Thank you, Chair.
To some extent I agree with Ms. Kwan, so my suggestion is this.
I know Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada currently takes into consideration the accommodation needs of the citizenship applicants who have disabilities, and this will be reflected in the legislation with this amendment. Creating a legal obligation on the minister to this effect would strengthen the rights of people who have those disabilities; however, I believe that we can change the wording of this amendment a little in order to strike a better balance between recognizing the rights to accommodation of people with disabilities and the minister's discretion.
Therefore, I propose the following subamendment:
(3.1) For the purposes of this section, if an applicant for citizenship is a disabled person, the Minister shall take into consideration the measures that are reasonable to accommodate the needs of that person.
This amendment proposes to create a legal obligation for the Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada to consider accommodating the needs of citizens who have any disabilities. As it stands, however, this amendment does not strike the appropriate balance between recognizing the rights to accommodation of people with disabilities and the minister's discretion.