Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I found Mr. Siksay's suggestion to be somewhat intriguing. I am going to vote no to this motion, but I thought at least it would be good to have some officials come before us and brief us on the situation before I was to make up my mind. But if Mr. Karygiannis is going to proceed with this today, I'm going to be voting no. I think his assertion that people are being deported any more aggressively now than they were under the previous Liberal government is false.
As a new member of the committee, I look at this and say it's critical to maintain the integrity of the entire system. The government has already been very clear in stating that any regularization initiative for foreign nationals who have illegally remained in Canada is unfair to the hundreds of thousands of people who have applied for immigration to Canada through legal channels and have patiently waited for processing. I think we owe it to those people who have gone through the proper channels and made it through all of those hurdles to become permanent residents, to maintain the fairness and the integrity of the system.
Any foreign nationals, including those who currently live in Canada without legal status, can apply for permanent status; however, they will have to voluntarily leave the country before their application will be considered. There are several opportunities available to economic immigrants who wish to apply for permanent residence in Canada. These are the federal skilled worker class, the business classes, and the provincial nominee class, and over 130,000 people arrived in 2006 through one of these classes.
Mr. Chair, deportation is the responsibility of the minister for public security and emergency preparedness, and an effective removal program is essential, I say again, to the integrity of Canada's immigration system. A moratorium on deportations would simply act as a draw factor for others to come to Canada and remain without legal status. This both compromises the integrity of the legal immigration program and is unfair to those who are applying through legal channels.
Mr. Chair, and my fellow committee members, I think it's essential that those who are applying through the regular legal channels are respected. To circumvent this system and to have a moratorium, as is being suggested by Mr. Karygiannis, threatens the integrity of the entire system. I also note that this is being debated in the House through a concurrence motion.
So I won't be supporting Mr. Karygiannis' motion for those reasons, and I look forward to a thorough study of this topic, Mr. Chair.