Thank you, Mr. Chair.
It's interesting to hear the Liberal perspective on this. It's, “You have to take what the minister said, but you have to understand it in a certain context.”
The exact words the minister said, to the point of my colleague, were these: “Fraser says temporary immigration programs are putting pressure on the housing system and creating a 'serious issue we need to address.'”
You can find this in videos in numerous places. It was the senior immigration minister and housing minister, Sean Fraser, who said this specifically. I'll read it again. It says, “Fraser says temporary immigration programs are putting pressure on the housing system and creating a 'serious issue we need to address.'” That's pretty clear.
If we back up a bit, your point is valid and it really reinforces that we need to bring the ministers here to talk about this situation. You're talking about your interpretation. The way you're hearing it is one way, and we're interpreting it in a different way, according to you. That's a reason why we need to get these ministers in here. It's to clarify it and figure out what they're saying.
I am absolutely happy to add in the amendment from my colleague Mr. Brunelle-Duceppe, because I don't want to blame this on immigrants either. We need to find a solution.
You talk about the provinces. In my home province of Saskatchewan, we need solutions as well. In my city of Saskatoon, we need solutions to this situation. Fortunately, Saskatoon doesn't have quite the high housing prices that Toronto has, but even so, it's very difficult to find a place to live in Saskatoon. Rents have gone up significantly after eight years of this Liberal government. We definitely need to have solutions for housing in Saskatoon and right across the country.
My home province wants solutions to this too, and wants to make sure that we're bringing in the right people. We don't want to shut down immigration in any way, but we need to make sure that we have housing. That's where we, as Conservatives, have thoughtful plans that are going to work to build more housing. That's what we need in this country and that's where we're going to go.
In the province of Saskatchewan, and every province, there are certainly needs, but what the federal government is pushing on them is not working. That is why we absolutely need to bring both of these ministers here to clarify these questions, clarify the comments and clarify these quotes. As I said, these are their quotes.
We have to make sure that we are getting to the bottom of this and truly understanding what's going on. Our job here on the immigration committee is to understand these things and make sure that we help and support the government in putting forward programs that actually work for this country.
Starting from the words right out of the ministers' mouths, these programs aren't working. We need to do what we can as a committee to help support them and make them better.
Thank you.