Thank you, Madam Chair.
I could have listened to Mr. Dhaliwal for another hour if need be, but I do have an amendment I have to get to. I can't help myself but to correct maybe some of what he said.
I think all of our offices are inundated with immigration case files, more now than at any time in living memory. The department has changed what a member of Parliament can ask for and what information we can get. It is the department that is number one for ATIPs, because people file access for information requests all the time trying to figure out what's happened to their file, 60,000 of which were assigned GCMS codes that nobody was actually monitoring. It was for filing reasons or whatever excuse they're trying to find.
The backlog reached 2.9 million at one point. There was a backlog before the pandemic. It had nothing to do with the pandemic. It was just bad administration by the Liberal government and the system that they have. All of us get files and people coming to our offices saying, “I haven't received a response”, “They denied me for ridiculous reasons”, “They forgot that I had provided documentation” or “I'm in a loop. They're asking for something that I can't get until I get the next part of the process done.” Many of the things that the member just spoke about weren't problems pre-2015.
Every single line and every program is more delayed than it has been before. There are written questions in the House that have been submitted that show that the processing times are longer than they were in 2015 and that processing is way down in terms of meeting the service standards set by IRCC. The department sets its own service standard, and it decides at what speed it should be doing the work.
We could actually legislate a service standard. The member could introduce an amendment now, if this motion to expand the scope of the bill were to go into place, so that people wouldn't be losing status while they're in Canada going from permanent residency to becoming citizens. The member could introduce many different rules. This department has doubled in terms of the budget allocated to it, and the wait times got longer. The backlog got longer despite doubling their budget and doubling the staff who work there. It got longer, not shorter. It didn't become simpler. It became more complex. That's all under the administration of the Liberal government. I'd be careful if Mr. Dhaliwal wants to go down this path and make this very partisan.
I actually have a constructive amendment for this motion. I'm going to read the amendment and explain the wisdom of this. It's following the version sent by the clerk. At the very end of the English version, instead of a period, it's a comma followed by, “and that the clerk be instructed to accept amendments until May 15, 2023”.
In the French version, it would be: “Que la greffière reçoive l'instruction d'accepter des amendements jusqu'au lundi 15 mai 2023.”
I hope that my French is good. As I said in the House, I failed my written French class, in secondary 5, but not comprehension or reading. I think the word “instruction” is used in French.
This is my amendment, Madam Chair.
Madam clerk, the reason for the amendment is so that, if this does go through—