(Ottawa) The Trudeau government assures that it is still busy renegotiating the Agreement on safe third countries which is at the heart of the irregular crossings at the Canada-US border via Roxham Road.
Posted at 5:23 p.m.
“We are working closely with relevant stakeholders on the situation at our border and we are working with our American counterparts on issues related to our shared border, including the Safe Third Country Agreement,” said the Deputy Prime Minister. Minister Chrystia Freeland on Tuesday in the House during question period.
Justin Trudeau’s Liberals were hounded by the Bloc and Conservatives on this issue, after Radio-Canada revealed that, according to its compilation, Ottawa spent more than half a billion in public funds to reimburse costs paid by Quebec or to pay suppliers.
“The federal government has signed contracts until at least 2027. Hotels, land, trailer rentals, lark! […] That’s why they don’t suspend the safe third country agreement. [et] that they do not crack down on criminal smugglers”, was indignant the parliamentary leader of the Bloc Québécois, Alain Therrien.
According to him, it is clear that the Liberals of Justin Trudeau “want it to last”.
Mme Freeland did not respond directly to this claim that facilities erected near Roxham Road are becoming permanent. “We believe in the strength of our asylum system and our immigration system,” she said.
His colleague Marie-France Lalonde, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Immigration and Refugees, later insisted that the Safe Third Country Agreement should be modernized rather than suspended.
“There is no magic solution and I know that there is talk of suspending the agreement, [mais ça] would probably have the opposite effect,” she argued.
The political lieutenant for Quebec of the Conservatives, Pierre Paul-Hus, accused the Liberals of making “totally unnecessary” expenses relating to irregular crossings near Saint-Bernard-de-Lacolle, in Montérégie.
“But the worst part of all this is that there are contracts given to friends and contracts whose content we cannot know,” he lamented.
According to Radio-Canada, the Trudeau government has signed seven leases with two companies run by a Liberal donor, Pierre Guay. The contracts were awarded without a call for tenders, reported the public broadcaster, adding that Ottawa refuses to reveal the value of these.
Faced with calls from the Conservatives and Bloc Québécois for greater transparency, the Minister of Supply, Helena Jaczek, replied that “disclosing confidential contract information would contravene agreements with suppliers”.
The Safe Third Country Agreement ensures that a potential refugee presenting himself at an official Canadian border crossing and having first set foot on American soil is turned away since he must pursue his asylum application in the first “place sure” where it arrived.
Thus, people still wishing to seek asylum in Canada cross the Canada-US border through makeshift crossings, such as Roxham Road in Montérégie. Once they are already in Canada, their refugee claim can be processed.
The Bloc and New Democrats have long called for the suspension of this agreement. For their part, the Conservatives are calling for its uniform application all along the border, official entry point or not.