Citizenship and Immigration Committee on Nov. 15th, 2010

[The Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

I am ruling amendment Liberal-3 as inadmissible for the same reason.

You're okay? Well, you're not okay, I'm sure, but that's life.

Mr. Dykstra, we are on amendment G-4.

[Rick Dykstra, Conservative, St. Catharines, ON]

So moved, Mr. Chair, and just very quickly, this basically is a housekeeping amendment. We want to ensure, for greater clarity, that the term “proceeding” does not refer to matters before superior courts, including federal courts. Obviously there is a place for representation for immigration consultants, but not necessarily does that extend to superior courts--certainly in the bill. We don't want it to appear to give that, so this gives it further clarity.

[The Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

Debate?

(Amendment agreed to [See Minutes of Proceedings])

We're back to you, Ms. Chow, on amendment NDP-5.

[Olivia Chow, NDP, Trinity—Spadina, ON]

It's on the Internet site. The minister was here and he said he's going to do that anyway, so I do not need to do this amendment.

[The Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

Then we're going to move on to amendment NDP-6.

[Olivia Chow, NDP, Trinity—Spadina, ON]

It's the same thing. He answered my question by saying--and also in the letter--that he's also going to do it.

[The Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

All right. We're going to move on to amendment NDP-7, Ms. Chow.

I will say that if NDP-7 is adopted, Liberal-5.1 cannot be moved.

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Papineau, QC]

It's just that we've had the unanimous consent that we can--

[The Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

Oh, you're right.

[Olivia Chow, NDP, Trinity—Spadina, ON]

Can we do page 18.01...?

[The Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

All right.

You have the floor.

[Olivia Chow, NDP, Trinity—Spadina, ON]

Mr. Chair, can I table that, go to page 18.01, and allow Mr. Trudeau's amendment to come forward?

[The Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

That's amendment 5.1.

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Papineau, QC]

Yes.

[The Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

Mr. Trudeau, we seem to be yielding the floor to you.

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Papineau, QC]

Indeed. Our modification in Liberal-5.1 was simply to help indicate the severity of the crimes of being a crooked immigration consultant or a ghost consultant. When we heard from witnesses of the substantive amounts of money to be made in the immigration consulting business, we simply proposed that we double the fines that are in the statutes: on indictment, from $50,000 to $100,000, and on summary conviction, from $10,000 to $20,000.

We chose not to affect the length of sentences, because that gets more complicated in terms of the administration of the law, but I think we wanted to have a clear indication of both the severity and the amount of potential profits to be made off crooked immigration consulting.

[The Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

Mr. Dykstra.

[Rick Dykstra, Conservative, St. Catharines, ON]

Mr. Chair, this is just a question of clarification. We certainly don't have any objection to the amendment. We'll support it.

I just want to make sure that if we're dealing with this, have you withdrawn your...?

[A voice]

Yes.

[Rick Dykstra, Conservative, St. Catharines, ON]

Okay.

[Olivia Chow, NDP, Trinity—Spadina, ON]

So rather than $1 million, I think $100,000 would be fine, because it's already doubling the amount...because it's summary fines anyway.

[Rick Dykstra, Conservative, St. Catharines, ON]

Okay. Thank you. Just for clarification, it means that NDP-7 has been withdrawn and we're now--

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Papineau, QC]

It will be withdrawn once this is passed. It's tabled for now.

[Rick Dykstra, Conservative, St. Catharines, ON]

Okay. We're prepared to support it.

[The Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

On amendment Liberal-5.1, all those in favour?

(Amendment agreed to [See Minutes of Proceedings])