Diane Finley

[Canadian Heritage, March 23rd, 2007]

Mr. Speaker, the hon. member has her facts wrong once again.

In our first budget as Canada's new government, we dedicated $50 million of new money for the Canada Council.

Since then, we have also eliminated the capital gains tax on publicly traded shares and that yielded $20 million worth of donations going to the arts.

In the budget just released this week, the capital gains tax exemption was extended to private foundations. We expect to see more benefit from that to support our arts, which are so important.

[Immigration and Refugee Board, March 2nd, 2007]

Mr. Speaker, the new merit-based appointment system will be more effective, more efficient, more transparent and more accountable.

What does the opposition have against a merit-based appointment system and greater accountability?

[Immigration and Refugee Board, March 2nd, 2007]

Mr. Speaker, Canada's new government is committed to putting an end to the Liberal culture of entitlement at the IRB.

We asked a non-partisan official to look at the appointment process. He submitted nine recommendations to make the process more open and more accountable. I have accepted the recommendations, and I am going to act on every one of them.

[Citizenship and Immigration, March 1st, 2007]

Mr. Speaker, this government does not intend to keep using a flawed process. The new merit-based appointment process will be more effective, more efficient, more transparent and more accountable.

What does the opposition have against an appointment process based on merit and greater accountability?

[Citizenship and Immigration, March 1st, 2007]

Mr. Speaker, Canadians elected us to put an end to the culture of entitlement. That is exactly what we are going to do.

I am therefore announcing today the appointment of Brian Goodman as the non-partisan interim Chair of the IRB. I am looking forward to working with him to ensure that all future appointments are based on merit and that the system is still transparent and is more accountable.

[Citizenship and Immigration, February 28th, 2007]

Mr. Speaker, as I explained a moment ago, we are taking a balanced approach, one where the minister and the chair work together to appoint the members of the advisory panel so that there is true accountability. This is one of nine recommendations in the independent report that was commissioned. We are accepting all of them because we want a better system.

[Immigration and Refugee Board, February 28th, 2007]

Mr. Speaker, the fact that there are vacancies is just one more example of why we need to fix it. The Liberals could not recruit people.

I am not the only one who believes there is a problem. Let me read a quote. The current chair of the IRB, Mr. Fleury, has said, “the Board could be an even more effective, efficient and ultimately fair tribunal”. That is the current chair speaking and I agree with him.

[Immigration and Refugee Board, February 28th, 2007]

Let us be clear, Mr. Speaker. The IRB selection process is very flawed and has been for quite some time. Under the current system, one person makes all the appointments and that is the chair. Prior to 2004 one person made it and it was the minister.

We are going to put in a valid system, one where both the minister and the chair work together to choose qualified, merit based candidates so we can clean up the mess the Liberals left.

[Citizenship and Immigration, February 27th, 2007]

Mr. Speaker, we have made it very clear that the situation we inherited from the previous government is a serious one. That is why we are taking action by having a dedicated line in our call centre. We have dedicated agents to help these people. We are also working closely with our partners at CBSA and Passport Canada.

Let me say this and put it in context. The hon. member has been saying that Statistics Canada is claiming 50,000 of these people. I have a letter that says, “I would like to clarify an error appearing February 20 in various media articles with regard to the concept of lost citizens—

[Immigration and Refugee Board, February 26th, 2007]

Mr. Speaker, I believe Mr. Fleury would take exception to that. He himself said that he chose to retire because he wants to spend more time with his family. After 42 years of dedicated public service, he deserves that. I believe that the hon. member should apologize to Mr. Fleury for that.