Mr. Speaker, I remember well the first presentation made by the then Minister of Citizenship and Immigration to the Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration. I was also surprised that he did not speak about family reunification at the committee. Family reunification is the cornerstone of Canadian immigration policy. It is one of the objectives of the act. We cannot ignore the act. In a number of situations, which we are well aware of, the government has decided to not implement sections of the act. The refugee appeal division is one example.
If I understand correctly, the member for Burnaby—Douglas wishes to point out that family reunification is not important for the government as demonstrated by the lack of concrete action and the failure to accelerate processing of sponsorship applications.
I would like to add that we are not talking about parents or grandparents, but about spouses. It is a serious situation for spouses and partners but even more serious for parents and grandparents. If we look at immigration overall, it makes no sense that we are not promoting the importance of family reunification.