Government Accountability

IN THE NEWS: CBC - After spending billions, federal government doesn't know if it's reducing chronic homelessness: AG

NDP MP Jenny Kwan, the party's housing critic, said Tuesday the government's "level of incompetence is breathtaking."
"The Liberals have spent billions to build homes that Canadians can't afford," she said. "What's worse, they don't even know if this money is reducing homelessness in our communities.
"People are dying on the streets. The Liberals have turned their back on them."

MEDIA RELEASE: NDP calls for independent inquiry into Canada’s COVID-19 response

OTTAWA – When the COVID-19 pandemic struck Canada, all levels of government had to respond to keep all Canadians safe. People deserve to know why certain decisions were taken, what mistakes were made and if their government acted appropriately. In order to ensure accountability and transparency for Canadians, today NDP Health Critic Don Davies called on the federal government to launch an independent public inquiry into Canada’s COVID-19 preparedness and response under the federal Inquiries Act.

Town Hall VIDEO: Jenny and Don’s town hall meeting on inflation, jobs and the economy

CIMM: Jenny addressing immigration backlogs and processing times

In Canada, there are already over 500,000 people here as migrant workers or undocumented, which is to say, people who have lost their status for one reason or another. With regard to the immigration levels numbers, the government is silent on the undocumented workers or undocumented people who are here, and the migrant workers.

In your opinion, do you think that the government should put a laser focus on regularizing the people who are already in Canada to meet our labour skills shortage? That would include refugees who are here, people who came from a different country trying to seek refuge in Canada.

I'll ask Ms. Gilbert, and then I will go to Mr. Bhatti...

CIMM: Jenny addressing immigration processing delays and ways to regulatize undocumented migrant workers

With regard to the processing delays that are happening pretty well in every single stream within IRCC, you made some suggestions on how to enhance the system. I really liked the idea of having specialized agents on various streams. 
The other issue is that we also have over 500,000 people in this country who are temporary foreign workers or undocumented individuals. At the same time, we also have industry clamouring for more workers, and we tend to then turn to more temporary foreign workers. 
Should the government be looking to regularize the people who are already here for a variety of reasons as well as to meet the immigration needs caused by the labour skills shortage?

HANSARD: Addressing the issue of Lost Canadian

Madam Speaker, for decades some Canadians have found themselves to be stateless due to a number of convoluted immigration laws. Some have found themselves all of a sudden losing their Canadian status and they do not know why.
In 2007, the UN listed Canada as one of the top offending countries for making their own people stateless. In 2009, the Conservatives said they were going to address this issue with Bill C-37. In fact, Jason Kenney was the minister of immigration then. Sadly, Bill C-37 did not properly address the lost Canadians issue. At the time, even Conservative minister Diane Finley acknowledged that Bill C-37 would not fix all of the cases of lost Canadians.
In fact, Jason Kenney created a brand new set of problems. For the purposes of this discussion, I will not get into the issues of how the Conservatives eliminated people's right to appeal when the government revoked their citizenship. I will simply focus on the issue of lost Canadians.

IN THE NEWS: CITV - NDP 'Greedflation' motion calling for grocery pricing probe gets unanimous support from MPs

An NDP motion calling on the federal government to take steps to tackle "greedflation," and investigate grocery chain profits, received unanimous support from MPs on Monday. 
The motion called out grocery store giants for making "massive profits in the last year," while the cost of groceries keeps rising. It also calls on the government to "recognize that corporate greed is a significant driver of inflation, and to take further action to support families during this cost-of-living crisis." 
While not binding—meaning the federal government is not forced to act, but will have to take note of the House of Commons' unanimous request—the motion calls on the Liberals to:

•  Force CEOs and big corporations to "pay what they owe" by closing tax loopholes;

•  Launch an "affordable and fair food strategy" to tackle "corporate greed";

•  Ask the competition bureau to investigate grocery chain profits; and

•  Support a previously-agreed upon House committee study calling grocery CEOs to testify about "high food prices and the role of 'greedflation.'"

“After standing by for months, the Liberals and Conservatives finally agreed today that corporate greed is a problem,” said NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh in a statement following the vote.  

CIMM#35: Talk about if CIMM would undertaking a study of the coming into force date for the College of Immigration and Citizenship Consultants act

CIMM#35: On the issue of the coming into force date for the College of Immigration and Citizenship Consultants act

I think at issue here is the question around the OIC coming-into-force date. If you look at the documents that were sent to committee members—and a member asked me to table these documents—you'll see these documents were sent to the clerk. I received a copy as well, separate and apart from that, so committee members, if they have not received them from the clerk already, will, I assume, at some point in time be getting these documents. 

IN THE NEWS: Canadian Press - Federal immigration committee to discuss allegations department misled a judge

The House of Commons committee on immigration has called an urgent meeting next week to discuss allegations that the department and former minister misled a federal judge during a trademark infringement case — an allegation former immigration minister Marco Mendicino has categorically denied.

The allegations stem from the creation of a new college to regulate immigration consultants in 2020.