Mr. Speaker, I am honoured to enter into the concurrence debate on the fourth report of the citizenship and immigration committee. I am proud that the NDP moved this concurrence motion and proud of my colleague from Trinity—Spadina who has a long track record and history for speaking out on behalf of rights for undocumented workers.
I will begin my remarks by saying this issue has been the elephant in the room for decades that no one is willing to speak about. We have to start with the fundamental base information that economic migration has been a fact of life for thousands of years. People gravitate to where the opportunity is and in this case the economic activity was in Canada and people no matter what their reason for coming here, seek a better life.
That is how we built this great nation. Industrious and skilled people are able to travel and come to our country. It is a reflection of the inadequacies in our immigration system that we have hundreds of thousands of undocumented workers toiling away in certain key industries in our country where there are skill shortages.
I come from the building trades, a carpenter by trade, and certainly the construction industry is one of those sectors where there are tens of thousands of undocumented workers providing a necessary function and a necessary service.
This is not the first time that we have had this debate in the House of Commons. Somebody just accused one of the Liberal MPs of never having raised it in the House of Commons. I can say, we have. My colleague from Trinity—Spadina has most recently, but for the decade that I have been here, we have raised it over and over again.
We were critical that the government was allowing an increased number of foreign workers on special work permits and not taking advantage of the great pool of skilled labour that was resident in this country, notwithstanding the fact they jumped the queue. Let us put that to the side. This is not a punitive debate of punishing people for not following the rules to get here.
The government was meeting a demand. It is an inexorable migration. People gravitate toward opportunity and it is something that we want to encourage, not discourage. So, we find ourselves with this pool of undocumented workers, great skill shortages and a great need and demand.
I defy anyone here to show me the business case for spending millions of dollars to have a mass deportation and throw 200,000 people out of the country. It would be ludicrous. It would tie up the enforcement division of Immigration Canada for decades and that is not even if every one of them exercised their right to appeal because our system is fair and equitable. We can only really deport people who want to be kicked out because if one digs in his or her heels they are in for a five or seven year appeal. It is impossible.
Why do we not just face the facts, acknowledge that we have a human resource in this body of undocumented workers, recognize that the skill shortages demand these workers, and give them some status. Give them their right to apply their craft and their trade with dignity, safety and security and a safety net that our system offers, and let them help us grow this great land without having to sneak around.
It is only common sense. It happened in California. When they realized they had hundreds of thousands of undocumented workers in the California building industry, unions started going out and organizing. My own union signed up 15,000 dry wallers and tapers who were Mexican, who were undocumented, and they started representing them because they were providing a necessary service, paying taxes in that country, and they deserved representation and recognition. Maybe that would be the first step toward solving this problem as well.
With what short time I have I think it would be useful to look at this motion by the City of Toronto, moved by Councillor Giambrone, a former president of the New Democratic Party I might add, and seconded by Mayor David Miller. It states:
WHEREAS Toronto City Council recognizes there are thousands of hard-working, tax paying immigrants in the City of Toronto who have no government documentation; and
WHEREAS there is a shortage of labour in the construction sector;--
I will not read all of the other whereas items. It concludes:
AND BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED THAT Toronto City Council direct the City Clerk to write to the Federal Minister of Citizenship and Immigration expressing its desire to see the cases of undocumented workers be addressed in a timely, fair and equitable manner.
It argues in the whereases that there should be a moratorium on deportations until such time as we can find a fair and equitable way to deal with this issue.
It points out as well that two of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act key mandates are to support the settlement, adaptation and integration of newcomers to Canadians society and to manage access to Canada with a fair and effective enforcement strategy. If we can take the very mandate of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act's own language, we could find a much more compassionate way of dealing with the backlog of undocumented workers in this country.
I also recognize the work of my friend and colleague, John Cartwright, a fellow union carpenter and leader with the Carpenters' union. He is now the head of the Toronto and District Labour Council. It too is getting involved in trying to represent undocumented workers.
We have a choice in our hands. We either acknowledge we have a pool of skilled labour and a great labour shortage and we put those two together, or we order a witch hunt and mass deportation of 200,000 hard-working tax paying people.
I think it is an easy choice to make. There is no business case for carrying on with the status quo. There is a compelling business case for putting to use this human resources pool that we have and to help build the economy and fill skilled labour shortages.