Thank you. Of course, closing Vegreville is not necessary in order to hire in Edmonton.
Mr. Chair, at this time I'd like to move:
That, pursuant to Standing Order 108(2), the Committee study the detrimental impacts of the closure of the Vegreville Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Case Processing Centre; that, the study be comprised of at least three...meetings and that departmental officials be present for at least one meeting, and that the Committee report its findings to the House.
I am proud to be here today to advocate for the people in and around Vegreville, Alberta, so that all the colleagues here around the table can appreciate the extreme anxiety and escalating stress of several hundred people caused by the October 27, 2016, announcement of the closure of the Vegreville immigration case processing centre. Why is this motion important, and why should it be supported by every member of this committee?
This decision was made completely in private with no cost study, no economic impact analysis, and no consultation. Although the minister and his parliamentary secretary have made several comments in the House of Commons about reaching out to meet with me, my office has to date in fact not received one single follow-up call or email about my initial meeting request on October 28, nor a follow-up to his November 17 letter. The people in and around Vegreville are shocked at this deliberate removal of 280 jobs from their town.
I need to speak on behalf of case processing centre Vegreville employees, because they have been told on two separate occasions that they are not allowed to speak publicly or on social media regarding this edict. On October 28, CPC Vegreville received the following email from the operations manager:
This is a reminder that as employees, you are not authorized to speak directly to the media, as per the code of conduct.
Further to this first gag order, employees received the following email on November 22 from the department:
Following the recent announcement with regards to the relocation of CPC Vegreville to Edmonton, I would like to take this opportunity to remind staff of the guidelines with respect to appropriate behaviour on social media....
[We]...have certain obligations as public servants. In this respect, we owe a duty of loyalty to our employer, and, as such, we have a responsibility to be mindful of what we publish, like or tweet. This is true whether we are at work or on our own personal time.
So much for being an open, transparent government in which public servants can speak freely.
I've heard from several employees of the centre, who are at the end of their rope. They are frustrated that they can't even express their concerns about their future and their livelihood publicly. I want to read the words of employers and administrators, mothers and fathers, daughters and sons, babas, farmers, business owners, town officials, reeves, and MLAs, so the members of this committee, the minister, and senior officials can understand the impact of this edict for which there was no cost study, no economic impact assessment, and no consultation.
Let's start with consultation. No one was consulted or sought for input about the economic impacts of the closure of CPC Vegreville on the town, neither the local member of Parliament—me—the local member of the legislative assembly, the Vegreville mayor, Vegreville councillors or town officials, nor any other local citizens, organizations, businesses, or stakeholders. Following the announcement on October 27, the Town of Vegreville put out the following notice:
Citizen[ship] and Immigration Canada Assistant Deputy Minister of Operations; Robert J. Orr addressed the employees at the Vegreville Case Processing Centre to inform them that the lease on the current building in Vegreville will be ending in February 2019. He notified employees that the department will be moved to an Edmonton location that is unknown at this time. Assistant Deputy Minister Orr stated a couple of reasons why the department will be relocated to Edmonton by the end of 2018: Edmonton has more bilingual access and an Edmonton office will be closer to education. He notified to the group in attendance that the decision has already been made and was made after 6 months of planning and case studies, by Public Services & Procurement Division and Canadian Immigration & Refugee & Citizenship.