Mr. Chair, I care for and will always be an advocate for the Philippines. I care passionately about the Philippines, which is one of the reasons I raised the issue earlier this week within my own caucus of the need to have an emergency debate on this situation. I was glad to see we were able to work it through to have the take note debate so that members can participate and express what they feel is appropriate.
I want to keep this discussion as apolitical as possible. What is happening in the Philippines is tragic. It has killed thousands of people. It has destroyed thousands of homes. Hundreds of thousands of people have been displaced. Hundreds of thousands of Canadians of Filipino heritage have been directly affected.
There is so much that we can do. We need to give the government credit where it has taken action. We need to allow for ideas to flow from our communities to Ottawa, to the Hill, and support the Minister of Citizenship and Immigration with things he may be able to do.
When I sat down with the leader of the Liberal Party inside the Philippines Centre in Winnipeg, Manitoba, we met with members. One of the ideas that came out of that meeting was to recognize the thousands of individuals who are currently here studying, working, and visiting from the Philippines, many of whom are from the area that has been so much affected.
Is it not fair for Canada's Minister of Citizenship and Immigration to make a general statement that in those situations, he is prepared to say that they do not have to worry about getting the extension and that we will be allowing for those extensions, given the circumstances. In other words, we do not want to send a parent, for example, back home to an area where their home no longer exists. Can we not speed up the processing? We could talk about that.
However, in addition to that last comment, the question I have for the minister is this: to what degree has the department sent extra staff to accommodate or to assist in expediting, or when can we anticipate that will take place? As one of my colleagues has pointed out, could he tell us the number of people who have been sent out to the Philippines?