Leader, after eight long years of the NDP-Trudeau government, Canada’s immigration system is broken. The evidence of this is everywhere you look.

In recent days, Global News says the Trudeau government spent at least $115 million over the past year to house asylum seekers at hotels in Niagara Falls. The full amount is not known.

The Toronto Sun says over 28,000 failed refugee claimants are awaiting deportation, including 649 claimants for serious criminality.

A response to one of my written questions said 34,000 asylum seekers are awaiting a security screening. The backlog and processing times have gotten worse, leader. The oldest file awaiting screening dates back to May 2019.

Leader, why should anyone believe the Trudeau government can fix what they themselves broke so badly?

Many of the things that you identified, and others that you didn’t, are unacceptable in Canada — that asylum seekers should, as we unfortunately know, find themselves sleeping on the streets. Indeed, there are better ways. The government is pursuing new and better ways to address the challenges that the system faces.

With regard to your comments about accommodations in hotels, the government has provided $362 million in funding to continue to support municipalities in housing asylum seekers and refugees through the Interim Housing Assistance Program. That’s in addition to over $200 million announced last summer.

The government remains committed to addressing these challenges in our system.

At a photo op last week, even Prime Minister Trudeau himself said temporary immigration has, “. . . grown at a rate far beyond what Canada has been able to absorb.”

Leader, who does he think has been in government for the last eight years? If the system he described isn’t broken, then what is it?

The government takes its responsibility and its time in power seriously.

The Minister of Immigration has announced over the last period of time adjustments to various aspects of our immigration policy so as to better calibrate that with the ability of our provinces, our universities and our labour market to absorb and integrate, where appropriate, those who arrive, and the government will continue to do so.