Citizenship and Immigration Committee on March 5th, 2014

[Lysane Blanchette-Lamothe, NDP, Pierrefonds—Dollard, QC]

Could you send it to the clerk of the committee?

[Chris Alexander, Conservative, Ajax—Pickering, ON]

Yes.

[Lysane Blanchette-Lamothe, NDP, Pierrefonds—Dollard, QC]

That's nice of you, thank you.

[Chris Alexander, Conservative, Ajax—Pickering, ON]

Allow me to specify that our funding is in addition to private funding that the institute solicits for itself. Our funding, which is only granted as long as the institute solicits funds from Canadians, represents only half of the institute's total funding.

[Lysane Blanchette-Lamothe, NDP, Pierrefonds—Dollard, QC]

Thank you.

Given that the mission statement is "to encourage national dialogue", I was wondering if the institute could ask Canadians' opinion on the recently tabled citizenship reform bill, which could allow us to make amendments to it. Could that be one of the institute's objectives?

[Chris Alexander, Conservative, Ajax—Pickering, ON]

You are all invited to work with this institute and to attend its activities which are open to all.

[Lysane Blanchette-Lamothe, NDP, Pierrefonds—Dollard, QC]

All right, but I am asking you if the institute could participate in improving the citizenship reform.

[Chris Alexander, Conservative, Ajax—Pickering, ON]

In principle, yes. I do not know if the institute has planned any activities that directly affect our bill. In any case, our bill is partially based on the institute's work and the work of all the other organizations in Canada that...

[Lysane Blanchette-Lamothe, NDP, Pierrefonds—Dollard, QC]

Thank you. I am sorry to interrupt you, but I have a lot of other questions to ask you.

My next question is on the Immigrant Investor Program. The media recently reported that several people are planning to launch legal proceedings because their files had been closed and returned. I would like to know if you have set aside money to fund these legal proceedings.

[Chris Alexander, Conservative, Ajax—Pickering, ON]

Unfortunately or inevitably, we deal with a huge amount of litigation every year. So, such a comment...

[Lysane Blanchette-Lamothe, NDP, Pierrefonds—Dollard, QC]

I am specifically asking you if you have set aside money.

[Chris Alexander, Conservative, Ajax—Pickering, ON]

Yes, and we follow up on every case where someone has indicated that they intend to sue us. However, the gaps...

[Lysane Blanchette-Lamothe, NDP, Pierrefonds—Dollard, QC]

Minister, I am sorry to interrupt you, but I have many questions to ask you.

I would simply like to know if, yes or no, you have set aside a sum of money to cover the cost of this litigation.

[Chris Alexander, Conservative, Ajax—Pickering, ON]

We always study the legal risks of everything that we do.

[Lysane Blanchette-Lamothe, NDP, Pierrefonds—Dollard, QC]

So this was included in your planning.

[Chris Alexander, Conservative, Ajax—Pickering, ON]

Absolutely.

[Lysane Blanchette-Lamothe, NDP, Pierrefonds—Dollard, QC]

Thank you.

[Chris Alexander, Conservative, Ajax—Pickering, ON]

We have a budget from the Department of Justice for all the litigation that we deal with.

[Lysane Blanchette-Lamothe, NDP, Pierrefonds—Dollard, QC]

Thank you.

Have you also budgeted money for reimbursements to applicants? If yes, on which page or in which column can that be found?

[Chris Alexander, Conservative, Ajax—Pickering, ON]

Yes. This is not reflected in the document that is before you, but it will be in the documents to come.

[Lysane Blanchette-Lamothe, NDP, Pierrefonds—Dollard, QC]

Can I ask you which one?

[Chris Alexander, Conservative, Ajax—Pickering, ON]

It will be in our plans for 2014-2015. Dealing with all this will take us several years.

[Lysane Blanchette-Lamothe, NDP, Pierrefonds—Dollard, QC]

Thank you.

I would now like to talk about the cut to operational spending of roughly $14 million. There is a new program, which was previously under the responsibility of the Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development. Regardless, there is a planned cut to operational spending, if I am not mistaken. Could you maybe confirm that?

How can we expect the department to take on more responsibilities if it is faced with a reduction in operational spending?

[Chris Alexander, Conservative, Ajax—Pickering, ON]

These are the same services. This is a transfer of responsibilities. There is more of an upward trend in the case of this program.

[Lysane Blanchette-Lamothe, NDP, Pierrefonds—Dollard, QC]

With the same financial resources?