Mr. Speaker, I have a petition signed by dozens of constituents who are very concerned about the Conservatives' changes to our Immigration and Refugee Protection Act and the way they were slipped through the last budget implementation bill.
The petitioners are concerned because the changes give major new powers to the Minister of Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism on an arbitrary basis. They are concerned that these changes limit the ability of ordinary Canadians to be united on humanitarian and compassionate grounds. They are concerned that the minister has the power to deny visas to those who meet all the immigration criteria.
They call upon their government to abandon these changes, to increase staffing in overseas visa offices, to increase Canada's immigration target to 1% of the Canadian population and to stop the expansion of temporary foreign workers in this legislative initiative.