Thank you, Minister and staff, for appearing.
I wish to share a little bit of my experience of attaining citizenship in Canada.
I came here as an international student in 1968. You're quite correct in that at the time, I wasn't quite sure whether I was going to stay in Canada or obtain my education and do my graduate studies in the United States. The point that the new act is looking at where you have to declare your intention to stay I think is quite correct in that very often many foreign students who come here do not know whether they're going to do their undergrad here and graduate studies in the United States. Anyway, I did acquire my citizenship before the change in 1977, so there was a total of five years of residence required.
Having been here as a Canadian citizen since 1976 to the present, I have seen many cases of people who come here who don't show that intention to stay, who don't show that they're here to help us build this country, and who have moved on.
What I wish to address more specifically is the language requirement. I understand from when we did previous studies that people who have a command of one of the official languages do very well in terms of job acquisition or in being a fully participating member of society. Often I hear from the opposition that we're making the language test harder, that we're barring more people from attaining citizenship, and that we're also making it harder for youth and seniors to become citizens.
Minister, perhaps you could share with us some of the facts, some of the reasons, and some of the logic behind why it is necessary for attaining citizenship to have that language skill in order to survive in this country. You yourself, as I understand, have been a diplomat in various countries, and you know that language itself is a very important tool for business, for government, and to be able to live comfortably in another society.