Mr. Speaker, it is a great pleasure to be back in Ottawa standing up for my constituents and Canadians tonight on the issue of the illegal border crossing crisis.
I was dismayed during question period today to hear several ministers from the government who are on this file and have not even refreshed their talking points over the summer. This is not funny. Year after year the amount of people who continue to illegally enter the country from safe spaces like upstate New York and then abuse our asylum system by claiming asylum in Canada after already having reached that place of safety continues to increase. That is unacceptable.
Between January and August 2017, the number of people who entered Canada illegally through this method was 13,221. The same period this year it is 14,125. The talking points the government use, and that whomever has to stand up tonight and answer this question will use, are that it has spent a certain amount of money. It is true. The government under the Prime Minister is spending hundreds of millions of dollars on things like putting these people up in hotels in the Greater Toronto Area, in transporting them, in expediting their work permits and in social welfare programs.
To me and most Canadians, this is not fair. When the Prime Minister stands up in Edmonton and tells veterans that they are asking for more than the government can give and then we are seeing people essentially abuse the asylum system and the government's response is we are going to throw more money at it, what is going to happen? Exactly what I just showed. Those numbers increase. To me and most Canadians, that is offensive. Canada's asylum system was never designed to expedite or entice people who are in the United States of America to enter Canada illegally and then abuse our asylum system.
I have stood in this place. I have stood in front of the press gallery. I have stood in the parliamentary committee over the last two years to be very clear about the stance of my party on this. The Conservative Party, when we form government in 2019, will close the loophole in the agreement that we have with the United States and ensure that this abuse of our system stops, as the Liberal government in 2002 did. In fact, former deputy prime minister John Manley alluded to the fact that when the Liberal government signed the safe third country agreement in 2000, it was designed to prevent asylum claim shopping. How far to the left has this party gone to defend the abuse of our asylum claim system and to refuse to close the loophole in this agreement?
It is very clear that a change of government is needed to restore order and fairness back to our immigration system writ large. It is completely unfair for those who are trying to legally enter the country to have to wait for years, while people using the back door are abusing our asylum system.
That is the answer I know I am going to get tonight. The government is going to talk about how many millions of dollars it is spending to entice people to come into the country via this method. The Liberals will not stand up and say that they are closing a loophole on the safe third country agreement. They will not talk about the fact that they have a fiduciary responsibility to remove those who do not have a legal reason to be in Canada, as my party would do. That is very unfortunate. Canadians should not have to wait until the next election to see order restored to Canada's immigration system.
My question, probably vain hopes, for the government is very simple. Has it asked the American administration to close the loophole on the safe third country agreement since we had an emergency parliamentary hearing in Ottawa in July? Will it remove those in Canada who do not have a legal reason to be here? The Globe and Mail reported only 2% of those have been removed. Will it stop wasting taxpayer money on those who seek to circumvent the rules of Canada's immigration system?