Mr. Speaker, the minister responsible for the Canada Customs and Revenue Agency has been having a hard time doing her job.
Just as she denied the problem of the stolen billion dollars in GST rebates, she denies the problem of people illegally crossing the border from the U.S. into Canada.
She has said that because we have licence plate readers at our high-volume crossings in Canada, we know the licence plate of any car that tries to the run the border.
That however is wrong. According to the Auditor General's May 2003 report, licence plate readers work properly only 70% of the time.
She also has said that we also at our borders have licence plate readings and that the Americans do not have that on their side. In fact the 2002 annual U.S. customs report states that the U.S. has installed 50 licence plate readers on their side of the border.
If the minister continues to misinform the public, instead of checking licence plates, she will be in the big house making licence plates.