Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
If you look at the motion and the language and the tone of the motion, even though there's an amendment—which is why I supported the amendment to say that newcomers are not to be blamed—the tone and the insinuation within the motion already blame them.
Let me just put it on the record, because I don't believe that the motion that was moved was actually put on the record in this language. Let's break it down so that we understand what the insinuation is in pointing fingers at newcomers, and yes, at the minister too, and they do need to explain.
However, I want to be very clear in the way we do it that we do not leave any room for misunderstanding with respect to who is ultimately responsible. Here's the language:
That, given that:
a. The current Minister of Housing, Infrastructure and Communities was the Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship when record high immigration targets were set, and that he has now admitted that those immigration targets helped to fuel the housing crisis, in a press conference on January 15th.
That language in and of itself already blames newcomers, as though newcomers, with the immigration targets, are the people to blame.
The motion goes on to say:
b. The current Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship admitted that his department was responsible for fueling the housing crisis when he admitted that his department is running a “system that's run a bit rampant for far too long and is causing an impact that is not unappreciable,”
The Minister of Immigration will have some explaining to do, but again, this directly ties the housing crisis to the newcomers, as if to say that the newcomers are responsible for the housing crisis.
Then it goes on to say:
c. The Premier of Quebec has described the immigration system as putting Quebec “very close to the breaking point due to the excessive number of asylum seekers arriving in Quebec month after month [and that] the situation has become unsustainable;”
Here we're tying asylum seekers to other streams of newcomers to Canada and tying it all in to say that newcomers are to blame for the problems that provinces are faced with and for the housing crisis that Canada is seized with.
It ends with saying that:
The committee invite the Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship and the Minister of Housing, Infrastructure and Communities to appear separately for two (2) hours each to explain their remarks, within 14 days of the passage of this motion.
That's what it says.