Thank you, Mr. Chair.
This has been tabled with this committee since November now. There has been all kinds of time for members to look at it and see if there was a way of wording it better or putting their own amendments into it.
I appreciate the comments from Ms. Kwan that were worded into the amendment brought forward by my colleague Mr. Kmiec. It clearly identifies what the problem is here.
There obviously are overlaps here between the Department of Finance, Global Affairs and IRCC. We're the immigration committee. We could push this in front of any committee, but we have the ability at this committee to call as witnesses any of these government officials and these private sector entities that are operating in both Hong Kong and Canada, and sometimes withholding the Hong Kong pensioners' money from immigrants who come to Canada.
Getting to the bottom of this quickly, I think, is better than parking it and saying, “Okay, maybe we can put some words in here or in here.” There is some openness towards the end of this motion. You'll see before “and that the committee report its observations and recommendations” the phrase “as well as any other witnesses the committee deems relevant”. We've already added in the finance department officials who are going to be involved here.
We've stated clearly what the problem is. I will reiterate that it is an immigration problem. We identify, clearly, the people who come to Canada who left Hong Kong on a BNO passport, a British national overseas passport, but once they're in Canada, they have a stamped number saying, “This is how you came over”, and that's what Manulife and Sun Life, which are the two that I'm quite familiar with, and their various subsidiaries, are using to withhold the pension transferability from the mandatory provident fund in Hong Kong to those who have become Canadians.
I think it's pretty clear what we're trying to accomplish here, and it is bringing witnesses in. If there are other amendments that we need to consider outside of the ones that my colleague has already acquiesced to in my motion—and I agree with—to make sure that it is an open and inclusive dialogue and covers all of our bases, then I'm happy to entertain them at this point of time, but I'm not happy parking this further.
Let's address this quickly. Let's get through this. Let's start this study so we can help Canadians who have immigrated here who have money due them from the Hong Kong mandatory provident fund.
Thank you.