Minister John McCallum and Immigration Department

military housing: Transportation was cheaper than expected, temporary military housing was never used and neither was a contingency fund, Immigration Minister John McCallum told a House of Commons committee in explaining the cost savings."The reason we spent dramatically less than we said we would is because we were dramatically efficient," he said, according to Metro News. The budget set out for the program last November was $678 million spread over six years. Bringing in 25,000 people between November and the end of February cost $319 million, with the biggest costs being transporting and welcoming them, figures released by the Immigration Department show. It was divided up into five phases — the first three focused on the identification, processing and transportation of refugees. Those phases are over and figures released Thursday estimate $108.5 million was spent. The maximum budget for those three streams was $188 million. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.