Mr. Speaker, in 1989 Mohammed Assaf sponsored his brother and family to settle in Alberta. Since then Alberta taxpayers have shelled out $40,000 in welfare payments to support the family.
Assaf then attempted to sponsor his second wife to Canada and was refused by immigration officials. He decided to go to the IRB that in turn ruled that Assaf did not have to pay his first obligations before sponsoring his second wife.
How will the minister accomplish the task of reducing sponsorship defaults when the IRB is telling sponsors that it does not make any difference whether or not they repay those defaults?