Mr. Chair, I will be splitting my time with the member for Vegreville--Wainwright.
I thank the minister for being here this evening.
As a member of the House who has been fortunate enough to come to this country as a refugee, I learned about the process at that time, when my family came to Canada in the early 1970s.
It is obvious that the immigration system, in keeping up with some of the challenges, has gone through some difficult times. My family, like many others, came here as proud refugees. Very few countries, as we know, would allow a family like mine to have their son serve in the federal Parliament. I think that says a remarkable thing about our country and our values. That said, we are obviously facing huge challenges today. I know that in the work he is doing the minister is trying to address much of this.
I have served as an MP for almost eight years now. My office has had continuous problems when it comes to visas, especially in trying to get visitor visas. We have had continuous problems with people being rejected when trying to get these particular visas. Different solutions have been brought forward.
It is all very painful for people who are trying to reunify their families, even for a short time, to try to expedite the process of getting a visa for their family to come for an event, whatever it might be, and then return home to their countries. I am continuously finding myself in very difficult situations because of how many constituents continuously get their families rejected in the process. I would like the minister to briefly comment on that.
As I travel around the country, I find that many Canadians come to me about these issues, especially as I am a member of an ethnic community, because if they are from a South Asian community or a Muslim community or whatever it might be, they at times feel a little more comfortable talking to someone they can relate to in talking about their problems. I find this happening quite often as I travel across the country.
One of the key issues that comes up, and I know the minister is well aware of it, is the issue of foreign credentials. I continuously hear from many people that after all the time we have been discussing this issue, and after some initiatives have been put in place to try to deal with this issue, there still seems to be no identified process or national consistency for the recognition of international credentials and experience by most professional and trade bodies in Canada.
As well, those processes that are in place often lack clarity and are costly. There is often a gap between information provided to skilled immigrant applicants before and during the immigration process and their actual opportunity to use their skills and training equivalency here in the Canadian workforce.
In the last federal budget, I believe $20 million was allocated toward this issue and other amounts were allocated in previous budgets. Here is what I would like to know from the minister, if possible. How, where and by whom was this money spent? What has been the value for this money? It is a significant amount. What more will be done to alleviate this problem? From what I hear from people across the country, it still seems to be a constant problem.