Mr. Speaker, today with no notice to either the press or the opposition, the immigration minister announced that in the IRB, single members will replace panels, a treaty is under way with the U.S. to
stop refugee claimants at the border, and cost savings, if any, will go to overseas selection of refugees. That is amazing.
In our paper on refugee determination, we called for only one person to hear claims. We called for denying the hearings to those who had travelled through the U.S. We called for inland cost savings to go overseas. I am glad this minister read our paper. If he really wanted to reform the process then he would stand up to special interests, scrap the IRB and restore some real common sense and accountability to the system.
Today's announcement will not make the system more accountable. It does not guarantee that the world's highest refugee acceptance rate will go anywhere but up. It does not do what needs to be done. That is altogether typical of the immigration minister: lots of talk but no real reform.