Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague from Beauharnois—Salaberry for that very pertinent question.
This has always been a dream of the Conservatives, and they are starting to try to make that dream a reality. I listened to what the Prime Minister said about immigrants when he was leader of the opposition and a member representing the Canadian Alliance. He said that the process would have to be controlled and that immigrants would have to be selected. Through the minister's office, he is trying to control who comes here, what they do and where they come from. He is trying to exert political control.
This control, the Conservatives' shameful way of wanting to control everything, is not surprising, coming from the Prime Minister. Even the members and the ministers are subject to this control. It should therefore come as no surprise that they want to control immigrants. The problem is that they cannot control everyone. In any case, they will not control the Bloc Québécois members, who will oppose these measures.
One thing that is surprising is that the Liberals seem very upset about this measure. I cannot wait to see how they vote. In theory, they should vote against this budget measure, but I have the feeling that they will once again find some way to remain seated, hide, lie down or do whatever. We shall see.
Once again, this is a roundabout way to get a measure adopted. This has been going on for several weeks. All the experts are saying that this clause should have been removed from this bill and placed in a separate bill that could have been analysed separately in committee, with witnesses and everything. The Conservatives chose to slip this measure into the budget. They knew the Liberals would let it through.
Once again, this is not good for the future or for Canada's image. It is certainly not the image Quebeckers would project if they had their own country, Quebec.