Citizenship and Immigration Committee on May 1st, 2007

[Jim Karygiannis, Liberal, Scarborough—Agincourt, ON]

Mr. Chair, in the sense of cooperation and wanting to move this motion forward, there's no question in anybody's mind that we've seen a large number of people...there were a lot of press reports in February, March, and April of last year of families being separated and people being deported, and there were a lot of resources being put from the department into deporting people.

In order to facilitate, and in order to make sure we don't get bogged down in political corners—and I see the willingness from my colleagues from the Conservative Party to move on this—I would graciously say that we all know that is the case, but in order to save face, I will say what the Chinese say, “Okay, let's drop it off and move on.”

Certainly I would like to thank Mr. Siksay for the suggestion to also have in there people with work permits.

[The Chair, Conservative, Norman Doyle]

Thank you, Mr. Karygiannis, for that. That makes life a little bit easier.

[Jim Karygiannis, Liberal, Scarborough—Agincourt, ON]

Can I ask the chair, sir, for one more favour?

Can the chair speak to the minister and advise the minister that this is happening? While this is happening, may the minister find it in her heart to stop the deportation of people until the committee has had an opportunity to deal with this and help people in coming forward. And maybe you can also ask the minister in a friendly way when she's coming to committee.

[The Chair, Conservative, Norman Doyle]

Okay, we can do that.

So the preamble now will be:

WHEREAS a large number of undocumented workers have been deported from Canada....

All in favour of the motion?

[Ed Komarnicki, Conservative, Souris—Moose Mountain, SK]

Mr. Chair, I have a point to make yet on this.

[The Chair, Conservative, Norman Doyle]

I have already called the question.

[Ed Komarnicki, Conservative, Souris—Moose Mountain, SK]

He didn't call the question yet, did he?

[The Chair, Conservative, Norman Doyle]

Yes, I did. I called the question.

[Ed Komarnicki, Conservative, Souris—Moose Mountain, SK]

The clerk acknowledged me, but I don't want to make a big point of it.

[The Chair, Conservative, Norman Doyle]

Okay, I'll hear it.

[Ed Komarnicki, Conservative, Souris—Moose Mountain, SK]

Just to add to what Mr. Siksay said—and I think he cleared the temporary foreign workers—one of the other programs that has been established more or less in other provinces was the provincial nominee program.

[Jim Karygiannis, Liberal, Scarborough—Agincourt, ON]

It has nothing to do with this.

[The Chair, Conservative, Norman Doyle]

It seems to me we're complicating a simple issue here. We have this motion before us. That would be a separate one, and maybe you could get a motion going to that effect at some point.

The way I'm reading this right now is that:

WHEREAS a large number of undocumented workers have been deported from Canada;

WHEREAS there are thousands of skilled undocumented workers and temporary foreign workers still in Canada...

and as it goes.

I think we should get on to our report here.

All in favour of the motion?

(Motion agreed to)

[The Chair, Conservative, Norman Doyle]

Unanimously carried, I think.

I guess we'll go back to—

[Bill Siksay, NDP, Burnaby—Douglas, BC]

Can I just clarify that the “and temporary foreign workers” was added in the body of the motion, not just in the “whereases”?

[The Chair, Conservative, Norman Doyle]

Yes, it was added in the body of the motion as well.

We will suspend for a moment to get back in camera.

[Proceedings continue in camera]