Mr. Chair, I want to enter into a potential discussion on this issue. Biometrics was first raised a number of years ago, under the Liberal Party. When we were in government, we saw this as an issue that needed attention. The Liberal Party actually initiated a pilot project, and all of a sudden, fortunately or unfortunately—unfortunately, from my perspective—there was change in government and the issue of biometrics seemed to be put on the back burner.
Then we had the Minister of Immigration say, through Mr. Dykstra, that we're going to debate biometrics here in the committee, do a study on it, and, as my colleagues from the New Democrats have talked about, to try to get a better understanding of biometrics. This particular amendment is trying to put in some safeguards.
I do believe that at the very least the government's approach with biometrics is somewhat premature. It's premature in the sense that our committee has not even had an opportunity to provide a final report on it. We are waiting for valuable information to come forward.
Biometrics does have a potential role to play with different forms of visas, not just for refugees, but for working visas, student visas, and other forms of temporary visas, and I know the government is looking at that.
I think there could have been a more fulsome discussion that would have ultimately led to better legislation on biometrics. I look at this amendment as at least providing a little more definition, but I do believe we've really missed our mark in terms of dealing with the whole issue of biometrics.
Other countries in the world have been engaged in this for the last number of years, and it is only most recently that the government seems to have recognized this is a technology worth pursuing. But there are no safeguards. They have not put safeguards into place that go beyond the legislation we have before us, such as how the information that is gathered is going to be used, how it is going to be disposed of, how long we are going to keep it in records, and so forth.
With those comments, we are prepared to support this particular amendment. But we do believe the government would have been better off to incorporate biometrics in a separate piece of legislation at some point in the future, when we would have been able to have a more thorough discussion on it.