Mr. Speaker, the member opposite spent a fair bit of his speech not talking about the bill, which I think is important and progressive legislative, but rather criticizing the government's management of the immigration system.
I remind the member that when the previous Liberal government took office in 1993, it inherited an immigration waiting list of some 35,000 files. Thirteen years later, it gave to our new government an immigration waiting list of over 830,000 files. It increased by over 1,000% the immigration wait list in our country and handed it off to this government. Now it blames us for the challenge we have to try to clean up the mess with which it left us.
I further point out that not only did the Liberal government increase the immigration wait list by over 800,000, it actually collected hundreds of millions of dollars in a head tax that it imposed on new immigrants, $1,000 per person.
That means, prior to the Liberal government coming to office, a family of five arriving in Canada did not have to pay a head tax. As soon as the Liberals came to power, they had to pay a $5,000 collective head tax, a family head tax for a family of five, making it extremely difficult to get ahead and make the first down payment on rent, buy the first used car, just to get ahead. That was the Liberal record on immigration.
We have kept our word not only to increase funding for integration and immigration settlement services, but to cut in half the right of landing fee, and we will cut it yet again further.
The Liberals have not endorsed cutting in half the right of landing fee. In fact, they voted against that in our the budget. I therefore infer, and perhaps he could confirm this, that if the Liberals were back in power, not only would they take away the $100 a month per child choice in child care credit, they would also, once again, double the rate of landing fee.
However, the member, and he can respond to this, says that the bill is about petty partisan politics. The bill is the direct result of the tireless and principled efforts largely of the member of the government caucus for Kildonan—St. Paul, who, and I will reveal a caucus confidence, would get up in the government caucus and demand that we take action to stop the exploitation of foreign exotic dancers in our country. The government responded with this bill, and she deserves a bit of credit for that.