Yes.
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.
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.
5:55 p.m.
Liberal
Jim Karygiannis Liberal Scarborough—Agincourt, ON
You were also there when Minister Jason Kenney made some remarks.
5:55 p.m.
Acting President, Chinese Canadian Community Alliance
On which occasion was that?
5:55 p.m.
Liberal
Jim Karygiannis Liberal Scarborough—Agincourt, ON
Your association--the Chinese Canadian Community Alliance in Toronto--is on the Heritage website. You made some comments supporting the work done by the Conservatives?
5:55 p.m.
Liberal
Jim Karygiannis Liberal Scarborough—Agincourt, ON
Mr. Pang, sir, allow me to ask you this question: you're located in Ottawa or in Toronto?
5:55 p.m.
Acting President, Chinese Canadian Community Alliance
By “located”, do you mean where do I live?
5:55 p.m.
Liberal
Jim Karygiannis Liberal Scarborough—Agincourt, ON
No, no, the association itself, the mailing address of the association.
5:55 p.m.
Acting President, Chinese Canadian Community Alliance
It's on Yonge Street, in North York.
5:55 p.m.
Liberal
Jim Karygiannis Liberal Scarborough—Agincourt, ON
North York. Can you tell us, sir, some of the functions that the Chinese Canadian Community Alliance has done in the last year or so to reach out to the new arrivals, the mainland Chinese arrivals, into Canada?
5:55 p.m.
Acting President, Chinese Canadian Community Alliance
No, but within the last three years.... We have a short history; we've been established only about three years. During those three years, we funded and put together a documentary on the Chinese history in Canada.
5:55 p.m.
Acting President, Chinese Canadian Community Alliance
No. We raised the money ourselves.
5:55 p.m.
Acting President, Chinese Canadian Community Alliance
We also have an exhibition, based on the documentary, that goes from place to place.
5:55 p.m.
Liberal
Jim Karygiannis Liberal Scarborough—Agincourt, ON
So what work has your organization done, sir, to reach out to the new immigrants and to be involved in the immigration and all that?
5:55 p.m.
Liberal
Jim Karygiannis Liberal Scarborough—Agincourt, ON
Have you received any funding from Citizenship and Immigration Canada or Canadian Heritage?
May 12th, 2008 / 5:55 p.m.
Liberal
Jim Karygiannis Liberal Scarborough—Agincourt, ON
Well, they're dishing out all kinds of money. Certainly, after this, you can apply.
Mr. Pang, are you supportive of Bill C-50, sir?
5:55 p.m.
Acting President, Chinese Canadian Community Alliance
Yes. Actually it's our association that's supportive.
5:55 p.m.
Liberal
Jim Karygiannis Liberal Scarborough—Agincourt, ON
Okay. Let me give you some facts and figures, sir, and after that I'll let you decide.
After the Conservatives took office, immigration processing times out of Beijing went up by 48% the first year. That means, if it took one year to process a spousal application before 2006, it took a year and a half in 2006. In 2007 it went up by an additional 17%. A spousal application that used to take six to eight months is taking a year and a half to two years right now. This is out of Beijing, sir. This is the community that, mostly, you're representing to come to Canada. This is processing applications out of Beijing. People just sort of said “You know what? It's taking even longer with these guys. We're not going to apply any more.” It went down by 41%. So people are just not applying to come to Canada because they know it's taking even longer and longer. If you were to go to the embassy in Beijing, God help you.
You're stating that you won't be supporting them tomorrow should there be a race issue. Well, the minister has the right to say we're not going to be accepting people in from that particular part of the world.
Even the minister is on record today as saying that half the Chinese and half the Indian population can qualify to come to Canada. She said that, sir, in the last couple of days.
I want your views. Do you still support what this minister is doing?
6 p.m.
Acting President, Chinese Canadian Community Alliance
Yes, I do. I don't know who I should trust. I have documents here from the ministry that contradict what you're saying.
Again I say, I'm a layman. I didn't really spend that much time looking into the facts. But honestly, I don't know who to believe.