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.
11:55 a.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Norman Doyle
I've heard enough now. I'm going to the motion we have on the floor by Mr. Siksay, that we delete the first part of this recommendation to travel to Toronto, Ontario, on Monday, November 19, 2007.
(Motion agreed to)
11:55 a.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Norman Doyle
We will invite organizational representatives to appear before the committee in Ottawa. I'm sure there will be plenty of opportunity, Mr. Karygiannis, to hear the various people who should be heard on this. I don't think you'll be deprived in any way.
What else do we have?
I'll make a reminder here that in the fall we also have to deal with Bill C-57, so that's going to be part of our deliberations as well. I think we had some mention made in our subcommittee that we would look at the points system. That could be studied under undocumented workers, so that's going to be done as well. The foreign credentials, of course, came up as being an important topic that we need to get around to.
Mr. Wilson.
11:55 a.m.
Liberal
Blair Wilson Liberal West Vancouver—Sunshine Coast—Sea to Sky Country, BC
If I could also open the floor to discussion, I know we've talked about this a few times before, the possibility of the committee travelling to India and Australia to review the situations in those countries with respect to intake and with respect to the system in place in Australia and how they deal with immigration issues.
11:55 a.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Norman Doyle
That has come up before. Mr. Telegdi has brought that up on a couple of different occasions.
11:55 a.m.
Liberal
Blair Wilson Liberal West Vancouver—Sunshine Coast—Sea to Sky Country, BC
If I could open that up for discussion and possibly come up with a date some time in late November to travel there, I think that would be good use of our time. Other committees travel internationally. We deal with probably one of the biggest international components—immigration—and we should be going out to other areas like that.
11:55 a.m.
Liberal
Jim Karygiannis Liberal Scarborough—Agincourt, ON
Chair, if we're going to be thinking about this, I think we also have to look at the countries where a lot of our immigrants are coming from. Certainly India and Pakistan are two areas we're getting a lot of immigrants from. We do have to go to China. The largest population of people coming into Canada is from China, and not including China is not going to do justice to the immigrants who are coming to Canada.
11:55 a.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Norman Doyle
Do we want to open that up for discussion right now or is this something that we will put on the agenda at some point when we come back in the fall to have a look at?
Mr. Telegdi.
11:55 a.m.
Liberal
Andrew Telegdi Liberal Kitchener—Waterloo, ON
I think we probably should, but I think maybe February would be better than November.
11:55 a.m.
Liberal
Jim Karygiannis Liberal Scarborough—Agincourt, ON
How about January? We could do it in January when the House is in recess.
11:55 a.m.
Liberal
Andrew Telegdi Liberal Kitchener—Waterloo, ON
We could take a week when we're not in recess, or take one when we are in recess and then take one when we're not. I think it's important for us to touch there, because we're competing with Australia, so we'd better understand what the competition is. We have the source countries right there. I think February would be—
11:55 a.m.
NDP
Bill Siksay NDP Burnaby—Douglas, BC
Chair, I was just going to suggest that if Mr. Wilson wants to have that kind of discussion, maybe he should make a recommendation or put a motion before the committee, rather than have a general discussion. That might be a more helpful way.
Noon
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Norman Doyle
Yes, that might be a good idea. When we come back in the fall, or...?
Noon
Liberal
Blair Wilson Liberal West Vancouver—Sunshine Coast—Sea to Sky Country, BC
Mr. Chair, I'd like to put a motion now that the committee undertake to travel to India and Australia, and possibly China, during the January break period.
Noon
NDP
Bill Siksay NDP Burnaby—Douglas, BC
Chair, I believe you need unanimous consent for that, and I would deny that until we have a more careful discussion of it. I just don't think it's appropriate to do that kind of travel without notice and without careful consideration.
Noon
Liberal
Blair Wilson Liberal West Vancouver—Sunshine Coast—Sea to Sky Country, BC
Do I need unanimous consent to put a motion forward?
Noon
NDP
Bill Siksay NDP Burnaby—Douglas, BC
I have a few points I'd like to raise, Chair. The first one is that I noticed that as it appears on the committee's website, in the 19th report of the committee, which deals with the motion on expediting immigration applications in areas where there's civil strife, there's a dissenting opinion, but it's not attributed to anyone. I find that problematic. I think we should know who that dissenting opinion is from. I believe it's from the Conservative members or from the parliamentary secretary, so that needs to be indicated clearly on the website.
Noon
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Norman Doyle
I guess it would be the dissenting opinion of Conservative members of the committee, would it? Is that how it would be done?
Noon
Conservative
Ed Komarnicki Conservative Souris—Moose Mountain, SK
We'll have a look at it and certainly identify the sources of the report.
Noon
NDP
Bill Siksay NDP Burnaby—Douglas, BC
That's been tabled in the House already. I think there needs to be some amendment to that, so that it's clear who that dissenting opinion is from. I don't think it serves the committee well to have that stand when it's not indicated who it's from.
The other concern I had, Chair, is this. I want to raise my concern about the difficulty this committee has had in arranging representatives from the department to appear before it on several issues, on the issue of a briefing on Bill C-57 and a briefing on temporary foreign workers and undocumented workers. My understanding is that the clerk has been trying to arrange this for almost a month, I believe. I don't think it's out of line to say it's been that long.
Even today the clerk was asked to try to arrange it for today's meeting, and it still hasn't happened. I don't understand why that would be. It seems to me that if the government is interested in seeing Bill C-57 move ahead, they might have ensured that representatives of the department were prepared to give us that briefing. And I also don't understand why the government wouldn't be prepared to have officials brief us about temporary foreign workers and undocumented workers.