Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship  Mr. Speaker, the minister's edict to close the Vegreville immigration centre and move it to a Liberal-held city centre riding is just the start. Jobs and families are at risk. We are moving 280 jobs from Vegreville. It is comparable to cutting 55,000 jobs from Edmonton. The Libe

Natural Resources  Mr. Speaker, in 2014, nine out of 10 new jobs created in all of Canada were created in Alberta. Today, Alberta's job losses are the highest in nearly 22 years. Pipelines are lifelines for Alberta, and for hundreds of thousands of energy workers across the country. Canada's world

Natural Resources  Mr. Speaker, thousands of Albertans are out of work and have been for over a year, and not one additional full-time job has been created in Canada under the Liberals in that time. Meanwhile, the U.S. president-elect said that he will approve Keystone XL within 100 days of taking

Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship  Mr. Speaker, the Liberals' attack on rural Canada is insulting. The immigration minister's edict on Vegreville could be just the start. If it is done in Alberta, who is to say it will not be done to the exact same office in Sydney, Nova Scotia, or to the pay processing centre in

Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship  Mr. Speaker, the minister's excuses to shut down the Vegreville immigration office do not add up. He claims that there is a strong business case, but there was no cost analysis, and that there will be a net gain of jobs. However, the hundreds of immediate and spinoff job losses w

Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship  Mr. Speaker, yesterday, the minister said all staff at the Vegreville immigration centre will be “guaranteed jobs in Edmonton”. However, officials say more than half will not be covered to move, some will not even get an offer at all, and others cannot afford to commute. The mi

Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship  Mr. Speaker, if the minister does not care about killing jobs in town by closing the Vegreville immigration centre, maybe he will care about the social impact. Seventy-six per cent of CPC Vegreville employees are women. Therefore, he is ripping the mothers, daughters, babas, the

Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship  Mr. Speaker, the minister claims that closing the Vegreville immigration centre will increase jobs in Alberta, but he is wrong. This edict will immediately kill 280 jobs in town, but that is only the start. Jobs will be lost at the local post office, local school, the town, chari

Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship  Mr. Speaker, the minister's excuse for closing the Vegreville processing centre and moving it to a Liberal city riding is nonsense. He claimed there was a strong business case and cited efficiencies. He also said that the union agrees, but prairie PSAC reps say, “This has nothi

Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship  Mr. Speaker, rural Albertans recently rejected the urban-centric Liberal agenda. The out of touch edict to close the Vegreville case processing centre, which shocked the town and region, is an example of why they did. This unilateral deliberate removal of rural jobs to a Liberal-

Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship  Mr. Speaker, the minister does not get the scope of the damage: 280 jobs, 250 spousal jobs, three local businesses, one-quarter of the students in town. Listen, moving these jobs is like taking 55,000 jobs out of Edmonton. There was no consultation and no cost analysis. Schools w

Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship  Mr. Speaker, the Liberals should stop saying that they are not causing job losses because this edict is deliberately killing jobs in Vegreville. I hope the minister will join me in town, speak directly with the people who will be hurt the most, look them in their eyes and tell th

Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship  Mr. Speaker, last week the minister said there was a “strong business case” for closing the Vegreville case processing centre, but no one was consulted, not local staff, nor administrators, nor town leaders, nor residents. When asked directly if a full cost analysis was done, se

Employment  We have to talk. You are killing the town.

Employment  Madam Speaker, yesterday Vegreville was blindsided. The Liberals will shut down the immigration case processing centre. That means the jobs of 280 people will be gone and 250 spousal jobs will be impacted. Three local businesses are owned by worker families, and a quarter of the