Thank you, Mr. Chair.
While I have the floor, I want to put something on the record, because my colleague opposite looked slightly surprised when we quoted the Minister of Immigration. At our committee meeting in March, he stated, “I have used the word 'illegal' and I have used the word 'irregular' and I think both are accurate.” I look forward to reading the blues and some of the comments that he made and then applying them in the context of the comments that his minister made. But I digress.
Minister MacLeod, here we are. The reality is that, when we look at immigration, I don't think there's a single person in this room—and that's the beautiful thing about Canada—who asks “if” immigration; it's “how”. The reality is that, when we accept humanitarian immigration, it's not just about processing them at the border. It's not just about accepting them or signing off on a selection process from the UNHCR. It's about a long-term commitment to their well-being and their integration into the social and economic fabric of Canada. That costs money, and it takes planning. The reality is that provinces bear the burden of a lot of this work because of the scope of jurisdiction in terms of provision of education, health care, and subsidised housing. Part of the difficulty we've had as a committee has been with getting information from the government to understand the needs of this cohort, because we really don't have a sense of who is coming in.
Has the government given you any projections or information on what to expect in the next year and the needs associated with housing, language training, long-term integration, or social welfare payments? Do you have any of that information?