that's $2,560 for six ads, and when you do the division, that's $428 a piece. So if I was to do the math, at $428 for 100, that would be $430,000. If you advertised for a million dollars, and if I was to do the math again, that would be 240 papers you should have advertised in.
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Conservative
Diane Finley Conservative Haldimand—Norfolk, ON
Yes, well, we're waiting for confirmation of the final numbers, so we can make sure you have accurate numbers.
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Liberal
Jim Karygiannis Liberal Scarborough—Agincourt, ON
Minister, the department was either grossly overcharged by the media outlets for the ads, the department paid more than the advertising rate in order to get favourable articles and editorials in these media outlets, or—last but not least—someone is receiving a kickback.
3:45 p.m.
Conservative
Diane Finley Conservative Haldimand—Norfolk, ON
I would challenge that. After you raised the issue at the last committee meeting at which I appeared, we did take this issue up with Public Works. They have taken a look at the situation and they have confirmed to us that they have verified that the rates that were included in the media plan were in accordance with the rates listed in the approved Government of Canada--