Art Hanger

[Immigration, May 5th, 1995]

Mr. Speaker, because of Canada's bizarre appeal system for failed refugee claimants, many stay in the system for years without determination. By not funding health care for these people, Ontario expects to save an incredible $32 million which the federal government will now have to pay.

I ask the minister of immigration when will the government put Canadians first and reconsider the provision of expensive medical services for failed refugee claimants who are filing appeal after appeal just to avoid legal deportation?

[Immigration, May 5th, 1995]

Mr. Speaker, it is official. We have received a memo from OHIP stating that as of this April the federal government and not the provincial health plan will be paying for the costs of any health services consumed by people who are applying for refugee status, including I presume those refugee claimants with AIDS.

My question is for the Minister of Health. How is it that the federal government can afford to pick up the tab for tens of thousands of refugee claimants while simultaneously cutting funding for Canadians?

[Immigration, May 4th, 1995]

Mr. Speaker, Canada's humanitarian missions should be to seek out the needy and weed out abusers. Too bad the minister does not share that vision. His compassion extends to special interests and only second to real refugees.

If the minister did not know about the Sri Lankan abuse then what about the 380 Israeli claimants from democratic Israel who were accepted as refugees in Canada by his friends at the IRB?

When will this minister wake up, stop the abuse and protect real refugees who are being bumped back in the queue by these frauds? Quit talking and do your job.

[Immigration, May 4th, 1995]

Mr. Speaker, yesterday I asked the immigration minister what he was going to do to stop abuse of Canadian generosity by Sri Lankans who claim to be refugees but then take vacations in Sri Lanka.

Unbelievably, the minister said that he had not been told about the problem. He did not know that all through 1994 immigration officials had been identifying people in Sri Lanka who had refugee status in Canada.

Was the minister aware that bogus refugees were being identified in Sri Lanka? If he was, why did he not do anything about it?

[Immigration, May 3rd, 1995]

Mr. Speaker, the minister should consult with the Canadian High Commission in Colombo.

Our proposal for reforming the refugee determination system to end widespread abuse was to monitor refugees' travel to determine if they are taking trips back to the country they claim is persecuting them. If they do they are not real refugees and should be removed. We have solid evidence of abuse.

When will the minister implement our proposal to stop this abuse? Will he commit today to investigate each and every bogus claim the high commission has identified?

[Immigration, May 3rd, 1995]

Mr. Speaker, Canada's High Commission in Sri Lanka has revealed that a shocking one-third of all Sri Lankans travelling to Canada who were stopped for identity checks at the airport had made refugee claims or were refugees in Canada. They are seeking or have

received refugee status by claiming persecution in Sri Lanka but still went back there for vacations.

The minister has been told time and time again the system is being abused. Will the minister also ignore this blatant abuse or will he clamp down on bogus refugees who make a mockery of the Canadian refugee policy?

[Immigration, May 1st, 1995]

Mr. Speaker, a recently published study on the economics of immigration has confirmed that the Reform Party has been right all along. It found, among other things, that the skill and language levels and ability to integrate of today's immigrants has declined as a result of the short-sighted family reunification and refugee policies of the government.

In light of this study, will the minister of immigration immediately reconsider his 1995-96 do nothing immigration plan, a plan that makes no significant changes to the policies of the last decade?

[Tax Inequity, May 1st, 1995]

Mr. Speaker, this statement is inspired by the passionate and entirely justified complaint of Bruno Epp of Calgary.

Bruno, along with thousands and thousands of other Albertans, is fed up with decades of federal tax unfairness that has resulted in the following inequity. From 1961 to 1992 Albertans per capita and per year paid out over $2,000 more tax to the federal government than they received in services. The only other province whose citizens got less than they paid was Ontario.

This trend will only worsen now that the finance minister decided in his last budget to disproportionately punish Alberta for its fiscal responsibility. There is a basic injustice here that is not being ignored in Alberta.

Why should the citizens of one province pay out for three decades running billions more than they received? The country has taken Alberta for granted. Bruno Epp and thousands of other Albertans want Ottawa to know they have had enough.

[Lobbyists Registration Act, April 25th, 1995]

Why should there be any worry if you have not done anything wrong.

[Immigration, April 24th, 1995]

Mr. Speaker, if the truth be known, the collection services of this government are disastrous. It cannot even look after the sponsorship agreements.

Only this minister could see the logic in expanding a bureaucracy to administer loans to finance a tax to offset runaway immigration costs when the money does not go into the immigration department at all.

Why did this minister choose to expand the size and cost of his immigration empire and impose a new tax when he could have easily cut the number of immigrants who require settlement services and make those who need them pay their own way like other countries do?