Thank you, Mr. Chair, and thank you to colleagues for today.
I want to thank Monsieur Villemure for putting forward this motion. However, he raised this in the House some time ago. It was December 14, if I'm not mistaken, when he asked his question in the House with regard to Roxham Road. It has been quite a bit of time. We're at nearly a year since that first question in the House was raised by Monsieur Villemure.
I don't disagree with him: The issue of refugees and asylum seekers.... as Canadians, we proudly make space for those who need refuge here in Canada. It is an issue of concern for many Canadians, including me, that they have safe passage and safe access in ways that both protect them and make sure our border services are doing the job they need to do.
From December until now...it seems like quite a bit of time has passed since first raising that question. There has been a lot of good work done in committee since I've joined it, including the recent facial recognition technology report we did, which was a request put forward by the NDP. I was happy to support that study, because it was an important issue. We've explored many important issues here, and I'm just trying to understand the urgency that Monsieur Villemure is seeing at this moment in time.
Nothing has changed in Roxham Road in the last 10 months or so. The property is the same property. The set-up to assist asylum seekers has been the same set-up all this time. The variables haven't really changed from when he first raised the question in the House last December until now.
We have a lot of important work to do here. We've made space for important work and other studies. I've enjoyed my time in these studies. I'm just trying to ensure that the work of this committee that we've committed to in our work plans and the questions that we need to ask are really the ones that we're putting forward and the studies that we're planning to do.
That's the first part of what I'd like to clarify with Monsieur Villemure, but also, what is it that we're asking about here? Are we looking at the issue of Roxham Road itself as a point of entry and its continued use as a point of entry? It is one of the safest points of entry for many asylum seekers, as opposed to some of the horrific stories we've heard at crossing points in Manitoba and Saskatchewan in the dead of winter, which have been heartbreaking stories of those who are seeking safe haven here.
If it's a matter of the point of entry at Roxham Road, and if those are questions about how it's managed and how that's being done, then I'm not really sure that this is the place, that we should be exploring it at ethics. That's really an immigration question, and I think there are important questions that we should be asking there in the management of points of entry for asylum seekers.
However, I'm really unclear as to—if none of the variables have changed from his question in December until now, and looking at the importance of having these points of entry like Roxham Road—why we're entertaining these questions here. I'm really unclear as to what we're trying to get at in entertaining a study of six meetings in the middle of our own work plan. I just want to make sure that our time here is used well and wisely, and that we're really getting to the heart of the questions that need to be addressed in this committee.
I thank you, Mr. Chair, for allowing me to share my comments. I will pass the floor back to you.