Thank you very much, Madam Chair. I won't take very long.
First I'd like to thank the officials for actually putting the facts on the table and clarifying that in fact citizenship ceremonies are taking place in person as well as virtually as an option.
I will speak very briefly about my own personal experience. As committee members know, I'm an immigrant. My family of eight immigrated here to Canada back in 1976. I come from a low-income family. I've shared this on the public record many times, because that is my history and background.
My mother made $10 a day as an immigrant when we first arrived here, as a farm worker. My dad went to language school at the local community college and took up English as a second language. He's retired now. He was trained as a tailor, but he couldn't find work here, so he went to pick up the language. My mother supported a family of eight on $10 a day. Later on, two years later, she graduated and became a minimum-wage dishwasher until she retired at 65. My dad was able to get some work after he picked up the language and worked for a factory—Sears, in fact. He cut out fabric for patterns by piece. That's how much he got paid. The work was not always steady. I remember as a child how he would come home with these little stickers. We had to put them on pieces of paper so that his employer could count how many pieces he cut. That's how he got paid.
I remember the citizenship ceremony. It was an exciting day for all of us, but I also remember like it was yesterday the stress I saw on my mom's and dad's faces. It was not because they weren't happy to become citizens; it was really important for them and for all of us, but they literally threw everything away to support our family to do this. The stress was from this: It meant that they missed their workday. They had no pay. My mom missed a workday to do the ceremony. Minimum wages meant everything for our family. My dad, whose work was not always steady—it was on call—had to turn away a day when he was called in to work to attend the ceremony.
Now, I get how exciting it is and how wonderful it is. Lots of people care, and I love it. I have hosted ceremonies and celebrations with constituents. I see the excitement and joy in their faces, and I love it. I absolutely love it, but there are people who cannot afford to do it. That is a practicality that exists—not just for my family back in my day, when I was a kid, but today too. For many immigrants, the reality they face is that it's a major challenge for them, and it is financial.
As for having an option to do this, I'm pretty sure that if we'd had that option back in the day, my parents would have chosen that. For both of them to miss their workday and not be paid was a serious thing. Many a time, when there was not enough food on the table, my mom would just say, “I am not hungry.” I knew she was hungry. She was not eating because she was doing it for us, the children.
I don't want to have any misconception here about this. Making this mandatory is wrong. I am sorry; it is wrong. It was wrong for my family, but we attended because that was the only option. Yes, we celebrated, but I saw the stress on my parents. I was little; I was a kid, but man, do I ever remember that day—happy and sad at the same time.