Thank you.
Mr. Chair, I want to thank you, but I want to set the record straight. I hope the parliamentary secretary, Mr. Khan, Mr. Batters, and Mr. Grewal will pay attention so there's no reprehension as to what we're saying.
When the committee started, the minister said there were 400 lost Canadians. We told them there were more--50,000, probably half a million. We moved the bill forward to where it is today. It wasn't because of the Conservatives that the issue was raised; it was because of a motion I put in due to my daughter. So under no circumstances am I going to sit here and take lessons from Mr. Batters as to the position I have on this bill.
Right now there is a request under access to information and a motion that we get figures on first- and second-generation Canadians born abroad. This went to the minister in December. The minister and the parliamentary secretary did not want to deal with this issue, as you heard very well from Mr. Telegdi. If it weren't for this side pushing to have this issue come back to the table and be discussed, we wouldn't be here today.
Mr. Komarnicki is grandstanding and stating that I am committing the government to do this, but he should be committing the government to provide us with the figures we're asking for. He said last week that those figures were in front of a minister. So does he want to know what the actual numbers are? Does he want to know how many first generations are out there--how many second generations, and how many we don't know yet, besides the 400 the minister originally talked about? Do we want to know the figures--yes or no?
If he wants a commitment, I will give him my personal commitment to speedy passage of this, not only for him and my daughter, but for everybody--all the people it's affecting; not the 400, but the thousands, if not millions, of people they're hiding the figures on.
I want a commitment from the Conservatives, and especially the parliamentary secretary. When are they going to provide figures to us?
I'd like to split my time with Mr. Telegdi, Chair.
May I have an answer?