Bill C-3

An Act to amend the Citizenship Act (2025)

This enactment amends the Citizenship Act to, among other things,
(a) ensure that citizenship by descent is conferred on all persons who were born outside Canada before the coming into force of this enactment to a parent who was a citizen;
(b) confer citizenship by descent on persons born outside Canada after the first generation, on or after the coming into force of this enactment, to a parent who is a citizen and who had a substantial connection to Canada before the person’s birth;
(c) allow citizenship to be granted under section 5.1 of that Act to all persons born outside Canada who were adopted before the coming into force of this enactment by a parent who was a citizen;
(d) allow citizenship to be granted under section 5.1 of that Act to persons born outside Canada who are adopted on or after the coming into force of this enactment by a parent who is a citizen and who had a substantial connection to Canada before the person’s adoption;
(e) restore citizenship to persons who lost their citizenship because they did not make an application to retain it under the former section 8 of that Act or because they made an application under that section that was not approved; and
(f) allow certain persons who become citizens as a result of the coming into force of this enactment to access a simplified process to renounce their citizenship.

Citizenship Act

[Melissa Lantsman, Conservative, Thornhill, ON]

Mr. Speaker, I thought that we were going to have a serious conversation about the bill. Maybe the member has not read it.

I assure members that Pierre Poilievre will seek the support and trust of the people of Battle River—Crowfoot, a place where he grew up, a place where he was born and a place where he was raised .

I look forward to his bashing down that member when he is back in September.

[Maxime Blanchette-Joncas, Bloc, Rimouski—La Matapédia, QC]

Mr. Speaker, the government mentioned in the throne speech that its priority is to restore public confidence in the immigration system. I would like my colleague to simply tell me whether she agrees that this bill, which seems rather minor to me, will really restore public confidence in the immigration system.

What concrete steps does she suggest we prioritize to really address the root causes of the Department of Citizenship and Immigration's deep-seated problems?

[Melissa Lantsman, Conservative, Thornhill, ON]

Mr. Speaker, first and foremost, it would be giving Canadians the confidence of an immigration minister who can answer a single question in the House, who knows a single thing about her portfolio or who has even read the bill that she has presented in the House. That would be the first thing to engender confidence in an immigration system that the government has broken over the last 10 years.

We used to have the best system in the world. It brought the best and the brightest to the country. That is no longer the case. Members do not have to hear it from me. We could go ask 10 Canadians on the street if they think the system is broken, and they would tell us, 10 out of 10 times, yes.

[Kelly McCauley, Conservative, Edmonton West, AB]

Mr. Speaker, one of the issues we have with the government is the abject failure of minister after minister on the immigration file. We have seen it here today. When I look at the departmental plans that just came out, late, of course, from the government, over the last four years, I see that it has failed on over 50% of its metrics.

Every single year, the department is failing more than it is succeeding in achieving its goals. I wonder if my colleague could provide some insight as to why the government is focusing on issues instead of fixing its problems in-house.

[Melissa Lantsman, Conservative, Thornhill, ON]

Mr. Speaker, I think that my hon. colleague from this side has spent exponentially more time looking at the immigration minister's website than the actual Minister of Immigration, who does not know the numbers and does not know the issues. The very fact that the Liberals have had seven ministers in 10 years should tell us everything we need to know about how seriously the government takes the issue of immigration.

For Canadians to have a system that is so deeply broken, after having one that was the envy of the world for so many years, is a travesty.

[Caroline Desrochers, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Housing and Infrastructure]

Mr. Speaker, I would just like my colleague to provide me with more information about the proposal to security screen Canadian citizens, because I am trying to understand what she is saying.

For example, in my riding of Trois-Rivières, there is a Canadian citizen whose child was born prematurely while he was travelling abroad. This citizen came to Canada at the age of five to escape an oppressive regime.

Should the security screening be done on the baby, who cannot receive medical care right now because he is not yet a Canadian citizen, or should it be done on the dad, who has been in Canada for 40 years?

[Melissa Lantsman, Conservative, Thornhill, ON]

Mr. Speaker, the hon. member knows that the answer is no, of course. The question has, frankly, nothing to do with what we are talking about here. The very idea that we could have a targeted approach for those who claim to be Canadian citizens, who have no connection or substantial connection to this place, and who are adults who want to enjoy the responsibility of Canadian citizenship, is what we are talking about. The member opposite ought to know that.

[Vincent Ho, Conservative, Richmond Hill South, ON]

Mr. Speaker, I rise today, not just as the member of Parliament for Richmond Hill South, but as a representative of one of the ridings with the highest concentration of first-generation and second-generation Canadians, where close to 90% of residents are either immigrants to Canada themselves or have parents who were immigrants to Canada.

This is not just a statistic. It is the lived experience of my constituents. These are families that came to this country with nothing but hope, a Canadian promise and a work ethic. These are people who took jobs that kept this country running, in engineering, nursing homes or small businesses. These are people who waited years, followed every rule, got an education, trained, recertified for jobs, studied for their citizenship exams, paid their taxes, paid their dues and did everything right.

In my riding, many new Canadians came here fleeing war, political persecution or economic hardship. They are people who sacrificed everything just to give their children a chance at a better life.

Many of them came from places, such as Iran, where dissidents are jailed for speaking freely by a brutal totalitarian regime. Others came from Hong Kong, where democracy and freedom are eroding. Some came from China to seek a better life for their children. Still others arrived from post-war Europe with little more than the clothes in their suitcases. These people did not just arrive here with a passport offered to them. They built the foundations of Canada with their bare hands. They all came here to build a better life, and they made Canada stronger in the process. When they finally swore the oath to become Canadian citizens, it meant something. It was a moment they longed for, a moment they dreamt about, and a moment of immense pride and earned belonging.

While the Liberals have spent the last 10 years erasing the very heritage that defines who we are as a country, they are now turning the page and undermining what it means to be a Canadian citizen.

When the Liberal government tabled Bill C-3, a bill that offers automatic Canadian citizenship to people who have never stepped foot in this country, never paid taxes here, never even expressed a desire to live here, and never even sang O Canada under our proud flag, I could not stay silent.

This bill sends a clear message to my constituents in Richmond Hill South. Their hard work, their patience, their loyalty to this country means less than someone else's paperwork and bloodline. This bill does not fix the system the Liberals broke. It deepens the unfairness. It makes a mockery of the sacrifices made by immigrants who paid their dues. It is yet another example of a Liberal government that is more concerned with global virtue signalling than with actually standing up for the people who built this country.

Let us talk about fairness, because that is what this debate is really about. Across this country, there are millions of immigrants who came to Canada legally. They followed the rules, waited patiently in line and built their lives here, working long hours, raising families, paying taxes and volunteering in their communities.

Many of them have been here for years, contributing more to Canada than most people, yet they still cannot get their citizenship finalized. I have personally experienced this as a member of Parliament for Richmond Hill South. Having only been elected for less than two months, my constituency office has received hundreds and hundreds of immigration case files already.

I have met many new Canadians who are more engaged in their communities than most Liberal politicians, yet they are stuck in the limbo because of a backlog, bureaucratic red tape and a system broken by Liberals that treats them like a statistic.

Now, this same Liberal government wants to give away Canadian citizenship like it is some kind of souvenir. Bill C-3 would grant citizenship automatically to people born abroad, even if they have never been to Canada, never contributed to our economy, never served under our flag, never celebrated our heritage and never even intended to live here.

How is that fair? How do we tell someone who has been working in Canada for years, building a life, contributing to the economy, paying taxes and sometimes even raising Canadian-born children, that they must continue to wait, jump through hoops, navigate a system broken by the Liberals, while someone born abroad who has never set foot here is handed citizenship automatically by the Liberal government, without question?

It is offensive. It is elitist. It sounds like an idea that came straight from Davos at the World Economic Forum. More importantly, it does not embody the Canadian promise.

This is just the Liberal way, which is to erase our heritage, mock hard-working immigrants and reward those with connections, global privilege and the right bloodline, while ignoring the working-class immigrants who have done the real work of building this country.

This is the same Liberal government that has thrown open the borders to criminals crossing into our country illegally but that forces honest immigrants to spend years waiting for a fair hearing. This is not compassion. This is not about justice. This is political theatre, a feel-good vanity bill from a Liberal government obsessed with symbolism and blinded to the reality facing new Canadians on the ground.

Even more alarming is that the bill would eliminate the first-generation limit but would open the door to granting citizenship to those born abroad if just one parent had spent 1,095 days in Canada over their lifetime, even nonconsecutively, which is three years spread out however they like. There are no requirements for criminal background checks, understanding or experience of what it means to be Canadian or demonstrated commitment to this country; it is just a rubber stamp. This makes a mockery of the standards that immigrants have spent years trying to meet.

Conservatives believe in something different. We believe that citizenship is a badge of belonging, not a trinket that is passed around. We believe it should be earned by those who commit to this country, who uphold our values, who are loyal to Canada and who are proud to call Canada home, not handed out based on convenience. We stand with the people who work hard, follow the law and contribute to our communities; these are people who are too often forgotten by the Liberal government and betrayed by a system that favours the global elite over the Canadian worker. While the Liberals reward inherited privilege, Conservatives will fight for those who invest in Canada, not those who treat it like it is a backup plan.

Let us talk about what the bill gets fundamentally wrong about the very meaning of Canadian citizenship. One of the most troubling aspects of Bill C-3 is that it continues to treat Canadian citizenship as a trophy that is passed on rather than a civic privilege tied to commitment, values and contribution. This is a profoundly elitist and out-of-touch view of what it means to be Canadian. Canada is not a bloodline. It is not an accident of birth. Canada is a country a person believes in, a country they build, a country they choose and a country that should choose them because of their loyalty and their commitment to its success.

What is even more concerning is that no real ties to Canada would be required if the Liberal legislation passed. The bill proposes a vague substantial connection test, a standard so loose that it opens the door to granting citizenship to people who may have no or only minimal or even symbolic interaction with Canada, subject to the broad discretion of unelected bureaucrats. Multi-generational foreign residents could potentially claim Canadian citizenship without ever having lived here, worked here or embraced the values we hold dear. That is not a recipe for national cohesion; it is a recipe for chaos. However, under Bill C-3, someone who happens to be born abroad to a Canadian citizen and who has not lived in Canada for decades would get a free pass, while someone who volunteers in their community, pays taxes, works hard, celebrates our heritage and raises children in Canada is left waiting. It is wrong; it is backwards, and it cheapens the value of citizenship.

Bill C-3 says that citizenship is about bloodlines. Conservatives say citizenship is about belonging, contribution, allegiance and shared values. The Liberal government wants to create a system where privilege and ancestry matter more than action and values. That is not the Canada our parents and grandparents built, and it is not the Canada we should leave to the next generation.

There is more at stake here than just principle, because there is also the cost of it. With automatic citizenship comes automatic obligations, including the duty to protect and evacuate citizens during international emergencies. We saw the staggering cost of deploying consular services and evacuation operations during a crisis in Lebanon. If Bill C-3 is passed, we may be on the hook to rescue and bring into Canada and provide those services to individuals who have never even lived in Canada and who may have no actual connection to this country beyond mere paperwork.

Canada must never become a country that values someone's last name more than their loyalty to this country. The worst part is that the Liberal government admits it does not even know how many people this would apply to. There are no numbers, no data and no accountability. It is just another open-ended promise with Canadian taxpayers left to foot the bill. This is not irresponsible; it is reckless. It reeks of the same people who cannot be bothered to table a budget.

I will end with this: Conservatives will always stand up for strong families, for people who are loyal to this country, for the people who built this country and who are still doing so, including the hard-working immigrants of Richmond Hill South. They will fight for fairness, for hard work, for earned citizenship and for a Canada that puts Canadian citizens and our heritage first.

[Kevin Lamoureux, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to the Leader of the Government in the House of Commons]

Mr. Speaker, I am sure the member realizes that the legislation is before us, in good part, because of a decision that was made in an Ontario superior court. In that decision, there is reference to a double standard. The administration of Stephen Harper made changes, in essence establishing two tiers of Canadians: those born here in Canada and those who are naturalized here in Canada, becoming permanent residents and eventually citizens.

Does the member, and the Conservative Party, believe today that it is okay to have a double standard for Canadian citizens?

[Vincent Ho, Conservative, Richmond Hill South, ON]

Mr. Speaker, rights come with responsibilities. Citizenship is more than a legal status; it is a bond to this country.

If someone has never lived here, never contributed and never shown any connection to Canada beyond a parent's passport, how can we say they are truly Canadian? We are not talking about military families or aid workers here. We are talking about a wide open policy with no limits and no accountability. That is not compassion. That is recklessness.

[Connie Cody, Conservative, Cambridge, ON]

Mr. Speaker, right now the Liberals are criticizing Harper's first-generation limit and claiming they need to fix the system. I decided to go look at Hansard, and the Liberals passed a unanimous consent motion to pass Bill C-37 at all stages on February 15, 2008.

Why is it that Liberals continue to mislead the House? Would the member agree that the Liberals today are a far cry from the Liberals from a generation ago, who believed in all-party consensus on immigration policies?

[Vincent Ho, Conservative, Richmond Hill South, ON]

Mr. Speaker, let us be clear here. This is not about punishing Canadians born abroad. It is about respecting the meaning of Canadian citizenship.

My constituents in Richmond Hill South did not get citizenship handed to them by bloodline. They earned it. They waited. They worked. They sacrificed. All we are saying is, if someone wants citizenship, they should show the same commitment.

The bill erases that standard and replaces it with a bloodline test. That is not fairness. It is privilege. Conservatives believe in equal opportunity, not automatic entitlements.

[Frank Caputo, Conservative, Kamloops—Thompson—Nicola, BC]

Mr. Speaker, while we were prorogued, we had a special constituent born: Remi Robson Murray, the grandchild of my former teacher Cam Murray and the child of Aidan and Jessie. I welcome Remi to our great Kamloops—Thompson—Nicola.

I also want to give a special shout-out to my goddaughter, who is celebrating her graduation this weekend, Emery Britton. It has been a pleasure and an a honour watching her grow into the young woman she is. I am so proud of her.

To my hon. colleague, we have heard a lot of talk from the Liberals. Would he agree that over the last 10 years, their talk and their rhetoric have not matched their actions?

[Vincent Ho, Conservative, Richmond Hill South, ON]

Mr. Speaker, the Liberals have spent the last 10 years erasing our heritage and breaking our immigration system.

Instead of trying to fix that immigration system, fixing that backlog and capping the levels of immigration, they have decided to exploit this opportunity, a bill that was tabled by our side of the aisle under the Senate, and turn it into some vanity ideological project. It is simply insulting, and it is simply a mockery of everyday Canadians, especially immigrants who have worked hard their entire lives, and who have paid their dues, paid their taxes and contributed to Canada.

[Bardish Chagger, Liberal, Waterloo, ON]

Mr. Speaker, could the member perhaps just bring it back to the legislation? The fact is that with Canadian citizenship, rights and privileges do come with responsibilities, which I agree with.

Does the member agree that the right way to provide suggestions and amendments to the legislation would be at committee?