Thank you so much, Mr. Chairman, Mr. Komarnicki, and Mr. Khan. When you were expressing gratitude to us, I thought perhaps you were going to thank us for eliminating your $42 billion deficit, creating three million jobs, reducing the national debt, giving Canadians a tax cut of $100 billion--the largest tax cut in Canadian history--and reinvesting in research and development.
We really got the books in order and cleaned up the mess we were left with, with the hope that areas like immigration would receive the type of investment required to bring about positive change to the lives of immigrants and to recognize the important role that immigration plays within our country.
Madam Minister, thank you so much for your presentation. I'm sure that by now you know I disagree with your views on the backlog, on consultation, on ministerial powers, and on foreign credentials. We also disagree on the issue of not meeting your target. I think you're one of the first ministers in a long time who has actually not met her target. I fail to understand why we missed an opportunity to welcome 36,000 fewer landed immigrants than in previous years, and these are concerns.
Minister, leadership really comes down to the ability to paint the future, and a great leader is one who can in fact illustrate to an individual how he or she fits into that future. On an ongoing basis....
I don't think I need to elaborate on where our differences lie. I don't question your sincerity in the sense of trying to do the best, given what you have--I have no doubts about that--but essentially, as we look at the issue of immigration from a demographic point of view and as a quality-of-life, standard-of-living issue, how is your plan going to address the fact that immigrants are not as well off as and are having a harder time than immigrants who came in the postwar period?
These are the big issues. As we welcome people, it's not good enough only to welcome people into the country; they also have to be given a fair shot at success. The numbers, as I'm sure you know, indicate otherwise. As immigration minister, what is your plan around the cabinet table? What would you say to, for example, the Minister of Finance and other individuals who are in charge of the macroeconomic environment of the country to make sure that immigrants hold a very important place in Canadian society?