I'll let my colleague speak for himself on his proposals around that.
My understanding was that the Subcommittee on International Human Rights was doing a study specifically on the situation in Ukraine and on international human rights as they relate to that, but I can at least, it's fair to say, speak with the most authority on what's happening here at the foreign affairs committee, which is that we are in the process of doing a study on the issue of Ukraine, and there are many issues that need to be I think further discussed and further considered.
We are in the midst of that study that's happening here, and we could be pursuing that study. There are many issues that I've mentioned around lethal weapons, energy security, humanitarian corridors and no-fly zones and the issues around the shifting Russian strategic position. A different issue for the foreign affairs committee as well is the engagement that we do around questions of refugees. This is another issue that I think has not been sufficiently discussed in this committee. It has been taken up to some extent at the immigration committee; I suspect there will be an abortion motion there, too, without delay, but....
The issue of refugees coming out of Ukraine and how Canada engages and collaborates with other countries in the region in supporting them is I think a very important one. On this point, all of the opposition parties actually have been united in saying that there should be visa-free travel for those who are coming out of Ukraine, recognizing that visa-free travel is part of the framework that exists in other countries in the vicinity.
The Government of Canada says they couldn't do it and have kind of vacillated in terms of their explanations. On some days, they say, well, it would be a potential security issue, but then at other times, they say, well, it would take too long to put in place or it's too complicated or onerous to make that kind of change in our immigration rules.
Well, it seems that these things take far longer than they should. Other countries are able to lift their visa requirements. Think of how much is being done by Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Romania and all of the countries in the region that are accepting refugees without requiring a visa. Given the vastness of Canada and the way that I think Canadians feel about this conflict and their desire to play an important role in helping to support those who are suffering as a result of this conflict, I think there would be just an immense desire for Canadians to be able to play more of that role, yet we see the government, through their immigration policies, saying no to visa-free travel.
Another issue that I think we need to take up in our engagement with this conflict is what we are doing to help those who are impacted by it. Of course, there's the refugee side of it, and there's also the humanitarian support, and we have called for that humanitarian support. As we've said, on a number of issues we've been supportive of the steps the government has taken to date, but we've also called on the government to make improvements in certain respects.
There was one issue I raised in the House that I think would merit further attention here at this committee, and that is the question of how the government approaches matching programs. Right out of the gate, the government announced that they were going to do a matching program and that matching program would apply only to the Red Cross. Canadians were so generous that the allotment the federal government was prepared to match filled up right away—