Mr. Speaker, I have in front of me a news release that came out on December 20, 2004. At that time the government was holding cross Canada hearings with the House of Commons Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration. It gave an opportunity for a person's voice to be heard.
That committee travelled in March and April of 2005 to St. John's, Halifax, Charlottetown, Fredericton, Quebec, Montreal, Toronto, Kitchener-Waterloo, Winnipeg, Regina, Calgary, Edmonton, Vancouver and Victoria. Hearings were held at each location on various topics of immigration.
I also have a submission from March 24, 2005, by the Portuguese Congress of Canada. It recommended precisely what is before the House today. It said that we need to deal with the undocumented workers. We need to have regularization. Action needs to be taken, then and now.
That was March 24, 2005. Yet, no action was taken by the former Liberal government and no action has been taken by the Conservative government. We are about to hold even more hearings. What good is it? Why do we waste taxpayers' time travelling to all these places and give people hope, asking agencies to come and tell us what they want, and then completely ignore them and take absolutely no action?