Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I also want to echo your thanks to the officials, to the staff, to the clerks, to our interpreters, and I would say to all of our staff, who have been absolute champions throughout this in supporting us. I would also acknowledge the work and the sincerity that all the MPs have put into the process. I do want to acknowledge the baby steps that have been taken by the government side and the response you made once you heard the concerns.
I also want to acknowledge and thank—I know they are not in the room right now, but I'm sure they are in spirit—all the witnesses. No matter which one of us requested them to come here, they belong to all of us. All the witnesses, who came out of their way, some of them travelled across the country, came and shared their passion and their advocacy with us. We also heard the first-hand stories of some refugees—and I think that takes a lot of courage—on how they've taken up the battle to be advocates for others because they know the kinds of struggles they went through themselves.
I believe in process. I absolutely believe that there is a way to work together respectfully. You can be really hard on the issues and go after the issues really, really hard, but at the same time I believe that all of us do want to try to make things work.
It's in light of this that I'm going to make my final request of my colleague, Mr. Dykstra. I know my motion was ruled out of order and I was not able to discuss it, but I am really putting forward a very strong case that we in this committee make it a top priority next week to start discussing the elements of the budget that are directly impacted or directly have anything to do with immigration.