I know; we would think that, but I actually brought receipts.
Mr. Speaker, this is just in the last couple of years. The Prime Minister, eight different ministers and six different parliamentary secretaries have stood here in this House and said this is about the Harper cuts. Members can see how many pages I have. Most of it is said by the member for Winnipeg North. I am just going to read from them; they are not a prop. According to him, Harper cut a thousand jobs. Jennifer O'Connell, who is no longer with us thankfully, repeatedly said Harper cut 1,000 jobs and cut $400 million.
Let us just put that to rest once and for all. I am going to quote numbers from the government's own Treasury Board site. I brought this up before, and the member for Winnipeg North said they were just statistics and they do not count, that what counts is what they say on that side. This is from the government's own websites: GC InfoBase, the Library of Parliament and the Treasury Board.
On full-time equivalents to CBSA, when the Liberals took over from big, bad Harper, there were 14,113 full-time equivalents with the CBSA. Two years later, under the Liberals, there were 13,707 full-time equivalents, so where was the cut? The cut was not under Harper. The cut was under the Trudeau Liberals.
On spending for CBSA, we saw, as I said, eight different ministers, including the former minister in charge of CBSA, who is now doing the free trade attempt with the U.S., stating that $400 million was cut by Harper. Well, in 2012-13, spending was $1.7 billion. The next year it was went up, under Harper, to 8.3%. The year after that, it went up 8.16%. Then the Liberals took over and what happened? The spending dropped 11% on the CBSA. Again, these are the government's own numbers. I know the Liberals are saying, “There are lies, damn lies, statistics and Treasury Board numbers,” but this is from the public accounts, from the Treasury Board. In 2016 and 2017, another full year into their mandate, it had dropped 18% from the Harper era.
Let us look forward. I quoted earlier Trudeau's election promise to end the omnibus bills. Let us look at the government promise from the last election. It reads:
Canadians deserve to feel safe where they live, play, work.... My government will hire thousands of new RCMP and CBSA officers to crack down on illegal drugs and guns coming from the United States, increase funding to prosecute violent criminal gangs [and let them out later], make bail laws stricter for home invasions....
Apparently, that is for those who fight back against home invaders.
Later, it reads, “Recruit 1,000 more RCMP personnel to tackle drug and human trafficking”.
What do the Liberal numbers show?
This is from the departmental plans, for those who follow the estimates process, which I think is one of us. Departmental plans forecast spending requirements as approved by the government three years forward, but also lays out the goals and priorities that justify spending to be approved by Parliament, should there ever be a budget.
Now, our current full-time equivalents is 31,743 for the RCMP, so a thousand more would be 32,743, but under Liberal math, planned full-time equivalents drops over the next couple years to 33,000. Next year it is going to be 33,076, and if we add 1,000, it goes to 33,632. Where is the rest of the thousand they promised?
For CBSA, it says, “Train 1,000 new CBSA officers”. Next year, the Liberals plan 17,289 dropping to 16,615 CBSA officers. Again, do not take my word for it. The Minister of Public Safety and the new member of Parliament for Edmonton Centre, who replaced the scandalous other Randy, signed off on it. This is their departmental plans. These are their numbers.
Spending for CBSA is due to drop from $3.1 billion this year, dropping $200 million, so when we add in all the Liberal inflation, it is still dropping $200 million.
I asked earlier what took the Liberals so long, but I have to ask why they are pushing forward this fantasy world to Canadians. Why are they continuing with this bait and switch where they promise they are going to do this and then deliver that? It is another example of them believing, “Hey we announced it, and therefore, it is done.” Well, they announced more for the RCMP, but their own numbers show they are going to drop. They announced more for CBSA, but their own numbers show a drop. They have announced repeatedly that they are going to do something about crime, and the reality shows the other way.
We on this side do not believe anything the government is putting forward, and its own facts prove that.