Thank you, Mr. Chairperson.
I find that's the biggest problem. The minister, on the one hand, says he wants to have this wholesome discussion and I'm all for that. I've a lot of ideas in terms of how we can improve the system, and I want to be able to participate in improving the system. I think we need to have dialogue.
The study for a number of weeks on the backlog.... Personally, I'd put that on the back burner and have the Minister of Immigration here where we can have a roundtable discussion, questions and answers, and be a part of a process that would actually look at coming up with answers so the public would be better served.
I spent more time asking questions of the minister of immigration at the provincial level when I was an MLA, because time allowed for MLAs to actually question, thoroughly question, and get answers from a minister. Here, I'm given five minutes to be able to question what affects the lives of millions of Canadians. That's simply not good enough, dealing with the backlogs.
Having said that, let's take a look. One of the more sensitive issues is in regard to the parents. What we've seen is that the lower end of the target has now been reduced for parents, yet the greatest problem on which we're getting the most phone calls is in dealing with those backlogs of parents. Yet the targets have been reduced. In fact, if you look at last year, we were at the low end in terms of accepting the number of parents coming into Canada.
So I have some difficulties in terms of how the government has prioritized. I have some ideas that I would love to share with the minister, and I will share them with him, but I only have five minutes here. If you want to give me leave, I'll be more than happy to do that.
Mr. Chair, I want to talk about the specific issue of backlogs, and ask a question, a very specific question.
Imagine your son is wanting to sponsor you. You're living in the Philippines. You're 50 years old. You have two children. One's in university, the other one's in high school.
Now you're getting into the system. You can today expect it to take seven years in order to be processed, if you're coming from the Philippines. You are obligated to keep your university student in public education until the time you are issued a visa. That means, at the end of the day, we're saying to that student that they don't have a choice; they can't go into the workforce. If they do, they lose their dependency.
These are the types of nuances that need to be changed. And this deals strictly with backlogs. We have people who are put into positions in which, in some cases, they're having to possibly misrepresent themselves because of bad government policy.
My preference, when we have meetings like this, is that these are the things we should be talking about. We shouldn't be constrained to a few minutes of questions and answers.
Here is a very specific question that I would ask: will the minister commit to allowing dependants who have achieved the minimum of a three-year post-secondary course or program to remain as a dependant of a principal applicant if the principal applicant has been in the system for a minimum of 12 months? That would then allow.... For example, if I'm a parent and I'm being sponsored by my son in Canada, my child, who now has a three-year degree--but I still have another five years before I'm processed--could actually go out and work and support himself and not have to be worried about being dropped as a dependant.
That's only one example of the types of discussions I believe we should have.
The minister is right, Mr. Chairperson. It's not a question of resources. We have the resources in the embassies across the world. Our issue is that we have to deal with the numbers and how we are processing the applications.
I don't question that. I do question to what degree we are being afforded the opportunity to have that wholesome debate. That's what the minister says he wants, a wholesome debate. I think you have a wholesome debate when you enable opposition critics, who have a responsibility that is broader than their own constituency, to ensure that there's accountability on the issue of immigration and citizenship. You have to provide them the opportunity to be able to ask all of the questions, not limit it to five minutes.
The question I would like answered by the minister—