Evidence of meeting #42 for Official Languages in the 41st Parliament, 2nd session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was immigrants.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Conservative
Jacques Gourde Conservative Lotbinière—Chutes-de-la-Chaudière, QC
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
I think this is the kind of question we can ask the minister directly when he appears before the committee next week. And for that reason, we are going to vote against the motion. That being said, I encourage my colleague to put her questions directly to the minister. If she doesn't do it, other members of the committee could.
Conservative
Liberal
Lise St-Denis Liberal Saint-Maurice—Champlain, QC
I still suggest that we send the request in the motion to the immigration minister's office. He may not be able to give us all the information on the spot, so he would probably benefit from seeing the questions ahead of time. And he could even provide us with the answers in advance, which would be very helpful.
Conservative
NDP
Jamie Nicholls NDP Vaudreuil—Soulanges, QC
I was going to say the same thing. If we ask the minister to bring the information with him, he'll have the answers when he appears before the committee.
I can't see why you would vote against the motion. All we're asking the minister is to make sure that he has the information with him.
Conservative
Jacques Gourde Conservative Lotbinière—Chutes-de-la-Chaudière, QC
You want to request the information before he appears, but we're saying you can ask those questions when he's here. I think that makes perfect sense.
NDP
Jamie Nicholls NDP Vaudreuil—Soulanges, QC
If he doesn't have the information, asking the questions will be pointless. If the minister or his deputy says that he doesn't have the data with him, it will just prove that the motion was warranted. We need that information.
We'll see.
Conservative
Jacques Gourde Conservative Lotbinière—Chutes-de-la-Chaudière, QC
You just explained why we have to vote against the motion. If the minister doesn't have all the information with him, at that point, you can introduce a motion like this one. As for us, we prefer to wait to see what the minister's answers are.
NDP
Anne-Marie Day NDP Charlesbourg—Haute-Saint-Charles, QC
I'd just like to stress the importance of having this information, especially because getting it from Citizenship and Immigration Canada is very hard. Precisely because they are from other countries, all immigrants are screened. The department knows exactly which languages they speak when they get here, what their situation is, whether they are refugees, and, if they are allophones, which official language is next on their list of spoken languages.
That's pretty basic information, and it's always nice to have the data ahead of time when asking the minister questions. Otherwise, we're going to ask him why he didn't bring the information, which will be a big waste of committee time. It will be a waste of the minister's time as well. And I don't think we're here to waste time.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Michael Chong
Very well.
All those in favor of Ms. Day's motion?
(Motion negatived)
I'm sure that Minister Alexander's deputy will review the transcript of the committee meeting to prepare the minister for our questions.
Without further ado, this meeting is adjourned.