Nina Grewal

[Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, March 22nd, 2005]

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to rise today on behalf of the constituents of Fleetwood—Port Kells to participate in the debate on Bill C-272, brought forward by the hon. member for Burnaby—Douglas.

The bill would permit a Canadian citizen or permanent resident to sponsor, once in their lifetime, a relative to come to Canada who does not fit into the family class as currently set out in the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act. Specifically, Bill C-272 proposes allowing for sponsorship of a son or daughter over the age of 22 who is not a dependent, an uncle, aunt, a brother or sister, a nephew or niece or a first cousin.

I would like to commend the hon. member, who I sit with on the citizenship and immigration committee, for his thoughtful and laudable effort to fix some problems with the immigration system.

I know both from first-hand experience and from the people who pour into my constituency office that the immigration system is broken and is in need of emergency care. The status quo immigration system is inefficient and ineffective. Let us consider some of the problems afflicting the system.

Due to major resource cuts by this government, there is not enough personnel to process the backlog of applicants seeking to come to Canada. There is now a bottleneck of 700,000 applicants waiting to enter the country. Some will wait eight years just for an interview. This is unacceptable.

Sponsors' Income checks and applicants' medical and security checks are not done in a coordinated manner. Sometimes one expires and the other is valid, and then the other expires and the first one is valid.

Here is an example from my riding and it is in no way unique. It concerns four members of an Asian family who applied to come to Canada under the family reunification program. The medical and security checks were conducted, but one family member, an old man, had some minor medical problems. The medical had to be redone. By that time, the medical checks for the other family members had expired and had to be redone again. Once they were complete, the security checks had expired. This happened three times. By the time everyone's medical and security checks were completed and up to date, five years had elapsed. Medical checks are expensive.

This poor management is both expensive and frustrating for the applicants and their family members here in Canada. The staff should be better trained and more common sense should be used. It boggles the mind why the department does not simultaneously conduct sponsors' income checks and applicants' medical and security checks.

These are people's lives the government is playing with and, quite frankly, it is treating them shabbily. While our taxes have increased significantly, the services have worsened.

Just eight years ago, it took 22 months to process a family class immigrant from New Delhi. The former minister testified before the citizenship and immigration committee last fall that it now took 58 months for family reunification. Imagine that. That is 22 months then versus 58 months now. It is unbelievable.

How dare the Liberals claim to be immigrant-friendly. Arbitrary criteria are used to evaluate immigration cases. Staff receive inadequate training in local customs and traditions and they reject spousal cases based on outdated traditions and norms. Many of those cases go to the courts where they win on appeal. However, there are some unscrupulous lawyers and unregulated consultants who milk potential immigrants and visitors of their money without offering real service or value and thus add to the mess.

Ministerial permits are another pressing issue. Lately, we have had in the media stories of how government members are using these permits for political gain. A defeated Liberal candidate has been bragging about his unfettered access to the immigration minister and claims he has personally secured 11 minister's permits as of last September. Such abuse must stop. Ministers of the crown should not be telling Canadians to bypass their MPs in favour of Liberal hacks.

The immigration minister has almost unbridled discretion to issue special ministerial permits, which of course are politically motivated and causes political interference.

The figures indicating the acceptance date for the visitors' visas, or the TRPs, also seem to be misleading. CIC data suggests a 76% acceptance rate from Delhi but practically, the actual acceptance rate on any single day is much lower.

Last year, 12,069 ministers' permits were issued. Permits are ripe for abuse and the evidence suggests abuse is continuing. In this climate it is little wonder Canadians and their MPs are looking for solutions to what is becoming an immigration crisis. Bill C-272 is just one example of a private member trying to force reform on a reluctant government.

Bill C-272 has support from immigrant communities. A woman from my neighbouring riding wrote to me asking for my support for this legislation. She writes:

It is needed because many families who are desperate to reunite their family members will be able to do so in a reasonable and compassionate way. I am in support of this new bill because I was one of those families stranded back in Turkey, getting out of Iraq, and my sister here in Canada was not able to bring us here because such a bill did not exist in 1994. Please consider my voice and I am hoping to hear the good news very soon. I believe in my country Canada and I believe in you and the awesome work you do speaking out for us.

The Conservative Party of Canada supports a well managed immigration system to serve the best interests of Canada, a system that is fair, transparent, effective, efficient, compassionate and sensitive to the needs of family reunification, skilled workers, economic migrants, genuine refugees and visitors.

Canada is a country built by immigrants. Immigration was and continues to be at the heart of what Canada is all about and is accordingly of central importance to all Canadian citizens. In the last few years, however, our immigration system has become sick. It is rife with systemic problems. There is currently a widespread consensus on both sides of the House and among the general public that our ailing immigration system must be reformed.

The Conservative Party will be conducting round table discussions with people across the country and making recommendations on how to improve the immigration system and ensure that it is open, fair, efficient and beyond political interference. It should work well on autopilot.

Over a period of time, the Liberals have given Canadians and immigrants bitter medicine by sugar-coating it. They have been fearmongering about my party and have literally abused the immigration system for political and electoral gains. Canadians and immigrants will not be fooled anymore.

Again, I wish to thank the member for Burnaby--Douglas for bringing forward this initiative. This is an idea that has support among almost all Canadians, especially new Canadians who are all too well aware of the problems plaguing the immigration system. I now urge members from all parties to consider the merits of the bill and vote accordingly.

[Petitions, March 21st, 2005]

Mr. Speaker, I am very pleased to rise on behalf of the constituents of Fleetwood—Port Kells to present these petitions calling upon Parliament to use all possible legislative and administrative measures to preserve and protect the current definition of marriage as being a lifelong union of one man and one woman to the exclusion of all others and to recognize that marriage is the best foundation for families and for the raising of children.

[Immigration, March 11th, 2005]

Mr. Speaker, the Liberals continue to abuse the immigration system to secure political favours. Rather than reducing waiting times, cleaning the system of abuse, corruption and fraud, they are trading ministerial permits for political and electoral support.

Last year the immigration minister gave out over 12,000 ministerial permits.

When will the minister restore transparency, lift the veil of secrecy and tell Canadians how many ministerial permits are issued for every riding and how many at the request of Liberal MPs?

[The Budget, March 8th, 2005]

Mr. Speaker, what I am trying to tell the hon. member is that we are not happy with the budget. Canadian farmers were promised the U.S. border would be open to cattle by the end of the summer 2004 but that did not happen. The Prime Minister promised the largest number of women candidates as part of his team for the 2004 election but that did not happen. He failed miserably and fewer women were appointed to cabinet than previously.

The Prime Minister visited my riding twice, once as finance minister and again during the 2004 election, and promised to provide funding for the South Fraser perimeter road but the people of Fleetwood—Port Kells are still waiting.

[The Budget, March 8th, 2005]

Mr. Speaker, the government is creating a legacy of broken promises. The Prime Minister said that he would change the way Ottawa works and cronyism but those things did not happen. Since then he has given patronage appointments to Glen Murray, Sophia Leung, Allan Rock and Dave Haggard, among many others. He promised a gas tax deal for the cities by Christmas 2004. The cities are still waiting three months later.

[The Budget, March 8th, 2005]

Mr. Speaker, will we see federal funds to enhance health care at Surrey Memorial Hospital? Will we see federal measures to attack our growing crime rate? Will we see measures to address our urgent transportation needs, such as the South Fraser perimeter road or the Portmann Bridge bottleneck? Will we see improvement to highways leading to the ports? I think not. The budget does not represent the priorities of Canadians.

While the government is spending money at an unprecedented rate, increasing overall spending by 12%, the largest increase in more than two decades, the Canadian standard of living is falling further away from the U.S. In the last two years it has dropped another 2% to 84% to that of the U.S. This budget will do nothing to close this gap. It will do nothing to increase Canada's productivity. Corporate and personal taxes are still too high. The $16 tax cut offered by the government is an insult to people struggling to put food on the table.

[The Budget, March 8th, 2005]

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to rise today on behalf of the constituents of Fleetwood--Port Kells to participate in the debate on the 2005 budget.

This year's budget demonstrates that the tax and spend Liberals are back. The Prime Minister is engaging in false advertising. The numbers do not lie. The Prime Minister is a spendthrift. No other Prime Minister in Canadian history has been so fast and loose with our money.

Last year the finance minister claimed that this budget would demonstrate unequivocally the principles of financial responsibility and integrity. He promised Canadians to better control spending. That is another broken promise by the government, another promise made but again not kept.

Last year the finance minister projected program spending of $148 billion for 2004-05. It now stands at $158 billion with a month to go. That is a $10 billion overrun and an increase of $17 billion over the previous year. So much for controlling spending. At 12%, this is the largest single spending increase in over 20 years and the fourth largest in the last four decades.

Since 2000, program spending soared by 44% and, judging from this year's budget, Canadians should hang on to their seats because they have not seen anything yet. By 2010 program spending is projected to rise to $195 billion.

I could almost forgive this runaway spending if there was some demonstrable evidence that Canadians' lives were improving as a result, but that is not the case. My constituents in Fleetwood--Port Kells are at pains to see how all this spending has made any difference. Despite multi-billion dollar spending, child poverty continues to grow, health care further deteriorates, roads and bridges remain congested, public transit cries for funding , and there continues to be a strong demand for good, well paying jobs.

After this budget, hospital waiting lines will continue to get longer. Students will continue to plunge deeper into debt and our soldiers will be stretched as thinly as ever.

People in my riding depend upon Surrey Memorial Hospital for their health care. Our community is fast outgrowing its hospital. The hospital, built in the 1970s to accommodate about 50,000 patients a year, now handles between 70,000 and 72,000 patients annually and has the busiest emergency ward in western Canada. Surrey Memorial's facilities now cope with the demands placed upon it by our community's soaring population. There have been recurring complaints about waiting times, a lack of beds, insufficient staff, sanitary conditions and questionable procedures at the hospital's overcrowded ER.

The root cause of the problems we now face goes back to the Prime Minister and the cuts he made to the CHST in the mid-1990s as finance minister. These cuts left successive B.C. governments to find extra billions for health care. The new money for health care in this budget will not provide Surrey Memorial Hospital with the money it needs.

The agreement, which the Prime Minister hyped as a fix for a generation, will only allow B.C. to increase health expenditures by 3% annually over the next six years. Not only will this amount not fix health care, it will not even cover rising costs resulting from inflation and population growth, while the dollar figure spread out over such an extended period amounts to little more than a band-aid solution to our critically ill health care system. In fact, it seems as if this budget is for the year 2008 or 2010.

Transportation is another issue of critical importance to my constituents. Just last month I stood in this chamber demanding a commitment for the construction of the South Fraser perimeter road and the twinning of the Portmann Bridge and expanding our ports, among other things. Years of failing to build enough new transit and road capacity are exacting a heavy toll on commuters. Travel times in the lower mainland have increased by 30% in the last decade with the region's population expected to grow by another one million by 2021. Severe traffic congestion will only get worse.

The people of B.C. pay over $1 billion annually to Ottawa in fuel taxes but the Liberal government refunds less than 4% of that amount for reinvestment in our highways and public transit. Rather than direct gas tax revenues to infrastructure, the government has forced provincial and municipal governments to meet federal Liberal priorities.

Two years ago the Prime Minister promised civic leaders that he would not waste any more time ensuring cities receive a share of the gas tax by Christmas. Now it is March and there is still no money. The Prime Minister dithers, just like he has on other important files, including the foreign policy review, appointments to the Senate and the non-existent national child care agreement.

Media reports indicate that when the gas tax deal is finally revealed, B.C. will receive $635 million over five years, mostly at the back end of the program. This money will translate to less than 10% of what British Columbian drivers will contribute to federal coffers over that same period. The government will continue to hoard its money for pie in the sky programs while ignoring the very real needs of my constituents in B.C.

With all the billions the government plans to spend, all it could offer low and middle income taxpayers was a tax break of $16. A tax break indeed.

Canadians pay the highest taxes in the world. A single person in Fleetwood—Port Kells with a taxable income of $35,000 will pay $5,850 in federal taxes, a rate of 16%. If we factor in all taxes at all levels of government, federal and provincial income taxes, gasoline taxes, sales taxes, GST and property taxes, the tax grab is really $17,175 in total taxes, a rate of 49%.

A family of four in Canada has $2,000 less to spend per month than that same size family in the United States. If the government had lived up to its promises of 2000, the federal government would cost $30 billion less than it does today. If, instead of ramping up spending, the Liberals had delivered tax cuts, Canadians would have had their taxes cut by a third.

If we removed the cover page from the finance minister's budget, we could dust it off as a throne speech. It is replete with generalities, vague references, no meat and no potatoes. This budget is packed with billions in new spending for which no blueprints or road maps exist. There are too many unfocused commitments, no plans for how the government intends to deliver a national child care program, meet its Kyoto commitments, provide funding for cities and deal with farm problems. The budget also contains very serious errors and omissions.

Last week's horrible tragedy in Alberta, four RCMP officers murdered, is a terrible reflection on the government's weak-kneed approach to marijuana grow operations and crime. B.C. has an estimated 16,000 grow ops and 4,000 of them are in my riding alone. What more must happen before the government moves to staunch the proliferation of grow ops and gives law enforcement agencies the resources they need to combat growing crime?

The budget fails to deal with affordable housing, proper shelter that fulfills a basic human need. No mention is made of any programs or measures to deal with violence against women and no solution for the softwood lumber crisis.

I have called for more transparency in government spending. I want to see an end to these so-called arm's length foundations in which the government funnels billions of dollars that are spent at the discretion of the Prime Minister and cabinet. How the money is spent is beyond parliamentary scrutiny.

I want to see an end to the slush funds and the hidden government surpluses used for political manoeuvring. Those surpluses should be in the pockets of taxpayers so they can provide for their children's education and retirement years.

I want to see an end to the bulging surplus of close to $40 billion in the employment insurance fund. That surplus belongs to employers and workers who contributed far in excess of what was needed.

As one commentator put it, when everything is a priority, nothing is a priority.

It is with our Prime Minister, Mr. Dithers, who, in his poll obsessed world, has been unable to show the leadership to present a budget this country and the residents of my riding of Fleetwood—Port Kells demand.

[Transportation, February 18th, 2005]

Mr. Speaker, the traffic conditions on B.C.'s lower mainland have gone from bad to worse. It not only affects the orderly flow of local traffic, but the gridlock impacts on the transport of goods to and from our major ports, railway terminals and the U.S. border.

The delay and inconvenience affects our competitiveness. Residents and businesses, including the Surrey Chamber of Commerce, have been pressing for a south Fraser perimeter road linking the Fraser docks, railway terminals and highways 1, 99 and 15.

Provincial and municipal governments and the GVRD are already on board, but the federal government has not yet committed to its funding. We also need money for initiatives like the twinning of the Port Mann bridge, widening of Highway 1 to Langley, and improved interchanges and overpasses.

I ask the transport minister and the federal government to make that commitment without any further delay and to pay their share now.

[Supply, February 15th, 2005]

Mr. Speaker, I agree with the hon. member. I think we should give parents tax deductions of $2,000 to $3,000 and allow them to spend it on child care. It should be a matter of their choice, be it formal day care, in the home care, stay at home parenting or otherwise.

[Supply, February 15th, 2005]

Mr. Speaker, what I want to say is that a one size fits all child care program fails to provide parents with the choices they need to address the specific needs of the children. I and my party believe that quality child care should be accessible to all but the shape it takes must be left up to the parents.