Thank you, Chair.
The concern of the Liberal Party around this issue of consultants in Quebec centres around the fact that for a consultant to operate in the province of Quebec, and be effective and a quality consultant, they should be able to recommend to clients all the options, including the options touching on the provincial stream of immigration. The concern is that there may be an infringement of people's rights to practise certain types of immigration consultancy that don't require any provincial input, such as the refugee stream, which wouldn't need to conform to the Quebec code.
Now, this is a small issue, but it is one that I think represents a rare enough case that in this situation, as with much of what we're doing on Bill C-35, we're going to have to have faith that the eventual regulator will be strong enough to ensure the quality of advice and representation that is given to all its clients. Therefore, the amendment that the government is putting forward seems reasonable to us, as long as the government also commits—as it has indicated it will—to instruct the future regulator to ensure that anyone applying to a Quebec immigration consultant who is not conforming to the rules of the Quebec system must advise any client that there are Quebec options that they cannot sell them on and that they therefore should seek advice from a different consultant who is qualified in Quebec.
This a middling compromise that satisfies none of the parties around the table, to be entirely honest—not entirely. It requires us to have faith that an eventual regulator will be able to ensure that the immigration consultants operating in Quebec and across the country are of top quality. Because of this, we are not going to be supportive of the BQ-1.1 amendment and will be supporting the government amendment.