QUESTION PERIOD — Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship
Immigration Levels
October 8, 2026
Government leader, when asked about the 1985 Singh decision, which is a fundamental precedent in Canadian asylum law, the failed Minister of Immigration brushed it off, claiming that there were many Singhs and many decisions.
I wish I could say that this is an isolated slip-up. The truth is, however, that it is par for the course amid a reckless pattern of ministerial incompetence that has defined the government’s handling of immigration.
Now, Prime Minister Carney is signalling plans to increase immigration levels again, but we haven’t made any structural changes to a broken immigration department, and we have the same incompetent immigration minister in place. So how is this chamber and how are the Canadian people expected to assume that this old minister and old system of immigration can actually handle the increased level of immigration?
Terrible.
I will let you comment on the competency of the minister, but we ought to be respectful in this chamber of all members in the other place, just as they are respectful of us.
This is the case whether they represent the government or the opposition. The same rule should apply here in the Senate.
Government leader, you know that I have the utmost respect for all our colleagues. All I’m simply doing is calling it what it is: I’m calling an incompetent minister “incompetent” because she has proven it in the past.
I’m merely asking a simple question. We have an immigration department that has failed, and we have seen over the last few years that it has created an economic scarcity crisis. There was a scarcity in housing, and it helped cause inflation to creep up.
Now, I respect the decision of the Prime Minister — and it’s a valid one — to increase immigration levels. Nevertheless, how can we trust this minister and this department to handle it when they have failed in the past when dealing with larger amounts of —
Thank you, senator.
Under the new government’s 2026-2028 Immigration Levels Plan, asylum claims were down by one third, foreign students were down by two thirds, foreign workers were down by one half, and the government met all its target ranges for the first time in a decade.
I think the immigration system is working, Senator Housakos.
