The numbers are black and white. After 13 years, settlement funding was flat, with the exception of the province of Quebec, and the total overall national budget was $200 million. Yes, the Canada-Ontario immigration agreement was signed, but what about all the Atlantic provinces? What about all the western provinces? Why weren't they included?
We stepped up to the plate in 2006 and this was a real investment. This was a real choice that we made. We made a choice to forgo now several hundred million dollars in revenue reductions in the right-of-landing fee. That's money out of the budget of my department. We stepped up to the plate and added an increment over the past five years of $1.4 billion in additional settlement funding that was not put on over 13 years.
I think that reflects the kind of priority that the previous government had. In fact, if you look at the cuts in 1995, which overall were necessary, one of the departments that was most deeply cut was Citizenship and Immigration Canada. If you want evidence of that, look at the number of landings in this country. In 1997 it went down to 175,000 landings, 100,000 less than this year, Mr. Chairman.
So I don't accept the notion at all that the previous government took immigration seriously. They chose not to invest in it.