Evidence of meeting #64 for Citizenship and Immigration in the 39th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was chair.
A recording is available from Parliament.
11:10 a.m.
Bloc
Meili Faille Bloc Vaudreuil—Soulanges, QC
We had talked about holding a meeting in my riding, in Vaudreuil-Soulanges, rather than Montreal. I live 15 minutes from Dorval airport, but, I am not in Montreal.
11:15 a.m.
Liberal
Andrew Telegdi Liberal Kitchener—Waterloo, ON
I'd love to visit Meili's riding.
The other issue is that we should really touch base in the Maritimes. For the longest time it was thought that the Maritimes had too many workers and not enough work.
11:15 a.m.
Liberal
Andrew Telegdi Liberal Kitchener—Waterloo, ON
The last time we toured, some of the people who came forward really impressed me. They have a problem with temporary workers in particular. I was reading that a fishery plant in P.E.I. was in danger of being closed because the temporary workers they tried to get in from Russia were held up. Other folks in the Maritimes suggested we send all of our undocumented workers to the Maritimes, because there is a real recognition that immigration comes along with economic activity.
11:15 a.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Norman Doyle
We did touch on that in our meeting. I think it was agreed that it wasn't as much of an issue in the Maritimes as it was in these bigger centres. But I'm open to it. I have no objection at all to heading down home, provided the meeting is on a Thursday so I'm home for the weekend.
11:15 a.m.
An hon. member
Maybe it could be in St. John's.
11:15 a.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Norman Doyle
Yes. We can put that on there and see what happens.
Does the committee want to specify a city, like St. John's maybe?
11:15 a.m.
Liberal
Omar Alghabra Liberal Mississauga—Erindale, ON
Are we going there? We still haven't resolved whether we should go there or not.
11:15 a.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Norman Doyle
Would people like to go down to Newfoundland, Prince Edward Island, or Nova Scotia? I'm easy either way. What would you like to do?
Next on the list are Mr. Wilson, Mr. Siksay, and Mr. Alghabra.
11:15 a.m.
Liberal
Blair Wilson Liberal West Vancouver—Sunshine Coast—Sea to Sky Country, BC
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I thought we had also discussed, on the trip to Vancouver, making some time to go to Whistler. There is a big problem with labour shortages there.
11:15 a.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Norman Doyle
Let's deal with Andrew's point first. Does anyone want to go to the Maritimes?
Mr. Siksay.
11:15 a.m.
NDP
Bill Siksay NDP Burnaby—Douglas, BC
I'd prefer to see what interest there is from the Maritimes or Atlantic Canada before we schedule a trip there, given that none of the folks on the list right now are from that area. Mr. Telegdi makes the point that there have been some specific incidents. As the Atlantic Canadian on the committee, maybe you could do some checking to see if there is a critical mass there that might make it worthwhile.
11:15 a.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Norman Doyle
That's a good point. Leave it with me. I'll get back to the clerk and report to the committee at a later date.
11:15 a.m.
Liberal
Blair Wilson Liberal West Vancouver—Sunshine Coast—Sea to Sky Country, BC
If I can go back to the point I was raising earlier, if we're in Vancouver it's an hour and a half drive to Whistler. I think it would be well worth our while to go up there to get a sense of how the economy is booming. There are restaurants that can't open and construction sites that are slowing down. Additionally, we'd be able to tour some of the 2010 Olympic venue sites.
11:15 a.m.
Liberal
Omar Alghabra Liberal Mississauga—Erindale, ON
Let's make a trip to the Maritimes if there's interest. If there are a lot of witnesses from that region it would be much more cost-effective, but if we there are only one or two witnesses, why don't we bring them in?
11:15 a.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Norman Doyle
Yes. I'll report back to the committee, but I don't perceive it as being a big issue.
Mr. Batters.
11:15 a.m.
Conservative
Dave Batters Conservative Palliser, SK
I'm just looking at the timeframe for this. That would mean five cities in five days. Then we would take into account Mr. Wilson's request to go to Whistler, which is beautiful country. But I don't believe you can do Vancouver, Whistler, and the others. I think that would be a gruelling trip.
I would suggest doing western Canada in four days, and then going to Toronto and Montreal. If we have a Maritime destination, we could do that another week.
11:15 a.m.
Conservative
Dave Batters Conservative Palliser, SK
You want to do the witnesses justice. If you want to have time to go to places like Whistler, I don't believe you can do it in five days. That's my recommendation anyway. We could do western Canada separately. Another week we could go to Toronto, Madame Faille's riding, and perhaps the Maritimes.
11:20 a.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Norman Doyle
We are setting a bit of a gruelling schedule for ourselves. Do we need to do that? Why not spread it out a little bit?
Did you have a follow-up comment you wanted to make, Omar, before I go to Andrew?
11:20 a.m.
Liberal
Omar Alghabra Liberal Mississauga—Erindale, ON
I wanted to follow up on the previous comments.
Yes, I understand it's a demanding schedule, but the reason is that we have a lot of other things we want to look after, including Bill C-57, including foreign credentials. So we need to try to be as efficient as possible, and that's why maybe it's going to be tough on the committee to make choices as to where we're going to go, but I think it's reasonable to try to get as much as we can from the trip within one week.