Mr. Speaker, I am proud to have a community office that is staffed by three extremely talented and resourceful people: Liz LaForme, Dave Sturgeon and Warren Smith. All three are tireless advocates for residents of Hamilton Mountain who come to my office seeking help in dealing with government departments. They are almost always successful, unless it comes to immigration.
Despite their incredibly positive working relationships with front line ministry staff, it is impossible for them to cut through the bureaucratic nightmare that is the Canadian immigration system. The red tape is impenetrable, even for us.
As a result of Liberal cutbacks to staffing at immigration centres abroad, delays for families wanting to reunite in Canada are currently up to 10 years. The backlog of applications is now up to 800,000 cases. Despite the fact that the Conservatives promised a fair immigration plan during the last election, they have done nothing to address the problem.
When three of the brightest constituency assistants in the country cannot fight their way through the immigration system, then the system is in crisis.
I urge the government to take this issue seriously. It affects its constituents as much as mine and lives, quite literally, hang in the balance.