Mr. Chairman, I thank Mr. Harris for the question. This is a really serious concern, obviously, for thousands of new Canadians and prospective immigrants to Canada who have been defrauded in various ways by ghost consultants. I think we all recognize that the current regulatory framework is not up to snuff; it's not up to par. It's not getting the job done to protect people from ghost consultants. Certainly this standing committee made that point very evident in its report on the issue, which I have read. I've had these consultations across the country. I know Dr. Wong participated in one in Vancouver. I know that the stories of these people are very sad.
You can go into newspapers in Canada or abroad and see these advertisements saying, "Visas to Canada guaranteed". You can go to certain cities throughout the world and see billboards with scammed, ripped-off versions of the Canadian government wordmark implying that these consultants are operating with the approval of the Government of Canada, or perhaps even are agents of the government. The fraud is massive. It's widespread. It's deliberate. It is probably a multi-hundred-million-dollar industry at the international level. It is taking advantage of the dream that people have of coming to Canada, for which some people are willing to pay a very great deal—thousands of dollars in some parts of this world.
The challenge is that overseas, obviously, we can't apply Canadian law to regulate immigration consultants in these other parts of the world. But what I've asked is that we make the proper regulation and policing of third parties in this field in foreign countries a priority bilateral issue in our relationships with certain countries. It's certainly something I raised in India when I was there, with the government in Punjab, and in Delhi with the national Indian government. I would like to see much more meaningful action on the part of our principal source countries to protect their own citizens from this kind of fraud. We are stepping up our advertising efforts. We have warnings posted in 17 languages on our website and in all relevant local languages at our missions and visa application centres abroad, letting people know they don't need to use consultants. If they are using them, the latter should be licensed, and the people should be aware of ghost consultants.
Finally, in terms of the regulatory framework here in Canada, I agree that what is happening now is not adequate. That is why later this year we will be coming forward with some meaningful changes to increase the penalties and the sanctions for operating outside the law, and to provide a more robust regulatory framework for the consultants who operate legally.
