Jinny Sims

[Citizenship and Immigration, May 7th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, hypocrisy on the side of my colleagues across the aisle abounds. Conservative friends get to jump the queue while legitimate refugees take their chances before a board stacked with Conservative appointees. We now know that those who fail the process to become a refugee judge get to have a do-over until they are rewarded. We do not know how many failed candidates are appointed anyway, because the decision happens behind closed doors.

Why is the government refusing to implement a fair and open process to appoint these judges who make life-and-death decisions?

[Citizenship and Immigration, May 7th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, as members can hear, hypocrisy abounds. Conservative friends—

[Citizenship and Immigration, May 2nd, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, the government sure has not hesitated to keep out people with whom it disagrees. However, the policy is clear: exemptions require exceptional circumstances.

A 22-year-old American, wanting to come to Canada to visit his girlfriend, was denied entry because of a DUI conviction he got while he was a teenager.

Why does unrepentant, convicted criminal Conrad Black get in while so many others are being denied? Why this special treatment for a criminal?

[Citizenship and Immigration, May 2nd, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, Canadians were shocked to learn that while others had to wait in line, unrepentant, convicted British citizen Conrad Black was allowed to waltz right back into Canada. Conservatives have double standards: one set of rules for their friends and another for everyone else.

Conrad Black gets fast-tracked into Canada, while British gadfly, George Galloway, has the door slammed in his face simply because Conservatives disagree with his politics.

Is this the fairness Conservatives run on: special treatment for their friends?

[Immigration, April 30th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, broken promises and bad management abound. It turns out that the Conservative plan to simply delete almost 300,000 applications in the federal skilled worker backlog is not quite as simple as it sounds. Along with the betrayal of applicants' trust, millions in administrative costs have been left unaccounted for.

Canadians deserve to know: What is the true cost of this misguided plan, and why is this minister making it up as he goes along?

[Questions Passed as Orders for Returns, April 27th, 2012]

With respect to contribution agreements transferred from Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) in January 2010: (a) how many contribution agreements were transferred; (b) for each project involving a contribution agreement that was transferred, what was (i) the name of each client, (ii) the description of the project, (iii) the duration of the project, (iv) the country where the project was located, (v) the total cost of project, (vi) the amount contributed by the government for the project; and (c) for each project involving a contribution agreement that was transferred, (i) was the project selected for formal audit, (ii) was the project selected for formal evaluation, (iii) has a results report been submitted for the project?

[Employment, April 26th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, Canada's youth unemployment rate is a staggering 14%.

Why are the Conservatives exploiting foreign workers to drive down wages right here in Canada?

[Employment, April 26th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, the minister's addiction to temporary foreign workers is bad for our communities and bad for our economy.

In order to pander to their large corporate friends, the Conservatives are moving to massively speed up the hiring of hundreds and thousands of temporary foreign workers. This makes no sense, especially since Canada's youth unemployment rate is a staggering 14%—

[Business of Supply, April 26th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, I think that is a question that a lot of Canadians are asking: what are the policies of our current government? Is it a race to the bottom when it comes to wages for working people? Of course, now we are going to be allowing foreign temporary workers, but employers can pay them a lot less and get away with it. In the same way, the government is saying that it is okay to force seniors to work longer.

By the way, there are many seniors who will want to work longer, and that is their option right now. We are not saying that people should be forced to retire.

Old age security is not $30,000 a year, but a very small amount of money, something like $500 a month. When we really look at it, it is less than $7,000 a year, and now the government is saying people have to wait two more years. I do not know about others, but some of my constituents started to work when they were 18 or 19 and feel they are already done by the time they are 55. Their bodies are telling them they are done.

[Business of Supply, April 26th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my colleague for his very well thought out question. It does not take rocket science. Actually, I think children in grade 1 would be able to understand that with this legislation, there will be more seniors living in poverty.

Whether I speak with elementary school kids, secondary school kids, people at my town hall meetings, or those who have come to raise concerns with me when I am grocery shopping or standing by a soccer field, this is what I hear from them. They do not want to see their seniors having to struggle the way they are seeing some of our seniors struggling in my riding. I know they are struggling in my riding. We are seeing that right across.

That reminds me that the budget officer actually said there was enough money in the system to make improvements for our seniors right now. The government, based on that, has decided to make it worse for seniors. Why do they not like seniors?