Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you to all of our witnesses for appearing before us today. This is indeed a good exercise in democracy. We welcome your comments and input as we are studying Bill C-31.
I'd like to make a few quick points if I may, and elaborate in the short time that I do have about the bill and about Canada and what Canadians expect of good government when it relates specifically to the issue of immigration and refugees. As Canadians, we take great pride in the generosity and compassion of our immigration and refugee programs. But Canadians have no tolerance for those who abuse our generosity and take unfair advantage of our country. I'll allude to some examples of that.
Canada remains one of the top countries in the world welcoming refugees. In fact, we welcome more refugees per capita than any other G-20 country. Canada welcomes one in ten of the world's resettled refugees. That is more per capita than almost any other country on the planet. In fact, our Conservative government has increased a number of refugees resettling each year by 2,500 people.
Bill C-31 proposes changes that build on reforms to the asylum system passed in June of 2010 as part of the Balanced Refugee Reform Act, as you may know. The proposed measures in this new bill will provide faster protection to those people to whom I believe you're all referring, those who genuinely need refuge, and faster removal of those who do not.
I want to speak a little bit about the processing times. With the measures in Bill C-31, the time to finalize a refugee claim would drop from the current average of 1,038 days to 45 days for claimants from designated countries and 216 days for all other claimants. Surely for someone who is fleeing persecution in their country or torture or possible death, to be in limbo in a system for 1,038 days is traumatic.
If we can get those folks processed faster into Canada and reduce that period to as short as 45 days, or an average of 216 days for those who are not coming from designated countries, that will speak to compassion, to faster family reunification, and to the humane aspect that we all want to see in dealing with people who really need our help and support.
As a government, we have a responsibility to ensure the safety and security of Canadians. I don't think anybody in this country would want to permit anyone into their neighbourhood without knowing who they are, without somebody knowing their identity. That's important. As we heard in earlier testimony, and some of you alluded to hearing the testimony this morning or perhaps on other days, it is incumbent on us to identify people before we allow them into our country.
I'm going to use two, what I believe to be, fine examples of what can happen if we do not exercise that responsibility. The Sun Sea and Ocean Lady arguably carried many people who were fleeing persecution in their country and who needed our support and help. On the Sun Sea, four people were found to be a security risk and one was found to have perpetrated war crimes. Five people were denied entry. From the people on the Ocean Lady, 19 were deemed to be a security risk and 17 were found to have perpetrated war crimes. This was a total of 41 people. Had they not been detained, had we not taken the time to identify them, to ensure the legitimacy of their claims plus who they were, we would have permitted 41 people into our neighbourhoods around our families, around our children, around parents.