Pierre Paul-Hus

[Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship, April 26th, 2018]

Mr. Speaker, despite what the minister says, it is chaos right now at the Canada-U.S. border.

The efforts of our Canada Border Services Agency officers are constantly being undermined by the Prime Minister's naive world view. If the Prime Minister disapproves of our current border laws, he has the power to change them, but until that happens, he has a responsibility to restore order in Saint-Bernard-de-Lacolle. The minister just said there is a plan.

What is the Prime Minister's plan for stopping illegal immigration at the border?

[Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship, April 25th, 2018]

Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister just confirmed what we have been saying for a year and a half: it is illegal to cross our border. I thank him for admitting that.

Now, what does the Prime Minister plan to do to prevent people from illegally entering Canada?

[Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship, April 25th, 2018]

Mr. Speaker, the Liberals refer to border crossings into Canada at points of entry that are not monitored by the CBSA as “irregular”. However, such crossings are considered a crime under the law. If the government does not enforce its own law, the message to the public is that the law is arbitrary.

Yes or no, does the Prime Minister think that it is acceptable for people to break the law and cross the border illegally?

[Business of Supply, April 24th, 2018]

Madam Speaker, my NDP colleague went after us today instead of attacking the Liberal government. One would almost think that we Conservatives were in power and had to defend ourselves. I am not going to get into that.

Let us imagine that I agree with her and say that we will implement the NDP's plan. How many asylum seekers would she be willing to let bypass customs? How much money is she prepared to have us vote on for that purpose?

[Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship, April 24th, 2018]

Mr. Speaker, it is odd. The minister is quoting an academic, but the people working on the ground tell me that security screening times at the border have been drastically reduced in an apparent attempt to clear the backlog.

This government should make the safety of Canadians its priority instead of providing first-class service to those who do not obey our laws. If the Liberal government does not know who is entering our country, it cannot know how to ensure the safety of Canadians.

Why is the Prime Minister hiding the truth from Canadians?

[Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship, April 24th, 2018]

Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister seems incapable of addressing the crisis created by the influx of thousands of people illegally crossing into Quebec.

His failure to take action is jeopardizing Canadians' safety and undermining the Canada-Quebec immigration agreement. Furthermore, genuine immigrants are being bumped to the back of the line by people who are not obeying our laws.

Will the Prime Minister finally propose a plan to deal with the chaos at our border?

[Business of Supply, April 24th, 2018]

Mr. Speaker, we are debating the issue and it is up to the government to make that decision.

My colleague from Calgary said that I spoke for a long time. I spoke for 20 minutes, but the situation could be resolved in two minutes. The NDP is calling on the government to suspend the Canada-U.S. safe third country agreement. We are asking that it be amended so that it applies to the entire border.

When people cross the border at Saint-Bernard-de-Lacolle, RCMP officers tell them that it is illegal to do so and put them in handcuffs. If it were not illegal, the RCMP would not do that. These people are breaking the law. That is what the RCMP is saying. The signs say that it is “illegal”, not “irregular”. Members need to stop playing with words.

[Business of Supply, April 24th, 2018]

Mr. Speaker, I am not sure I understand the substance of the question, but what I can say is that Canada has targets for workers, family reunification, and refugees. There are people all over the world who want to come to Canada as refugees, but those who enter illegally are corrupting the system, and as a result we can no longer accept people from other places who are anxiously waiting for their turn to come to Canada legally. That is the problem. Let us focus on the people who follow the rules and refuse entry to those who do not.

[Business of Supply, April 24th, 2018]

Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for his question.

Right now, the government's favourite argument seems to be that the Conservatives made $400 million in cuts to border services when we were in office. Yes, action needed to be taken. Budget cuts were made in every federal government department. However, we had not had any problems at the border for 150 years. Our border services officers were doing their job and making sure that things were running smoothly at our border crossings.

Now, the Prime Minister has created an unusual situation and things are completely different. The government needs to make new investments, but the problem was not caused by the budget cuts the Conservatives made in every department to balance the budget, something the Liberals do not know how to do. The Prime Minister is the one who created the problem. That is the difference. They can repeat their argument 100,000 times, but that is the truth.

[Business of Supply, April 24th, 2018]

Mr. Speaker, I can show my colleague the evidence outside the House.

I would never dare come to this place and trot out falsehoods just to give a speech. I have proof from people on the ground. Everything I said is based on facts. I would be pleased to share the evidence with my colleague. My main goal is to solve the problem.