Debates of Oct. 22nd, 2025

Strengthening Canada's Immigration System and Borders Act

[Bardish Chagger, Liberal, Waterloo, ON]

Madam Speaker, I rise on a point of order. I did not want to ruin the member's clip, but I think being accurate in this place is important. Applications are made to Health Canada, which can approve or deny them, but Health Canada does not pick the location. Conservatives should stop misleading Canadians.

[The Assistant Deputy Speaker (Alexandra Mendès), Alexandra Mendes]

That is debate.

Order. It is my duty pursuant to Standing Order 38 to inform the House that the questions to be raised tonight at the time of adjournment are as follows: the hon. member for Haldimand—Norfolk, Justice; the hon. member for Nunavut, Northern Affairs; the hon. member for Terra Nova—The Peninsulas, Oil and Gas Industry.

[Vincent Ho, Conservative, Richmond Hill South, ON]

Madam Speaker, after 10 years of Liberal failure, Canadians now face a cost of living crisis, a crime crisis, a housing crisis and a border crisis, and the government has the nerve to stand up here today and pretend that Bill C-12 will strengthen Canada's immigration systems and borders.

This bill will not fix our immigration system and does not protect Canadians. It does little to stop the flow of fentanyl, guns, gangsters or illegal crossings, and most certainly does not defend the rights and freedoms of law-abiding Canadians. This bill is the second attempt at a failed Liberal bill, Bill C-2, which, of course, the Liberals did not spend much time working on over the summer.

Before we even get into Bill C-12, we have to remember how we got here. About a month ago, the Liberals tried to ram through Bill C-2, which would have given them sweeping, warrantless powers to seize Canadians' personal information from banks and telecoms. There would be no warrants, judicial oversight, transparency or respect for the charter or Canadians.

It was so abusive, invasive and offensive to our democratic tradition that the Privacy Commissioner confirmed the Liberals did not even bother to consult him. The Liberals planned a mass surveillance power grab and hoped Canadians would not notice. The Liberals got caught and Conservatives forced them to back down, go back to the drawing board and rewrite this bill.

That is the only reason we are debating Bill C-12 today, because the Liberals' first attempt was exposed as a direct assault on Canadians' privacy, freedom and basic civil liberties. Law-abiding Canadians will not be treated like criminals just because Liberals cannot control the border that they themselves have broken.

Now the Liberals are back with Bill C-12, promising that this time it is different. Conservatives scrutinize every line, every clause, every hidden catch, to ensure the Liberals are not sneaking in another assault on Canadians' rights, freedoms and civil liberties. The Liberal government has forfeited the benefit of the doubt. The Liberal government tried once to spy on Canadians without a warrant; only a fool would trust them a second time.

This bill barely touches on the number one border threat facing this country: the illegal flow of fentanyl, weapons and violent criminals across our border. It makes no mention of the badly needed bail reform to the Liberals' catch-and-release, revolving-door injustice system. It makes no reference to mandatory prison sentences when the Liberals brought house arrest to dozens of serious crimes, cracking down on fentanyl traffickers and gangs doing drive-bys in our once-safe neighbourhoods or hiring more CBSA officers, which the Liberals promised to do in their election platform.

Under the Liberal government, drug traffickers walk free on house arrest, gangsters avoid mandatory jail time and repeat violent offenders are released again and again under Liberal catch-and-release bail. None of this will stop a single fentanyl dealer or gun smuggler with real punishments and consequences.

The government actually believes that someone trafficking poison into our communities should be able to serve their sentence at home, on the couch, watching TV. Remember, the Liberals legalized hard drugs, they brought in taxpayer-funded hard drugs and flooded them into our streets and they also brought in drug consumption sites.

Conservatives believe that fentanyl traffickers and drug kingpins should be in prison and those possessing 40 milligrams or more should be treated like the mass murderers they are and should receive life imprisonment, yet this bill does absolutely nothing to change that.

The Liberals obsess over legal gun owners while doing absolutely nothing to put the gangsters behind bars. The Liberals target law-abiding hunters and farmers while letting fentanyl traffickers out on bail. It is backward and dangerous, and Canadians are paying the price.

While this border crisis spreads fentanyl into our communities, the Liberals are opening and defending drug consumption sites near schools and playgrounds.

Conservatives demanded not too long ago that the Liberals shut down overdose sites next to locations with children. What did the health minister have to say? They refused to rule out approving more drug-injection sites, even though they acknowledged that these sites are filled with rampant fentanyl use.

The Liberals will not reverse the policies that got us into this mess in the first place. The Liberals will not jail fentanyl traffickers. The Liberals will not stop illegal border flows. The Liberals will not ever protect school zones from drug consumption sites. This is not compassion; it is government-orchestrated chaos.

Let us talk about the reality that Bill C-12 pretends it would address, but would not. Canada now has three million temporary residents, over 7% of our population, and that number is going up every day. Canada now has 500,000 undocumented individuals, and that number is also going up every day. Canada has 300,000 asylum claims in the queue, and of course that is also growing every day. The result is that our housing market is collapsing, our health care is collapsing, our job market is collapsing and our communities are simply overwhelmed. The Liberals created chaos, and now they want more power, not to fix it, but to cover up the mess they made.

Let us not forget how much this border crisis is costing taxpayers. Conservatives uncovered just how badly the Liberals have mismanaged the interim federal health program. Under their Liberal government, federal health care costs for asylum claimants have exploded to $456 million per year, representing a 1,186% increase since 2016. Coverage includes benefits that many Canadians pay for out of pocket or do not receive at all, including vision care, counselling, physiotherapy, assistive devices, home care, nursing homes and pharmaceuticals.

Canadians are a compassionate people, but is it really fair for non-citizens to get health care coverage that Canadians themselves do not receive?

There has been a 376% increase in claims and a 1,100% increase in reimbursements since the Liberals took office. The Liberals spent $1.1 billion on hotels for asylum claimants and gave $1.5 billion more to provinces for refugee costs, while Canadian citizens wait in ER hallways, seniors cannot get long-term care and families cannot find a family doctor.

Canadians are compassionate, but is it really fair that non-citizens get better benefits than Canadians and law-abiding newcomers alike who have paid their taxes and paid their dues their entire lives? Only the Liberals could think that was an acceptable situation.

The Liberal Prime Minister and his Liberal MPs have created a system where Canadians wait, Canadians sacrifice, Canadians pay and everyone else gets priority. Canadians have been paying into our health care system for their entire lives. Our seniors and families all across Canada deserve to reap the rewards of their hard work by getting health care when they need it. Instead, our health care system is already overwhelmed and overcapacity, and Canadian seniors cannot get the treatment they need. It is not sustainable.

Canadians are a proud and caring people, but unvalidated asylum seekers should not be getting better benefits than Canadians do. We need immediate reform. The Liberals call that compassion, but I call it betrayal of Canadian taxpayers. This is not sustainable, it is not fair and Canadians expect more from this Liberal government.

Let us expose this bill's failures every step of the way and make sure that it works for Canadians. Conservatives will always stand up for secure borders; privacy and freedom; jail, not bail for fentanyl traffickers and violent criminals; no more drug sites next to schools; and an immigration system that is fair, sustainable and puts Canadians first. Because compassion must have limits, immigration must be lawful and sovereignty must be preserved. This country is worth fighting for. Our borders matter, our safety matters, our freedom matters, our privacy matters and Canadians matter. Conservatives will always stand up and fight for hard-working Canadians.

The Liberals continue to distract from a border crisis, a crime crisis and an immigration crisis entirely of the Liberal government's making. The bill would not fix the problem; it would not stop the flow of drugs, guns, gangs or illegal crossings that are flowing over the border at record levels. We will not let the Liberals use the bill as a back door to violate the privacy, rights and freedoms of Canadians again.

Conservatives will fight for Canadians. We will fight to restore public safety on our streets, secure our border, restore our sovereignty and put Canadians first once again.

[Kevin Lamoureux, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to the Leader of the Government in the House of Commons]

Madam Speaker, someone saying something does not necessarily mean it is a reflection of reality. Let me give a specific example.

This member and other Conservatives have consistently been saying “injection sites” and been critical of the federal government. To be very clear, the injection sites are the provinces' responsibility, and they are the ones that ultimately give consent as to where those injection sites go. The Conservatives are saying that Ottawa should override a provincial responsibility, but they do not say that. Instead, they try to give the impression that the federal government wants injection sites by playgrounds, which is just wrong, and I find in the comments they often give in the speeches the same sort of thing. A simple statement is expressed, but when I dig into it, I find out that it is exceptionally misleading.

Why do Conservative members consistently do that?

[Vincent Ho, Conservative, Richmond Hill South, ON]

Madam Speaker, this is an another example of the Liberals' trying to divide, deny and distract. Canadians are fed up. Over 50,000 Canadians have died from the opioid crisis, which is a higher death toll than from the Second World War. Liberals continue to do nothing about it.

Conservatives will lock up the fentanyl kingpins as the mass murderers that they are and keep them in prison for life, but the Liberals want to deny, deflect, divide and distract.

I have a question for the Liberal member: Will he stop the expansion of drug consumption sites next to schools, day cares and playgrounds?

[Mario Simard, Bloc, Jonquière, QC]

Madam Speaker, I am inclined to offer my colleague a word of advice. It is perfectly acceptable to be critical of a bill, but one still has to keep one foot in reality.

When I heard my colleague talking about fentanyl and supervised consumption sites earlier, his comments did not in any way reflect the message that we are getting from the experts who are trying to help people struggling with addictions.

During the election campaign, we supported a supervised consumption site that presented us with a lot of scientific evidence to show that these sites are an indispensable public health tool. Furthermore, I do not think that people are taking fentanyl at these sites.

It is the same thing with firearms. No one has been able to give me an example of a hunting weapon that has been made illegal. Assault weapons have been made illegal, but hunting weapons have not. The duty of a legislator is to provide information to the public, and we have to be careful about what information we are providing.

[Vincent Ho, Conservative, Richmond Hill South, ON]

Madam Speaker, I find it very rich. The member is asking for information, so let me give him some. This is from the Health Canada website. Is Health Canada also misleading? The Liberal member keeps accusing members of the House of misleading Canadians.

According to the Health Canada website, again, fentanyl and its analogues were involved in 33% of opioid-related poisoning visits to the emergency department from January to June 2024. The number of all opioid-related poisoning emergency department visits that involve fentanyl and its analogues has increased 106% since 2018, when national surveillance began. This is a real problem. It is not just killing Canadians. It is not just ripping up families. It is not just destroying communities and causing trauma for loved ones. It is also overwhelming our health care system.

Conservatives will take action. The Liberals will continue to distract, defy and deny.

[Frank Caputo, Conservative, Kamloops—Thompson—Nicola, BC]

Madam Speaker, it is always a pleasure to rise on behalf of the people of Kamloops—Thompson—Nicola.

My hon. colleague was just asked a question by the member for Winnipeg North. The member intimated that nobody wants safe injection sites next to schools. I think that we can all agree with that. Where I part company with the Liberal Party is on whether we will permit safe injection sites near schools.

The problem is that under the current regime, there have been safe injection sites that are far too close to vulnerable people. Does my hon. colleague agree with this, and would he like to expand, because clearly these things are happening far too close to vulnerable populations and nothing is being done? It is not a matter of wanting it; it is a matter—

[The Assistant Deputy Speaker (Alexandra Mendès), Alexandra Mendes]

The hon. member for Richmond Hill South has the floor.

[Vincent Ho, Conservative, Richmond Hill South, ON]

Madam Speaker, when I was campaigning for the election and was knocking on doors, parents told me that they do not want their kids to be stepping on needles when they go to the park to play.

[Leah Gazan, NDP, Winnipeg Centre, MB]

Madam Speaker, I rise today quite disturbed and deeply disappointed that despite the widespread criticism of Bill C-2 from civil liberties groups, migrant groups, experts and human rights advocates, the Liberals are attempting to repackage pretty much the same bill under a new title, Bill C-12, which has so many of the same alarming and unacceptable abuses of international law and charter rights.

The revised border security bill would maintain a host of the government's new immigration powers introduced in Bill C-2, including the ability to limit immigration applications and cancel existing documents when the government deems it to be in the public interest, all the while pushing through huge, overreaching powers for the Prime Minister and his cabinet. I am the proud representative of Winnipeg Centre, home to 70% of refugees who move into Manitoba. They are my neighbours and my friends, and they have a right to have their human rights upheld.

The bill has raised much concern, including what experts are flagging as a detrimental impact on women and LGBTQ people.

We know what the bill is about. It is not about border security, from my perspective, but about appeasing a leader to the south who is showing us more every day that he would even have the military go after his own citizens. It is about appeasing a right-wing, authoritarian leader in the White House. We know his immigration policy includes ICE's ordering masked federal officers to go into communities and arrest people, individuals whose human rights are protected under international law.

It is funny to me to watch the member for Winnipeg North across the way smiling during my speech, when his constituency is in fact home to a vibrant and diverse immigrant population. It is a border that I am very proud to share—

[The Assistant Deputy Speaker (Alexandra Mendès), Alexandra Mendes]

The government chief whip is rising on a point of order.

[Mark Gerretsen, Liberal, Kingston and the Islands, ON]

Madam Speaker, the member for Winnipeg North and I were having a conversation, and then we overheard his name being mentioned by the member in her speech—

[The Assistant Deputy Speaker (Alexandra Mendès), Alexandra Mendes]

It was not his name but his constituency.

[Mark Gerretsen, Liberal, Kingston and the Islands, ON]

Madam Speaker, it was his constituency. The point is that the member is making an outlandishly false claim right now by suggesting that he was laughing or smiling at her in a mocking way. That simply was not the case, and she should not be engaging in that kind of activity—

[The Assistant Deputy Speaker (Alexandra Mendès), Alexandra Mendes]

I was not actually looking, but the hon. member was making her speech and has a certain leeway in what she can say in it.

The hon. member for Winnipeg Centre has the floor.

[Leah Gazan, NDP, Winnipeg Centre, MB]

Madam Speaker, we know that much of what is happening in the States with attacks on immigrants and attacks on asylum seekers is primarily impacting people of colour in cities across the United States. I do not want Canada to appease the kind of racist, dogmatic, fascist behaviour that we are seeing south of the border.

Just as in the case of the unconstitutional Bill C-5, Bill C-12 would create power for cabinet to create “Orders Made in the Public Interest”. This would give the government an unchecked power to stop receiving applications for visas and for other residency permits, to suspend processing of immigration applications and to target measures against “certain foreign nationals”.

There is no definition of “public interest” in Canadian law, and no explanation in the bill, so how do we know that the Liberal cabinet, or any future cabinet, would not in fact pursue its own interests or, worse yet, the interests of the Trump administration through this unconstitutional legislation?

The bill would also be very problematic for the safety of women and girls. Several women's organizations, in fact, including Women's Shelters Canada, the Canadian Women's Foundation and the Women's Legal Education and Action Fund, stated, “Survivors of...violence are uniquely harmed by arbitrary timelines and restricted pathways in immigration, which deny survivors the ability to seek protection when they most need it. Any changes to C-2 that do not remove the immigration provisions will continue to put vulnerable women at risk.”

A broad coalition of civil liberties groups, data privacy organizations, refugee and migrant rights organizations and gender justice organizations strongly opposes the government's introduction of Bill C-12, which seeks to fast-track rather than address many aspects of Bill C-2's myriad problems. In fact, a coalition of over 300 organizations is reiterating its call for a full withdrawal of both bills. That coalition includes Amnesty International, the Canadian Civil Liberties Association, the British Columbia Civil Liberties Association, the Canadian Labour Congress, the United Church of Canada, the Migrant Rights Network and the Canadian Council for Refugees.

Tim McSorley, who is part of the International Civil Liberties Monitoring Group, indicated:

Bill C-12 does not fix Bill C-2; it fast tracks some of the most egregious aspects, while still moving forward with the rest. Our government has made it abundantly clear that they will continue to fight for every privacy-violating measure Bill C-2 still contains, and are only introducing Bill C-12 to get restrictions on migrant and refugee rights adopted sooner.

As parliamentarians, we are obliged to uphold international law, and that includes international conventions that we are signatories to, including for international human rights that grant asylum seekers the right to seek protection from prosecution. This is most notable in article 14 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and in the 1951 Refugee Convention. A core principle is non-refoulement, which means that countries are prohibited from returning refugees to a place where their life or freedom is at risk. Countries are obliged to assess asylum claims fairly and protect refugees from being sent back to danger.

I think about the number of refugees who have made Winnipeg Centre their home, whom I am proud to now have as neighbours and who fled life-and-death circumstances. We have a legal obligation to not close our borders to them.

Article 14 states, “Everyone has the right to seek and to enjoy in other countries asylum from persecution.” Article 14 further notes that this right does not apply to those genuinely prosecuted for non-political crimes or acts against the UN principles.

This is a fundamental principle: the principle of non-refoulement. This fundamental principle of international law is also found in other international human rights treaties that we are signatories to. It prohibits the forced return of refugees to a country where they face a serious threat to their life or freedom. This is considered a customary international law that applies to all countries.

I felt very strongly about the NDP's position on this particular bill, a bill that would violate international law. It is a bill that, in fact, would violate the rule of law. It is a bill that would have an impact on our reputation around the world and that feeds into the racist, anti-immigrant, xenophobic tropes that we are seeing coming from the south. Let us put silence on that voice and let us be what Canada has always been, a home welcoming to all.

[Frank Caputo, Conservative, Kamloops—Thompson—Nicola, BC]

Madam Speaker, it is always a pleasure to rise on behalf of the people of Kamloops—Thompson—Nicola. I am hoping to work together with my colleague on a private member's bill that I put forward with respect to an area of mutual interest.

It is interesting that the member spoke about immigration, because my parents, as I have spoken about many times, emigrated from Italy to Canada. Therefore, I owe everything I have to immigration. Standing on this green carpet was an immigrant's dream really, so that just caught my ear.

With respect to Bill C-12, the member talked about immigration. If she could have one amendment, sitting at the committee table, is there anything else that she sees in Bill C-12 that she would point to that must be addressed?

[Leah Gazan, NDP, Winnipeg Centre, MB]

Madam Speaker, I appreciate my colleague's very thoughtful question. I support the more than 300 civil liberties organizations that are saying we need to get rid of the bill. I am ashamed, as a member of Parliament and as a legislator, that we are being forced to vote on a bill that is in direct violation of the rule of law and is in direct violation of conventions we have signed on to. We need to listen to those recommendations and take them seriously. If the bill should be salvageable, which I do not believe it is, then we need to pretty much write a whole new bill.

[John-Paul Danko, Liberal, Hamilton West—Ancaster—Dundas, ON]

Madam Speaker, I thank the member opposite for continually raising some of the very troubling issues that we are seeing from the U.S. administration south of the border. One aspect in particular is the tendency to use the justice system as retaliation against political foes. I wonder if the member opposite has any comments on the Leader of the Opposition's comments and bringing that style of U.S. justice system retaliation against political foes to Canada.

[Leah Gazan, NDP, Winnipeg Centre, MB]

Madam Speaker, certainly that is irresponsible of a leader, but the Liberals are abusing their powers as government to violate international law and give cabinet and the Prime Minister unprecedented amounts of power. With all due respect to the member across the way, he needs to clean up his own backyard in addition to commenting on others.

[Simon-Pierre Savard-Tremblay, Bloc, Saint-Hyacinthe—Bagot—Acton, QC]

Madam Speaker, there are fairly significant differences of opinion between the Bloc Québécois and the NDP but, on the issue of workers' rights, I think we can often find common ground.

In this particular case, a customs union has commented on the bill, saying that they have been making demands for many years yet nobody is listening to them and they are not being consulted, either on this matter or in several others, which has led to the disastrous results we are now familiar with.

Does my colleague agree that the government should listen more closely to the union representing the workers who make sure our borders are secure, day in and day out?

[Leah Gazan, NDP, Winnipeg Centre, MB]

Madam Speaker, we are targeting the wrong people with the bill, quite frankly. When Trump accused Canada of being a key exporter of fentanyl across the border, that was a bunch of hooey.

We talk about workers, and the bill would impact migrant workers. We know that the most exploited workers are migrant workers. Migrant workers are protected under international law. The bill would violate the rights of migrant workers, refugees and asylum seekers, as well as people's civil liberties. We need to get rid of the bill and replace it with a bill that addresses the concern without attacking immigrants, refugees and migrants.

[Luc Berthold, Conservative, Mégantic—L’Érable—Lotbinière, QC]

Madam Speaker, before I begin my speech, I want to take a moment to thank Divya Dey, who is participating in the parliamentary internship program and who gave me the great privilege of choosing me for her first stint with a member of the House of Commons. She is a brilliant and dynamic young woman from the Greater Toronto Area who speaks excellent French and who chose a member from a rural region in Quebec. I hope that many people from Toronto will do the same thing and follow her example in order to discover the beautiful regions of Quebec.

Today Divya helped me research and write this speech. Obviously, I added the partisan side of my speech myself because interns have to remain non-partisan during their time with us. I wanted to warn people that some of the passages are my own creation. I congratulate all the interns on their achievements and thank the organizers and sponsors of this wonderful program, which gives young Canadians the opportunity to experience first-hand the decision-making process on our beautiful Parliament Hill.

Let me get back to today's topic, namely Bill C‑12. Before going into the details of the bill, I would like to take a step back and look at the big picture of what this Liberal government has done in 10 years. Since this Prime Minister was elected, I believe that we have witnessed the largest pothole repair operation in Canadian history.

What is a pothole? After a long, hard winter, when the snow melts, we discover that our roads are full of holes. There are big ones, little ones, huge ones and potholes in the making. There are holes everywhere, especially in the municipalities. Just before summer, at the turn of spring, municipal road crews get to work filling as many holes as possible as quickly as possible to keep them from getting bigger, to prevent cars from breaking down and to ensure pedestrians do not get hurt. I have no doubt that all this is done with the best of intentions.

However, anything goes when it comes to filling holes. They act quickly. They know that what they are repairing will not really be repaired because it is just a quick fix. They will have to come back a little later. They intervene for appearances' sake, knowing full well that the repairs are cosmetic, which means that instead of being fixed, the problem will get worse year after year. The following year, they will have to come back because the hole will be a little bigger. If it is only a quick fix, they will have to come back again the year after that.

What does this have to do with Bill C‑12? Before the members opposite ask me that question, I will explain. It is very simple. It is as though we are coming out of an extremely long 10-year winter during which the Liberals dug holes everywhere. There are potholes in every department after 10 years of Liberal mismanagement. Whether we are talking about justice, immigration, passports or delays at the Canada Revenue Agency, there are potholes everywhere after the long Liberal winter.

I did not talk about the biggest pothole of all, and that is the country's finances. That is the biggest pothole of all with a deficit that has doubled and inflationary spending that has created many smaller holes in the pockets of all Canadians, who can no longer make ends meet at the end of the month. Canadians are $200 away from being in the red, from no longer being able to pay their bills at the end of the month. They are struggling and they are being forced to make tough choices at the grocery store.

Today, the Liberals would have us believe that spring is right around the corner. They have looked under the snow after 10 years in power, and what they saw was really not pretty. Their woke Liberal ideological policies have caused a great deal of damage, and Canadians will be left to pay the price for years to come.

As I said, a pothole repair operation is a superficial fix that is not used to repair holes for good, but rather to simply fill them in. After how badly Bill C-2 failed, Bill C‑12 is a superficial fix to tackle the damage caused by the Liberals over the past 10 years. By the way, this part was not written by my intern. I just want to clarify that.

Let us talk about immigration. The government made our businesses dependent on temporary foreign workers. Now, with Bill C-12, the government is going to punish the very people it made promises to when they decided to come settle here in Canada. This is not just about compassion. It is contradictory. The government made our businesses dependent on these workers and now it is trying to break that dependency without a plan, leaving businesses and workers in limbo. Most importantly, the government is forgetting that those affected are human beings with children, families and a dream, a dream of settling in Canada.

In the beginning, the temporary foreign worker program had the very specific goal of addressing temporary labour shortages. However, under the Liberals, this program grew and it became a permanent solution to problems that the government refused to address. This program was working well and meeting its objectives, but the Liberals created so much chaos and neglected the program so much that, today, people who should be able to go through the proper channels no longer have time to do so because the system is so broken.

Bill C‑12 is not fixing the problem of temporary workers. This bill would make it harder for all these people, whom we welcomed with open arms after the former prime minister sent a tweet inviting them to come to Canada. This message was heard across the country, but today, it is making many people unhappy. We have all heard about it in our riding offices. This improvised approach hurt people, it hurt families and it hurt businesses.

After a decade of the Liberals' absolutely disastrous mismanagement of the immigration system, the number of refugee claims has risen to 296,000 today. That is huge. Think about it. Ten years ago, we only had 10,000 and now, we have 296,000. At the current pace, it would take the government 25 years to process the 296,000 pending files. Let that sink in. It is absolutely unacceptable. It is a disaster. The Liberal government's attitude to immigration as a whole has created some really desperate situations that are heartbreaking for the people experiencing them.

Let us now turn our attention to crime. I will let the numbers speak for themselves. After 10 years of Liberal governance, the total number of violent crimes is up 49.84%. Homicides are up 28%. Gang-related homicides are up 78%. Sexual assaults are up 74%. Extortion is up 357%. What action did the Liberals take last winter to protect Canadians? They took no action. On the contrary, they made the situation worse by passing legislation like Bill C-5 and Bill C-75, which set criminals loose, let abusers serve their sentences at home and forced judges to let criminals go as fast as possible.

Sadly, since taking office seven months ago, this Prime Minister has done nothing to act on his promises. Bill C-12 may close a few loopholes, but it will not quiet the fears of Canadians who have never before seen their country change as much as it has in the past 10 years of this long Liberal winter.

Time is flying by. The Liberals would have us believe that spring is coming. However, they have not even started fixing the potholes, and winter already seems to be right around the corner. Never before have we seen a pothole repair be botched so badly. This Prime Minister promised to spend less, but he is spending twice as much as his predecessor. He promised to maintain the deficit, but we now know that it will be much bigger than the one predicted by Canada's most spendthrift prime minister before him. They are not repairing potholes; they are digging more and making them bigger. We were seeing the first signs of spring, but instead we are in for another storm of Liberal spending.

Just today, the Prime Minister confirmed in the House that he will run a generational deficit on November 4. They are not fooling us. Bill C‑12 will plug a few holes, but the root causes of the Liberal legacy of the past 10 years will unfortunately remain.

[Kevin Lamoureux, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to the Leader of the Government in the House of Commons]

Madam Speaker, as members can see, the member opposite is getting excited about November 4. There will be a lot of wonderful things for Canadians in the budget. He will find that it will be a reflection of what Canadians have been telling this government for months now.

The new Prime Minister has made it very clear, whether on asylum, temporary permits or permanent residents, that we want to stabilize things. That is the goal of the government and the Prime Minister, and we are moving in the right direction with respect to that. Bill C-12 is a significant step forward. It is like in 2010-11, when asylum was a major issue and the Harper government brought in changes to the asylum system. At times, we need to make changes, whether for the pandemic or the international student issue, something that was created through the provinces, post-secondary institutions and a lot of private institutions. We have to take some responsibility on that, but it is being fixed.

I wonder if my friend could provide his thoughts with regard to the new Prime Minister and how we are stabilizing the immigration file.