Thank you.
I am going to continue on the same line as my colleague. We are here representing Quebec and we have the impression that there is relatively good compliance with labour standards there. We started our hearings in Vancouver, and we are gradually moving east, and we will get to Montreal on Thursday. The week after, we will be in Quebec City. We will be confirming this when we are there.
As Mr. Telegdi said earlier, I have not been on the Citizenship an Immigration Committee for 10 years. When I was first joined the committee, last fall, the Minister had just tabled her annual report. She said she had increased the number of temporary workers, particularly in Alberta, and this was what she was proudest of. I pointed out to her that there were other important problems in the area of immigration.
As members of Parliament, we have to deal with tragic immigration cases every day, some of which involve family reunification. Recently, at these hearings, I learned about the whole problem associated with the use of temporary workers. This is really not a good solution. We have been told about cases where there has been exploitation. The workers were not aware of their rights. The only people who have said that it would be good to increase the number of temporary workers were employers who need that workforce. This is supposedly to benefit the Canadian economy, except that we know very well that entrepreneurs are concerned with their own interests first.
Some people have said that treating people like this is practically shameful for our country. I really see that the solution is not to keep this kind of system, it is to improve our immigration system. We could maybe give preference to people who have been temporary workers for several years, process their applications, establish a special program to expedite it all.
All this government is proposing is to give the Minister discretion to make decisions for solving the backlog problem. Myself, I am very disappointed with what the government is doing. It has decided to include these provisions, which went through virtually unnoticed, in a bill about the budget, rather than submitting them to our committee so we could debate them. As a rule, we are the ones most capable of dealing with these issues.
Do you think that as responsible members of Parliament, each member of our committee, we should hold to our position, or let the government do what it wants despite the fact that it has a minority? Do you think we should let it do as it pleases, as if it had a majority, or that the problem is so serious that we should vote against that decision? This is where you get to state your opinion about this. If you follow Canadian politics, you know that the more time goes by, the harder it is for the opposition parties to reach a consensus so they can stand firm on positions.