Chris Alexander

[Status of Women, March 26th, 2015]

Mr. Speaker, I would like to take this opportunity to thank the hon. member for Kildonan—St. Paul for her excellent work on these issues and on human trafficking. She is a leader.

With Bill S-7, this government is taking action to ensure that no woman or girl in Canada is a victim of early or forced marriage, polygamy or so-called honour-based violence. We are showing zero tolerance for barbaric cultural practices because violence against women and girls is always wrong. It is never okay, even when some falsely defend it in the name of tradition or culture.

Sadly, that is exactly what the opposition members have been doing. The New Democrats spoke strongly against this bill in this House. The Liberals refused to call this violence “barbaric”. They have avoided a recorded—

[Citizenship and Immigration, March 26th, 2015]

Mr. Speaker, the member is completely wrong. Two years ago, we announced our first objective for Syria. We have met and surpassed that objective, and we have announced that 10,000 refugees will be resettled in Canada this year, next year and, if necessary, in 2017. That is the largest commitment to refugee resettlement from Syria by any country yet made publicly. It is in addition to 21,000 Iraqis resettled here. That is on top of asylum seekers who come here in the thousands.

We are taking action against the Islamic State, which is the force creating refugees in Iraq and in Syria. We have to act militarily, in humanitarian terms and also to resettle refugees.

[Citizenship and Immigration, March 26th, 2015]

Mr. Speaker, the NDP is oblivious to the facts in this matter, just as in many others. From the outset, we achieved our 2013-14 objective, and in January we announced the much more ambitious objective of welcoming 10,000 Syrian refugees over the next three years. That is the most ambitious objective of all the peer countries around the world that are part of the refugee resettlement network. Canada is proud to welcome one in ten refugees resettled each year worldwide.

[Citizenship and Immigration, March 26th, 2015]

Mr. Speaker, quite the contrary, the government has been taking action since the beginning of these conflicts in Iraq and Syria. That is why, since 2009, we have resettled more Iraqi refugees than any other country, on a per capita basis. That is why we have also decided to accept 10,000 Syrian refugees who will be welcomed in Canada over the next three years. This government is taking military action to fight the threat posed by the Islamic State as well as measures to address humanitarian and refugee resettlement needs.

[Citizenship and Immigration, March 24th, 2015]

Mr. Speaker, there goes Franz Kafka again. Not a single fact was in that question.

We are proud to have protected the value of Canadian citizenship with legislation last year. We are proud to be the government that has maintained the highest levels of immigration in Canadian history. We are equally proud of those many newcomers to this country who go to the trouble of gaining knowledge about it and have improved their language skills, and, yes, the number of new citizens last year, in 2014, was 261,000, which was 2,000 more than we had in new immigrants.

[Citizenship and Immigration, March 24th, 2015]

Mr. Speaker, we are very proud that we acted last year to protect the value of Canadian citizenship, without the support of the NDP, of course.

That has not prevented Canada from having a naturalization rate of 85%, the highest in the world. Last year, the number of new Canadian citizens even exceeded the number of new immigrants. We are proud to be protecting the value of our citizenship, and we are also proud of our new citizens, who meet the criteria for this citizenship and who want to reflect Canadian values.

[Citizenship and Immigration, March 24th, 2015]

Mr. Speaker, our reform is working quite well.

Workers and employers have been aware of the four-year limit since 2011. We have increased the number of avenues to permanent residence for temporary workers and many have used these avenues.

The real question is this: where does the NDP stand and why is not making Canadian workers a priority? The NDP wants this uncertain path toward an uncertain status in Canada to remain open. Canadians will never accept that.

[Citizenship and Immigration, March 24th, 2015]

Mr. Speaker, we brought forward this temporary foreign worker reform in order to make sure that Canadians continued to have priority on our job market.

Employers and temporary foreign workers have known about the four-year time limit since 2011. As well, we have been multiplying the pathways for temporary foreign workers to become permanent residents and become permanent parts of our workforce. It has been extraordinarily successful.

The real question is, what is the position of the NDP? Today New Democrats are asking us to keep the door open to large numbers of temporary foreign workers, including low-skilled ones. A couple of weeks ago they were telling us we did not do this reform soon enough. Which is it?

[Questions on the Order Paper, March 23rd, 2015]

Mr. Speaker, insofar as Citizenship and Immigration Canada, CIC, is concerned, with regard to (a) and (b), CIC is currently unable to provide the precise number of temporary foreign workers, TFWs, who would reach the end of their four-year eligibility in 2015. Without exit controls in place, it is impossible to determine how many foreign workers remain in Canada at any given time. Also, for the reason noted in (c), and because TFWs currently in Canada may choose to avail themselves of some of the pathways to permanent residency for which they may be eligible, any estimate would be purely speculative and potentially inaccurate.

With regard to (c), it is not possible to provide concrete data, as the number of individuals who could qualify for the exemption from the four-year rule will depend on who the province intends to nominate, and who is found eligible. CIC has worked closely with the Alberta government in the design of this initiative to emphasize the temporary nature of the entry of temporary foreign workers into Canada, while providing flexibility to individuals the Province of Alberta intends to nominate for permanent residence, and will continue to do so during implementation. It is important to note that the temporary foreign worker program is intended to address temporary labour and skills shortages and to ensure Canadians are given the first chance at available jobs. The Government of Canada is committed to long-term prosperity and economic growth.

[Employment, March 23rd, 2015]

Mr. Speaker, the fact is that former NDP MLA Gregor Robertson was at the announcement welcoming the opening of this centre. It is a training centre. We should all be proud of the fact that Canada is now attracting investment and growth from some of the world's largest technology players. That is because our immigration system is working. That is because our training and education system is working.

Canada has a workforce in this sector, as in others, that is second to none in the world, and that is showing in Vancouver and elsewhere.