According to the department, the fallout from the budget vote included:

• A backlog of citizenship applications that will grow to 150,000 by year's end with waiting times of two years and more.
• Fewer parents and grandparents being able to come to Canada and they would wait much longer to get here.
• Fewer resources to help settle newcomers.
• Gains made by the Immigration and Refugee Board to reduce its backlog of cases would be "reversed".

Immigration Minister Joe Volpe had slammed the Conservatives and Bloc Québécois as anti-immigrant for voting against the new cash, and immigrant organizations as well as the national media joined in the criticism.

With the issue turning into a public relations nightmare, the Tories said they would be ready to reinstate the $168 million in immigration funding if Volpe came back to the committee and "properly" explained where the money would go.

They claimed Volpe himself was to blame for the initial vote for his "arrogant" and "evasive" appearance before the committee.

Conservative MP Diane Ablonczy said Volpe was quizzed on how the department missed its target for skilled workers by 6,000 last year, at a time when there were 700,000 people in the backlog waiting to be processed.

"The system is in such disarray, it would be irresponsible as a committee to just shrug our shoulders ... and let these votes go through pro forma," Ablonczy said. "That's not responsible when you know the problems are so deep and so widespread," she said.