Mr. Speaker, on the eve of the election in 2005 when the NDP along with the Conservative Party, the unholy alliance, pulled the plug, there was a major conference that was supposed to be taking place in December 2005 in Toronto. We were bringing together over 600 stakeholders, all the provinces, all the associations and all the departments in order to deal with the issue of undocumented workers. I, along with my colleague from Vancouver and the two parliamentary secretaries under the Minister of HRSDC were working diligently to make sure that the voices that we were hearing were answered.
We are talking about undocumented workers. It is not an easy solution. We cannot say, “Here is $100 million. We are going to fix it”. It takes all the provinces and territories, all the associations, be it the Association of Professional Engineers of Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, B.C., or the College of Physicians and Surgeons in Ontario and their counterparts all over Canada to come together in order to find a solution on how to move forward.
The Conservatives call themselves the new government, but certainly it is a Tory Conservative government and is the same thing as the government of Brian Mulroney. We remember that book On The Take. Certainly the government does not deserve any credit for speaking on the issue of immigrants.
The Conservatives certainly demonstrated time and time again that they do not care. The only thing they demonstrated they want to do is pit one community against another community. They did that right after they were elected when there were floods in the Philippines. They did that when we were bringing people out of Lebanon. They did not act quickly. It was not until the voices from the opposition and after the pushing that we did that the minister finally woke up and said that we had to do something.
The Minister of Foreign Affairs was told that this would not work. They botched it up. The Minister of Citizenship and Immigration was told that this would not work. They botched it up.
They have an opportunity to do the right thing right now with what is happening in Lebanon. There are people living beside an area that has been bombed. Tragedies are happening. What can the minister do? She could ask her officials in Damascus and in Beirut to expedite family class cases in Lebanon. Has the minister acted? Absolutely not. Is the minister asleep at the switch? You bet, Mr. Speaker. Is the government asleep at the switch? You bet even more, Mr. Speaker.
Canadians from all walks of life will see one thing: This is not a new Canadian government. This is an old Conservative Government of Canada that is leading Canada down the garden path.