Mr. Speaker, obviously the member for Laval—Les Îles is very passionate about what she said and I appreciate that.
She talked about the Citizenship and Immigration Act not being amended or brought forward. I would like to remind her that the act was in existence during many years when the Liberals were in government, 11 years in majority, and it never came forward. It is one thing to talk about what one is going to do, but actually doing something about it is perhaps more important.
I would also like to remind the member that the point system or the human capital model was in operation under the previous government, something that was utilized by it. I am sure the member will have heard that great strides have been taken in the provincial nominee program, as well as the foreign worker program, with the potential of immigrants eventually becoming permanent residents.
With the provincial nominee program, the provinces in particular have a greater degree of flexibility and latitude in terms of meeting the demands for skilled and lesser skilled labour, as well as the demands of the economy, by actually selecting them themselves. It is something we have been taking a great stand in promulgating and moving forward. Some provinces have taken that up. Does the member not think that direction and progress is in fact the right direction and right progress? It matches the needs of the provinces to the needs of the people who are coming in.
The foreign credentials program that she speaks of involves provincial bodies, professional associations, maybe 300 or 400 of them. These have certainly been in existence. We have allocated $18 million to have a clearing house that would help people before they came to Canada. When they land here they would actually have a clearing house of at least 300 or 400 different bodies to identify the shortcomings. We have put forward $307 million to ensure that people can be upgraded and better integrated. Would she not agree that is a new vision, a new direction and a whole lot better than we saw in the last 12 to 14 years?