Mr. Speaker, I have listened in the lobby and in the House to a lot of points that have been brought up for the bill.
It is an interesting bill. Yes, it has been around for a number of years, but really, I think there is a limited amount of good that the bill will actually do for refugees.
Canada has an extremely fair system already. Right now it potentially takes years and years for somebody to go through that process.
As has been pointed out, a very high percentage of refugee claimants in Canada are not legitimate. They arrive in Canada under false pretences and get off the airplane, having flushed their documents down the toilet in the airplane. It is obviously a shame when that happens, because those people do not deserve to come to Canada. As well, they get in the way of those who are using the system legitimately and honestly and who are coming to Canada for all the things Canada has to offer.
Clearly, a country like Canada will be a target for people who want to come here for legitimate reasons. The legal system we have, as it is designed, is probably one of the best immigration systems in the world in terms of the fairness of the process. For those using it, it takes a long time to get through that process. One of the biggest reasons is that people illegitimately abuse Canada's good nature, abuse the good nature of Canadians and abuse the open and very liberal system we have in this country.
The government strongly supports an effective refugee status determination system. There are a number of aspects to that. The immigration appeal board is one of them. The member who proposed the bill has concerns about the people on that board, about how they function and about their qualifications.
Clearly, we want to have people who are qualified on that board, but that does not mean that they necessarily have to have specific experience in the immigration system. It could be helpful, but on that board we really need people who have some common sense, people who have some life experience, people who know how to deal with people, people who have a sense of fairness and fair play, people who care about what is happening to Canada over their lifetime and the lifetime of their children.
They want the people who are ultimately here to become Canadian, to share in the Canadian dream and all that Canada has to offer, and to be the right kind of people. They do not want them to be people who cheat the system, people who jump the queue for whatever reason and by whatever method, but people who will be good Canadians, people who will obey our laws and take part in society and the economy.
We do want an effective refugee status determination system, but we do oppose this legislation because it is not necessary and would add considerable cost and delays. Some of those points have already been addressed by speakers before me, on this side of the House at least.
The cost of implementing a refugee appeals division would be in the tens of millions of dollars in ongoing costs to the federal and provincial governments.
Right now we have people who are abusing the system to the point that they are staying in Canada for years and years, sometimes for three, five, ten years or longer. Once we get them here, we have a hard time getting rid of them, and that again goes against the sense of fairness we should have in Canada for dealing with people who legitimately want to come to this country for all the right reasons, because it holds those people back unfairly.
The whole appeal process would add at least five months to the determination process. From what we know about the way the system works, it would probably add a lot more than that.
I, like other members of Parliament, deal with a lot of constituents who come with problems. About 90% of the situations I deal with are immigration-related.
Am I out of time, Mr. Speaker?