Mr. Speaker, I will start by saying that I was certainly not singling out the Alliance or the member for Dauphin—Swan River in terms of these broad pronouncements that are being advanced to the minister and are therefore having an influence on her policies.
I was suggesting, in fact, that in terms of the issues raised by the Alliance in the House and in terms of many media reports about the exceptions to the rule, we end up with a situation in which this government feels it necessary to emphasize the protection and enforcement elements of the bill as opposed to ensuring that our policies, programs and practices are conducive to people who want to come to Canada, so that they are able to settle here without financial and other barriers.
My point is that if we do not deal with that kind of negative message and this continual focus on enforcement, we fuel, by a process that just flows from that, the flames of racism and xenophobia. I think that is the last thing we want to do. Instead, through this bill and this process we want to educate and inform Canadians about the need for immigration, about how we have to get the numbers up in terms of the demographics of the country, and about how much we value our past immigration and refugee policies.
There is no question that we all share concerns about the auditor general's report. We all want to make sure we have the best practices in place to deal with any bad apples in the system, but we cannot let that be the dominant theme. We cannot let that fuel any sense of intolerance and racism in the country today.
We have to work together to send the minister and the government a clear message that what they ought to do is use this moment in our history as an opportunity to expound upon the virtues of immigration and to ensure that we do everything possible to reduce barriers and encourage settlement of people who want to live here, who want to reunite with their families and who want to make a contribution to this country.