Government records show spending up 35 per cent
In the three years since Jason Kenney took over the Ministry of Citizenship and Immigration, spending by the minister’s office has grown by 35 per cent according to government records. The ministry’s 2009-2010 budget was $2.5-million, which is $600,000 more than it was when Diane Finley was Immigration Minister in 2007-2008. Kenney’s spokesman, Alykhan Velshi, attributes the increase of the ministerial budget to the combining of the immigration and multiculturalism portfolios. The opposition charges that Kenney used the money to pursue partisan ethnic outreach initiatives, as evidenced by the recent scandal involving one of the minister’s aides sending out a partisan funding request using the ministerial letterhead.