Committee MPs amend border bill to restrict health, other benefits to deportees

OTTAWA — MPs on the House of Commons national security committee have amended the government’s border security bill, C-12, to restrict benefits to people subject to removal orders can access.

Conservative immigration critic Michelle Rempel Garner added an amendment that prevents anyone subject to a removal order from accessing federal social services beyond emergency medical care.

Quebec Liberal MP Jacques Ramsay introduced another revision that would give those individuals access to maternal health services and community health care for STDs, but it was voted down.

Liberal committee members also refined the legislation’s wording on when the government can modify or cancel immigration documents in the “public interest.”

The expanded definition says these sweeping powers can be used in