Mr. Chair, this is the one area where I think the government might conceivably give a little bit of ground, but we shall soon find out.
This amendment has to do with the time put towards becoming citizens that is credited to international students or temporary foreign workers before they become permanent residents.
Up until now they have been given 50% credit. I think this law would take away all of that credit. I think we could agree that international students in particular represent very good prospects for Canadian citizenship in the sense that they're well educated; they've been in Canada for a while; they have often worked in Canada; and there are many other countries competing for them. This becomes a competitive disadvantage if we make them less welcome.
Our proposal is to keep the status quo, whereby they get 50% credit for their time in Canada as pre-permanent residents as a partial credit to their time before they can become citizens.
(Amendment negatived [See Minutes of Proceedings])