Thank you, Mr. Chair. l have a few things to say.
I've heard my colleague Ms. Kwan. I do appreciate what she's saying about putting a light on the potential racism that she says might be here. At the end of my speaking here, I'm going to have to make an amendment to her previous subamendment that is now part of the motion, which includes when she brings up the issue of hearing from Gazan families.
The motion itself was about Gaza and Sudan. As much as we'd like to hear from Gazan families, we'd also like to hear from the families of Sudanese Canadians. I'll be moving that at the end of this discourse.
In the meantime, I want to make sure that we understand what's happening in Sudan at this point. It is the number one problem in the world in terms of displaced people and conflict. There are10 million refugees in Sudan. We've agreed to take 3,250 applicants into Canada. Those are applicants alone at this point in time. I'm beseeching the department officials here today to make sure that we actually get those applications processed efficiently.
I would really like to know—since 3,250 applications was the cap—how many more we received beyond that cap and how many of those 3,250 have been actually processed so that people are actually arriving in Canada. Of those 3,250, how many people have actually settled in with their families here in Canada, and how many are waiting for processing at the department? Could they give us some timelines on that processing time, as well? That's very important.
If you're in one of the worst situations in the world, in refugee camps outside of a war-torn country, with no end in sight, then you are looking for solutions. Those solutions are life-and-death solutions, not just paper-pushing solutions. We really need to be as efficient as possible at this end, Mr. Chair, to make sure that we actually get this done for the sake of people who need it more than anything else.
This has been ongoing. I can't tell you, Mr. Chair, how many times we've raised this issue at this committee. We need to look at this situation in its totality. We need to look at how much misery is caused because of this and look at how many families in Canada are waiting for the Liberal government to actually get this program processed effectively. It is a long time. It is a push-off and a push-off.
I know that our officials here from the immigration department, IRCC, are wonderful officials, but they have been swamped and whipsawed back and forth by the government in its policies. I looked at the plan that the government put in front of Parliament for this year, and the numbers, frankly, are somewhat overwhelming. Again it is an up and down, a program in and a program out. It is showing a whole bunch of moving parts, none of which are leading to a more efficient process at the end of the day.
The government, through its mandates to its various departments, has to start providing some more ability to process things as they're supposed to be done. Government, at the end of the day, has to start being an efficient deliverer of the programs it announces. We've had enough examples of a government that makes announcements and then fails at execution.
How do you tell that to people in Sudan? Do we tell them that we're sorry and that even though they have family in Canada, we're too busy with a whole bunch of files that are being whipsawed one way or another by the government?
We're not sure if the immigration department is a way to keep the country's numbers out of recession—because we are in a productivity recession—or if it is actually a way to bring people into Canada. It would be a life path for those people who want to be Canadians, who want to build their lives, to build futures for their children, to build peace and prosperity here in Canada, and who want to escape from a horrible situation on the ground where they live right now.
I know that horrible situation exists everywhere, Mr. Chair. Everywhere there are refugees and horror going on. We need to start apportioning where we can get those people from Sudan into Canada as quickly as possible.
We have constituents. Mr. Kmiec and I have been meeting with the Sudanese community in Calgary to make sure that their needs are met here in getting their families over from Sudan and areas just outside Sudan, where they've sought refuge, and in getting through this program. It's a measly 3,250 people we're bringing in to Canada from this area of the world. We'd like to see them efficiently brought in, at least, and make sure that we're actually transacting that as quickly as possible. That's our main motion here, of course.
With that being said—I know I'm going on about the same things—what I'd like to propose at the end is that we change that and make a quick subamendment to the amendment that was just passed. In addition to hearing from Gazan families, it includes also hearing from Sudanese families in Canada.
I'm sorry. I don't have that in writing for you here, but I think it's a simple addition.
Mr. Clerk, if you will, after Gazan families, we'd also talk about Sudanese families in Canada.