Mr. Speaker, it is a pleasure for me to rise today to speak to Bill C-272. I know that the hon. member for Burnaby—Douglas has had a longstanding interest in citizenship and immigration issues. I know that he intends well with this bill. I wish to say that, while I understand his intent, there are some things that are problematic about the process and the manner that he is proposing to deal with the issue.
All of us understand the importance of strengthening families and bringing families together under the family reunification provisions in the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act. Families are a cornerstone of this nation. Families have been a cornerstone of Canadian immigration for many years. It is the way that people put down roots. It is the way that they build families. It is the way that they build a nation and get a sense of belonging. We are committed in this government to ensure that they represent a vital and vibrant component of our immigration program for the future, so that people can have their families with them.
Today, because of consultations in the past, Canadian citizens and permanent residents living in Canada who are 18 years of age or older can sponsor a family relative or close relative who wants to become a permanent resident. They have the ability to do that.
The list of those who can be sponsored under the family class has been in fact expanded recently. It has been expanded to include: same or opposite sex common law partners; parents; grandparents; dependent children, and the age for that has been increased as we know to 21 years; adopted children; as well as certain brothers and sisters, nephews and nieces or grandchildren who are orphans.
Canada's immigration and refugee regulations allow Canadians and permanent residents to sponsor relatives regardless of relationship or age, provided that they have no other way of being sponsored from abroad.
The act itself also has a way for individuals to apply to sponsor a non-family class relative on humanitarian and compassionate grounds. Today this act now has several avenues available to cover different individual circumstances or family arrangements. As I said before, many of those were introduced after extensive consultations with stakeholders and Canadians all across this country.
This set of new arrangements in which people can broaden their family members and bring them to Canada upholds certain core principles that must be observed: fairness, integrity and balance.
We know from talking with Canadians that they want a program that will help to spread the benefit of immigration all across Canada. We need to balance skilled workers, family class and economic migrants. Most of all, we want to see, and we are sure that the hon. members here would agree, a program that ensures that immigration will benefit the community where newcomers choose to settle, as well as benefit the immigrants themselves.
We need to be assured that those immigrants who come to Canada have the ability to find work, the ability to have access to health services, education, housing, and all of those things that are very necessary for people to settle. The bill under debate today moves away from some of those objectives. That is the reason why I think we cannot support it the way that it is put forward. It runs counter to any consultative process by arbitrarily raising family class levels to indeterminable limits.
It also runs counter to any principles of the balance that we need when we talk about family class, economic migrants and skilled workers. Experience indicated that even with more resources the increase in backlog and processing times for this sudden influx, or what would be a sudden influx, of immigrants by such an open ended system would seriously undermine the integrity and credibility of the whole program.
Let me give an example of why we think this is so. In 1988 the government of the day changed the sponsorship rules to include all unmarried sons and daughters in a family class. Total intake in this category doubled over two years. The government did not have the capacity to process these individuals in a timely manner or to integrate and provide health, education and other resources. When the government cancelled the program in 1993, there was an eight year processing backlog in some Canadian missions.
Doing something that sounds great on a piece of paper brings with it the need to have the capacity to do it and process it. It also means that other members who are coming into Canada will also have to find the ability to be processed at the same time. It will certainly increase backlogs.
The hon. member for Burnaby--Douglas and the hon. member for Vaudreuil-Soulanges indicated in the last hour of debate that this bill would go a long way toward helping refugees reunite with their families. That was one of the arguments that was made, but the truth is that this bill would do little for refugees because those who wish to sponsor family members have a financially less burdensome way to do so under the private or government assisted sponsorship program. They have that option right now and it is less expensive.
The hon. member for Burnaby--Douglas also noted that the bill was necessary since the government consistently misses its annual immigration target. The truth again, however, is that the government has met its annual immigration targets for the past five years and still maintains a long term goal of reaching immigration levels equal to 1% of Canada's population. This must be done in cooperation and agreement with our provincial partners who provide the health care services, social services, education, and some of the housing resources that are necessary to absorb and have the capacity to absorb new immigrants.
We can all appreciate the desire for individuals to sponsor relatives from overseas who are not members of the family class. The current legislation allows for this under certain circumstances and has made enormous expansions. Those expansions must occur at a pace by which we are able to absorb and have the capacity in order to provide the necessary means to help families who come here.
We all support strong families. We also support strong family class provisions in the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act and regulations. Our track record is good and it will continue to be so in the future. If we need to discuss ways of encouraging more family class members to come in, let us do so, and do so in a manner in which we can absorb and have the capacity to deal with this, so that the integrity of the program will be there for future generations.
I strongly support the government's overall direction and I am opposed to Bill C-272 or any special provision that would weaken our ability to support and assist families when they come to Canada.