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.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Norman Doyle
Wasn't there some kind of agreement, or did I dream it, that we would not go to Bill C-57 but that we would wait until the fall, so that it would be—
NDP
Bill Siksay NDP Burnaby—Douglas, BC
No, Chair. At the agenda and planning committee, we asked the clerk to try to arrange up to four things. We gave him a list of four things: the report that we've just gone over, a briefing on Bill C-57, a briefing on temporary and foreign workers, or a visit from the Minister of Foreign Affairs on issues related to passports and citizenship. I'm very concerned that we've been stonewalled by the department on those briefings. I just want to make my concern about that clear.
Conservative
Ed Komarnicki Conservative Souris—Moose Mountain, SK
I have a couple of points, and the first is addressing the dissenting report. As I recall it, this committee placed a restriction on the report to make sure it was five words or less, or perhaps not longer than the motion, which really wasn't a report, it was a motion. I always take exception to the fact that we would proceed with motions as reports when they're not reports. But that must be the one that the member is referring to. Certainly we'll undertake to indicate that, even though it might put us outside the word limit.
Having said that, with respect to Bill C-57, there's no question—And I didn't hear from you, Mr. Chair, will it be the first order of business on our agenda when we get back?
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Norman Doyle
Yes. It will be one of the orders of business.
The clerk will make the necessary adjustment in the website to indicate that it did indeed come from Mr. Komarnicki.
Mr. Telegdi.
Liberal
Andrew Telegdi Liberal Kitchener—Waterloo, ON
Just to add to that, I'm really disappointed that the Minister of Public Safety has not seen fit to come forward. We have been inviting him for a long period of time. I guess maybe it expresses his contempt for the committee, and that's really unfortunate. I really do hope that the Conservative members will get on his case to show up before the committee. The whole enforcement thing, the whole issue of enforcement—all sorts of new money has gone into enforcement to get rid of undocumented workers. The whole issue of—
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Norman Doyle
Did the minister have some concerns that he couldn't appear before the committee because there was a court case ongoing on the security certificate issue? I think there was some concern there, and I think he communicated that.
Liberal
Andrew Telegdi Liberal Kitchener—Waterloo, ON
There's no court case anymore, Mr. Chair. There's no court case between the people being held in custody, the one person who was being held in custody...no more court case. So that's not an excuse.
Conservative
Conservative
Liberal
Jim Karygiannis Liberal Scarborough—Agincourt, ON
When the minister was in front of us a couple of weeks ago, she mentioned that fact that there's a possibility that lost Canadians will be dealt with in the Citizenship Act coming down the pipeline. I know we did a lot of work on the citizenship and lost Canadians issue. Certainly the parliamentary secretary, Mr. Komarnicki, can give us a heads-up as to when the minister and the department expect to throw this in our laps. We certainly have to give this issue some time, or is the minister going to take the report that we're going to present and go with this report? Is the minister still going to be presenting a new bill?
Conservative
Ed Komarnicki Conservative Souris—Moose Mountain, SK
The minister has indicated that members will be made aware of the proposed changes in the course of time, when those are put together.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Norman Doyle
Bill C-57 would be one of the first, if not the first, order of business when we resume in the fall.
Liberal
Jim Karygiannis Liberal Scarborough—Agincourt, ON
Mr. Chair, I do think we have the lost Canadians, those people whose lives are still going on, for whom we have to provide a clear.... I'm not sure if that's fair to them.
Liberal
Jim Karygiannis Liberal Scarborough—Agincourt, ON
Yes, but we do have to provide for the people who appeared before us a clear reference on the work they've done. People are looking to this committee to come up with suggestions. The minister comes in and says she is going to do a new citizenship bill. I'm not sure if that's fair to them.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Norman Doyle
Yes.
The point you're making, analyst, is that the first item of business is the report. In the inside meetings, Bill C-57 would take priority.
Liberal
Jim Karygiannis Liberal Scarborough—Agincourt, ON
Am I hearing, through you, Mr. Chair, to the parliamentary secretary, that we are getting a sense that for the report that this committee will do regarding lost Canadians, the minister, if and when she decides to put the new bill in place, will take those comments that we make in a serious mode and won't just come up and say, “Here's the new act”? Is all the work we've done with these people going to go down the drain?
Liberal
Jim Karygiannis Liberal Scarborough—Agincourt, ON
Can I pose the question, through you, to the parliamentary secretary?
Conservative
Ed Komarnicki Conservative Souris—Moose Mountain, SK
Of course we've heard all of Mr. Karygiannis' recommendations, thoughts, suggestions, opinions, and other points of view, and certainly those will be taken into account as well as the testimony of all of the witnesses who have been heard to this point. When the amendments are proposed, the committee obviously will be made aware of them.
Bill Siksay NDP Burnaby—Douglas, BC
Mr. Chair, with regard to the planning for the agenda in the fall, I would be prepared to see an early scheduling of a briefing from the department on Bill C-57. As for further meetings on Bill C-57, I would like to see that matter referred to the planning committee before those meetings are scheduled. I think the planning committee would need to meet early when we return to discuss the specifics of our schedule in the fall. At this point, I'm not prepared to say that Bill C-57 should be the first or our primary work in the fall, especially given the fact that the government has delayed giving us a briefing now, when we could have been working on it this week.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Norman Doyle
The suggestion is that we have a steering committee meeting early in the fall to find out exactly how many meetings, if any, will be scheduled. I'm sure we will have some scheduled. So let's wait until the fall on that and see where we're going on it.
Is there anything else on the agenda?