Merci.
This past spring I put a question to you, Minister, in the House about the one-third cut to staffing levels at the immigration section in the Kiev embassy, to which you, and in fact your parliamentary secretary, in evening debates claimed that there was not a one-third cut to staffing levels.
I just wanted to read into the record what Ms. Tsarkova, who is the Canadian embassy program officer, stated in an interview on October 26, 2006, the year in question, to the Kyiv Post:
In the immigration section of the Canadian Embassy in Kyiv, this review and adjustment resulted in the elimination of one immigration officer position and two clerical/support positions–a registry supervisor and a cashier.
When I inquired of your department, sir, I received a similar response, that in fact there was a one-third cut. Minister, in fact you put out a press release into the Ukrainian-Canadian community stating that there were no cuts, that this was false. Were you misinformed by your department, or were you engaged in disinformation?