On Tuesday, we learned from the Auditor-General that Canada's border agency has lost track of 41,000 illegal immigrants ordered to leave the country .
In her latest report on how Ottawa spends its money, Sheila Fraser also said Ottawa has been letting down native children through years of poorly funding child-welfare programs.
Also, the Auditor-General says the federal government has not figured out how to effectively detect and monitor the spread of deadly diseases, five years after the SARS outbreak killed 44 people in Canada and tore billions of dollars out of the economy.
The report also says Canada's official residences are falling into a desperate state of repair.
Ottawa bureau chief Brian Laghi (Bill Grimshaw/For The Globe and Mail)
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Although the Auditor-General delivers a report on how well, or badly, Ottawa spends its money, there are plenty of other people willing to offer their opinions on how well, or badly the federal government is doing in all sorts of departments.
So what are they saying? What's the mood right now in the nation's capital?
We are pleased that The Globe's Ottawa Bureau Chief Brian Laghi has joined online to take your questions, on The Hill_Live, our regular discussion on federal politics. Send your questions here.
Your questions and Mr. Laghi's answers will appear at the bottom of this page.
Mr. Laghi began his journalistic career 25 years ago as a reporter for a small daily newspaper in Fort McMurray, Alta, and also worked as a reporter in Saskatoon, Sask., before moving to The Edmonton Journal, where he covered politics and served as that paper's legislative bureau chief.
He moved to The Globe and Mail in 1995, covering Alberta and the Arctic for the paper until 1998, when he moved to Ottawa.
Mr. Laghi spent much of the next six years covering the conservative movement in Canada and the merger of the Progressive Conservative Party and the Canadian Alliance. He became The Globe's bureau chief in Ottawa in October, 2004.
Editor's Note: globeandmail.com editors will read and allow or reject each question/comment. Comments/questions may be edited for length or clarity. We will not publish questions/comments that include personal attacks on participants in these discussions, that make false or unsubstantiated allegations, that purport to quote people or reports where the purported quote or fact cannot be easily verified, or questions/comments that include vulgar language or libellous statements. Preference will be given to readers who submit questions/comments using their full name and home town, rather than a pseudonym.
Brodie Fenlon, globeandmail.com: Thanks for joining us Brian. Let's start with a reader question on Auditor-General Sheila Fraser's latest report.
David Smith from Canada writes: Mr. Laghi, my guess is that the Canada Border Services Agency, not to mention the Immigration side of Citizenship and Immigration, are hopelessly under-staffed and under-financed. Do you think this is the root of this problem of 41,000 deportees still hanging about? The numbers seem remarkably high given that tens of thousand of people leave Canada every day without going anywhere near a CBSA or Immigration official, (there is no such requirement at airports or border crossings into the States). How on earth do they know there are 41,000 'illegals' still kicking around?
Brian Laghi: Howdy David and thanks for the question. The problem that Ms. Fraser found is not a new one. It's something that CBSA and Immigration have struggled with for some lengthy period of time. But, as you know, when the AG makes it an issue, she shines a light on that elevates the matter in the public consciousness. It's hard for me to say whether the department is under-financed and understaffed, but, as I understand it, the fact that 41,000 individuals who have been ordered deported can't be found doesn't mean the 41,000 individuals are in the country. Many may have left of their own accord. There may, as Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day suggests, be a better way to monitor the situation. That too, would cost money, but perhaps not as much as we might think.
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