Mr. Speaker, I am happy to rise today and I know that my hon. colleague in the Liberal Party is very passionate about immigration. I would just like to ask her a very simple question.
We hear the Liberals talking about how they support immigration but we need to look at some of the things they did during their tenure in government. In the case of what has become known as the head tax, they did very little to cut the barriers for immigrants coming into this country.
I would like the member to specifically address the issue of the $975 right of permanent residence fees on new Canadians, which is something that I believe she is very familiar with. We heard from people all across the country saying that this was a huge barrier and a huge cost for new Canadians. Why, in the 13 years that they were in government, did this fee actually continue to go up and create more of a barrier for immigrants rather than go the opposite way?
I am happy, as she is aware, that in our last budget we were able to cut those landing fees in half. How can she justify that sort of barrier for immigrants?