Evidence of meeting #42 for Citizenship and Immigration in the 39th Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was backlog.
A recording is available from Parliament.
5:10 p.m.
Conservative
Ed Komarnicki Conservative Souris—Moose Mountain, SK
Fair enough, but you would agree with me that it would need to be charter-compliant.
5:10 p.m.
Immigration Lawyer, As an Individual
I agree with you that, at the end of the day, it probably will be charter-compliant, once it has gone through the legal system. I am not saying that it will come out of the gate charter-compliant.
5:10 p.m.
Conservative
Ed Komarnicki Conservative Souris—Moose Mountain, SK
In order to be charter-compliant, it would not be able to discriminate on race, religion, ethnicity, or any of those.
May 12th, 2008 / 5:10 p.m.
Immigration Lawyer, As an Individual
That's correct, directly or indirectly.
5:10 p.m.
Conservative
Ed Komarnicki Conservative Souris—Moose Mountain, SK
Great. So those safeguards are always there, correct?
5:10 p.m.
Immigration Lawyer, As an Individual
Yes, those words are always there, but that doesn't mean that this legislation will in fact be charter-compliant.
5:10 p.m.
Conservative
Ed Komarnicki Conservative Souris—Moose Mountain, SK
No, but if it isn't, it will need to be amended to be charter-compliant.
5:10 p.m.
Conservative
Ed Komarnicki Conservative Souris—Moose Mountain, SK
It needs to be charter-compliant in order to be effected.
5:10 p.m.
Conservative
Ed Komarnicki Conservative Souris—Moose Mountain, SK
Now, with respect to the backlog—Mr. Creates perhaps can take the question—I reiterate the words of a previous Liberal immigration minister, who said:
[Y]ou're not doing the system justice by taking applications that aren't going to be processed for years and years and years. It doesn't make any sense to us to be continually taking these names...the reality is, we need to change the system.
Would you agree with me that simply taking applications, when you know that the limitation is 245,000 or 265,000, or whatever Parliament sets, will continue to increase the number in the backlog?
5:15 p.m.
Head, Immigration Law Group, Perley-Robertson, Hill and McDougall LLP
That's very likely. I agree.
I have proposed nine suggestions on what could be done to the current system to prevent the problem you're describing, without the totalitarian piece of legislation that this is.
5:15 p.m.
Conservative
Ed Komarnicki Conservative Souris—Moose Mountain, SK
One of the suggestions you had was to increase the pass mark—
5:15 p.m.
Head, Immigration Law Group, Perley-Robertson, Hill and McDougall LLP
That is one of the suggestions.
5:15 p.m.
Head, Immigration Law Group, Perley-Robertson, Hill and McDougall LLP
Not percentage; it's points.
5:15 p.m.
Conservative
Ed Komarnicki Conservative Souris—Moose Mountain, SK
Points, yes. We heard from some that the issue of points weighs against the lower-skilled classes who aren't able to meet the points.
5:15 p.m.
Head, Immigration Law Group, Perley-Robertson, Hill and McDougall LLP
That's very true. But you could have a provincial nominee program that could deal with the trades issue, as they have in Manitoba, Alberta, and British Columbia. They don't have it in the province of Ontario.
That's very easily solved and will not be solved by this piece of legislation.
5:15 p.m.
Conservative
Ed Komarnicki Conservative Souris—Moose Mountain, SK
But you would agree with me that this particular piece of legislation wouldn't require the department to accept every application and process every application.
5:15 p.m.
Head, Immigration Law Group, Perley-Robertson, Hill and McDougall LLP
That's right. It says that right in it. They can send it back.
5:15 p.m.
Head, Immigration Law Group, Perley-Robertson, Hill and McDougall LLP
They can retain it, return it, or otherwise dispose of it, and in any case it doesn't constitute a decision. Now, what kind of country do we want to live in where people pay money, file applications with reasonable expectations, and the minister, in her own opinion, can retain, return, or dispose of the documents without rendering a decision?
That's not a democracy. That's not the rule of law.
5:15 p.m.
Conservative
Ed Komarnicki Conservative Souris—Moose Mountain, SK
So every application that's made, regardless of the limitation you set, needs to be accepted and processed to conclusion, regardless of the increasing backlog. That's your position?
5:15 p.m.
Head, Immigration Law Group, Perley-Robertson, Hill and McDougall LLP
That's the current system, which I don't agree with. We have to change it so that we don't have a backlog of 925,000, growing to more than a million.
5:15 p.m.
Conservative
Ed Komarnicki Conservative Souris—Moose Mountain, SK
Let me have a look at some of the statements you made initially. You mentioned the CBC statement. You said it was a very clever landmark change--