NDP's Melnick takes heat on immigration emails

Manitoba's immigration minister is still unable to say whether bureaucrats received a controversial email that invited people to leave work to attend a legislature debate.

Christine Melnick says she doesn't continually monitor her department's emails.

Melnick has been under fire since April 19th when hundreds of people filled the legislature's public galleries to watch her lead a debate over federal changes to immigration programs. The day before, Melnick's assistant deputy minister sent out emails suggesting that people take time off work to watch the debate. The emails were aimed at non-profit, government-funded agencies that provide immigration services.

But it's not clear whether immigration department staff received the emails as well.

Under repeated questioning from the opposition and the media, Melnick has been unable to say how far the emails circulated, and whether department workers attended the event.

She said she did know how many of the 450 people who attended the legislature debate were staff. But she defended email invitations sent to public interest groups. "This is not unusual for the department to communicate. This happens on an ongoing basis. This is how we built the best model in Canada. To be really honest with you, I thought this would be a non-partisan issue."

The NDP responded to the controversy Tuesday by releasing another email from the assistant deputy minister. It was sent after the other emails and strongly recommended that department staff not attend the debate, because it would be perceived as wasting taxpayers money.