Debates of Feb. 25th, 2026

Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship

[Michelle Rempel, Conservative, Calgary Nose Hill, AB]

Mr. Speaker, today the CBC reported what we all see every day: that the immigration minister's own Liberal colleagues cringe awkwardly as she fumbles her way through serious issues. I have had the misfortune of sitting across from her at immigration committee, where she cannot answer basic questions about bills that she has presented to Parliament. While her infamous salad quote was admittedly crazy, the immigration portfolio is no laughing matter.

Under a Conservative government, Canada's immigration system functioned well. It was fair and orderly, but it is not with the current minister. Why does she still have her job?

[Lena Metlege Diab, Liberal, Minister of Immigration]

Mr. Speaker, with respect to immigration, the government has reduced the number of asylum claims by one-third. The number of international students in Canada has fallen by one-third. From July to October 2025, Canada's population declined slightly after several years. We have increased economic immigration to 64% in order to attract world-class talent.

We are building a strong immigration system and a strong Canada.

[Pierre Paul-Hus, Conservative, Charlesbourg—Haute-Saint-Charles, QC]

Mr. Speaker, yesterday, the Prime Minister said that the immigration system was under control. However, the Liberals have broken our immigration system. Here are the facts: 86,000 bogus refugee claimants are still in Canada. More than 33,000 are still wanted by the Canada Border Services Agency. Worse still, 25,000 asylum seekers were accepted without any security checks. In addition, the Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship is not even capable of understanding her files. Meanwhile, there are nearly 200,000 asylum seekers in Quebec putting pressure on our health care system and our schools.

Will the Prime Minister take responsibility and fire the minister?

[Steven MacKinnon, Liberal, Minister of Transport and Leader of the Government in the House of Commons]

Mr. Speaker, on this side of the House, we are proud to serve with this Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship. We are proud of our immigration track record. We are proud that she is the first Lebanese woman to hold this position. She has a background in public service that includes serving as a minister and an MP in Nova Scotia and as a minister here. The results speak for themselves: Asylum claims are down by a third. The number of international students has dropped by a third. From July to October, Canada's population has decreased. This minister is doing her job.

[Pierre Paul-Hus, Conservative, Charlesbourg—Haute-Saint-Charles, QC]

Mr. Speaker, this is not personal. It is professional. Clearly, this minister does not understand her file. Ten of her colleagues told the French CBC that the minister was not familiar with her files and that she was incompetent. We need a minister who can grasp what is going on in Canada to manage immigration.

Will the Prime Minister show some backbone and fire her?

[Steven MacKinnon, Liberal, Minister of Transport and Leader of the Government in the House of Commons]

Mr. Speaker, the Conservatives are the ones who cannot answer questions on immigration. They have no immigration policy and, after a week of careful consideration, they decided to come back to the House and attack the most vulnerable, specifically refugees and asylum seekers. Just think about this: They want to deny health care to a child who has just arrived in Canada and who was injured during the war in Ukraine. It is the Conservatives who have no immigration policy. We are proud of our minister. We are proud of our record. The Conservatives need to stand up and take responsibility.

Public Services and Procurement

[Christine Normandin, Bloc, Saint-Jean, QC]

Mr. Speaker, the Cúram software and its $5 billion in cost overruns is the last straw for Quebec. The Quebec National Assembly just unanimously adopted a motion that points out that significant cost overruns in federal government IT projects are a waste of the tax dollars paid by Quebec taxpayers. Every elected official in Quebec is calling on the federal government to launch an independent public inquiry into federal IT contracts.

When will the government launch this inquiry that has been unanimously requested by Quebec?

[Steven MacKinnon, Liberal, Minister of Transport and Leader of the Government in the House of Commons]

Mr. Speaker, the modernization of the government is an ongoing process that is bearing fruit in terms of old age security payments. Today, we are serving more than seven million Canadians with a new, modernized system that has replaced a very outdated 60-year-old system. This project is in the budgets and is part of a much broader modernization of all Government of Canada benefits.

[Christine Normandin, Bloc, Saint-Jean, QC]

Mr. Speaker, the Quebec National Assembly unanimously adopted a motion pointing out that the cost of the Phoenix software skyrocketed from an initial budget of $309 million to a total cost of $5.5 billion. It also noted that the cost of ArriveCAN went from $80,000 to $60 million and that now, Cúram has already exceeded its initial budget of $1.75 billion to reach $6.6 billion. Meanwhile, the Liberals are still denying that there are any cost overruns for Cúram, even though the Auditor General herself reported four in 2025.

What we are asking and what Quebec is asking is this: When will the government call an independent public inquiry?

[Patty Hajdu, Liberal, Minister of Jobs and Families and Minister responsible for the Federal Economic Development Agency for Northern Ontario]

Mr. Speaker, no matter how many times they say things, it will not make them true. In fact, the Cúram software program is actually under—

[Some hon. members]

Oh, oh!

[The Speaker, Francis Scarpaleggia]

I cannot hear the answer. We will let the hon. minister answer the question.

The hon. Minister of Jobs and Families may continue.

[Patty Hajdu, Liberal, Thunder Bay—Superior North, ON]

Mr. Speaker, over and over, we have heard that number, which is patently wrong. I have no other way to say it.

This is the largest transformation of the way we deliver benefits in the history of this country. We are moving three important benefit programs from paper-based, old school technology to full modernization, where people will be able to and are right now able to apply online. This is the —

[The Speaker, Francis Scarpaleggia]

The hon. member for Abitibi—Témiscamingue.

[Sébastien Lemire, Bloc, Abitibi—Témiscamingue, QC]

Mr. Speaker, if I were the minister, I would not be attacking the Auditor General's credibility. We are seeing the same unacceptable flippancy from the Liberals. They are burying their heads in the sand and continuing to spend taxpayers' money.

The Quebec National Assembly is reminding us that, in just three IT projects, Ottawa has wasted over $10 billion in cost overruns. With that kind of money, the Government of Quebec could fix up 227 rundown hospitals and still have plenty left over. There is still no accountability in Ottawa. The Liberals keep saying that there are no cost overruns.

When will they call an independent public inquiry?

[Patty Hajdu, Liberal, Minister of Jobs and Families and Minister responsible for the Federal Economic Development Agency for Northern Ontario]

Mr. Speaker, as I have said, 7.7 million seniors have been transitioned to this new software. There are still some seniors who have applied for their benefits and are waiting. That number is dropping every week, every month, as we anticipate it will continue to do.

Our officials are working very hard, night and day, to make sure that all cases are resolved. If the member opposite has a person in his riding who needs urgent attention, I suggest he share that name with me or have them call Service Canada. We have not received any names yet from that member of Parliament.

Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship

[Melissa Lantsman, Conservative, Thornhill, ON]

Mr. Speaker, the Liberal immigration minister is out of her depth and the numbers prove it. Eighty-six per cent of rejected asylum seekers remain in Canada, while 25,000 people were admitted without a proper security screening and nearly three million temporary visa holders are nearing expiry with no clear plan in place.

Yesterday, the Prime Minister claimed that the system is “under control”, but there are no real controls left. The Liberals dismantled them and the minister has shown no ability to restore order. With results like these, why is she still in her job?

[Sean Fraser, Liberal, Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada and Minister responsible for the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency]

Mr. Speaker, I will park some of the factual inaccuracies that were included in the member's question.

However, let me just take a moment to say that I have been proud to work alongside my colleague from Nova Scotia, not just in her current capacity as the Minister of Immigration for Canada but previously when she served as the immigration minister in my home province of Nova Scotia. She was uniquely responsible for bringing in the health care workers who provided care to my neighbours. She was uniquely responsible in helping resettle refugees from Syria when the federal Conservatives would not lift a finger. She is working on a program that may be a difficult problem to solve, but she is restoring integrity to the immigration system and the personal attacks are cruel, inappropriate and beneath this House.

[Melissa Lantsman, Conservative, Thornhill, ON]

Mr. Speaker, it is that minister who left the immigration minister with the mess that she has to clean up. He knows that even Liberal MPs who have been passed over for a decade can see that she is out of her depth because of the mess that he left. These are direct quotes from them: “[She] has no idea how to respond”, “It doesn't make sense” and “she'll put her foot in her mouth.”

At what point will the Prime Minister acknowledge that this file requires real leadership and a serious course correction without the two of them?

[Marc Miller, Liberal, Minister of Canadian Identity and Culture and Minister responsible for Official Languages]

Mr. Speaker, we see what the Conservatives are doing here by pitting Canadians against asylum seekers. Some of them helped us during COVID, yet Conservatives are deliberately confusing fraudulent claimants and failed asylum claimants. This is not a dog whistle. It is a foghorn.

I know it is Lent, so I implore them to show a little grace. Instead of shedding MPs for Lent, which we appreciate, maybe they need to shed this line of questioning.

[Melissa Lantsman, Conservative, Thornhill, ON]

Mr. Speaker, they just put up a third failed immigration minister to answer the question. This is actually a really serious issue.

They can talk down members of the House. They can call them bad people all they want, but Canada's immigration consensus is crumbling. Stakeholders are not getting their calls returned. Controls are gone, putting pressure on housing, on health care and on jobs, while the minister is MIA throughout all of it. The House deserves a straight answer. When is she getting fired?

[Marc Miller, Liberal, Minister of Canadian Identity and Culture and Minister responsible for Official Languages]

Mr. Speaker, let us assume for a second that the Conservatives actually want to help the situation. Perhaps the member opposite can turn to her right, talk to the Leader of the Opposition, who has changed so many ridings he is Parliament's own temporary foreign worker, and ask him to stop going around the country pandering to communities, promising them not to be deported and promising visas for everyone. That might help.

[Andrew Scheer, Conservative, Regina—Qu'Appelle, SK]

Mr. Speaker, they are putting up all the previous failed immigration ministers to speak for her.

The Liberal Prime Minister has created a sentencing discount system—

[Some hon. members]

Oh, oh!

[The Speaker, Francis Scarpaleggia]

The member can start from the top.