QUESTION PERIOD — Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship
Immigration Consultants
April 16, 2024
Senator Gold, I’m surprised that I didn’t hear in your omnibus motion that you wanted to take Question Period away from the opposition.
Senator Gold, in 2019, as part of its omnibus budget bill, the Trudeau government included a new authority for Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada to impose monetary penalties against fraudulent immigration consultants. A recent answer to one of my written questions on the Senate’s Order Paper stated:
The compliance regime for immigration and citizenship consultants is not yet in force. As such, IRCC has not imposed any administrative monetary penalties against consultants as the regulatory authorities to do so do not yet exist.
Senator Gold, this legislation was passed in 2019. How can this government defend five years of complete inaction?
Thank you for the question. I don’t know what action has been taken, but clearly it has not been completed, and I will certainly raise this matter with the minister at my first opportunity.
Something that we were told was important enough to be in the 2019 budget bill still isn’t in place five years later, Senator Gold. If that doesn’t sum up this NDP-Trudeau government’s incompetence, then I don’t know what does.
Leader, what lesson should honourable senators draw from this experience when we’ll soon be asked to pass another omnibus bill from the Trudeau government — the 2024 budget bill?
I have every confidence that when we do receive that bill and send it for pre-study to the appropriate committees, honourable senators will do the fine work for which they are justly known.
