Madam Speaker, I listened with interest to the speech made by my colleague, who is a member of the Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration.
As he well knows, the bill before the House today makes many changes to the Immigration Act, which dates back to 1976. It was changed rather considerably.
This bill makes changes in a number of areas. There is, among others, the issue of immigration agents, who will have more powers. We can even say that, to a certain extent, they will have a discretionary power. There is also the issue of detention.
The auditor general's report is very eloquent on this matter. Is it normal that immigration agents not have the training required to make a number of decisions, and yet make decisions on the detention of certain people? That is my first question.
Another issue concerns the detention of children. As my colleague knows very well, this is one of the issues I raised when the bill was presented. There is nothing in the bill that provides a special treatment to refugee status claimants under 18 years of age.
Is it appropriate that this bill does not make a distinction between minors seeking refugee status and all refugee claimants, since Canada signed the Convention on the Rights of the Child? As I mentioned in my speech, Canada is a party to three international conventions: the Convention Against Torture, the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the 1951 Convention Relative to the Status of Refugees. Does my hon. colleague think it is appropriate to grant no special status to minors?
There is also the issue of the Canada-Quebec agreement. Canada and Quebec concluded an agreement on everything that has to do with the selection of independent immigrants. We, on this side of the House, would have wished to see Quebec's jurisdiction in this area not only recognized in that Canada-Quebec agreement, but also clearly mentioned in this bill. Nothing in this bill grants such recognition, and this concerns us.
Those are the three questions I have for the hon. member and I would like him to answer them.