Madam Speaker, I want to raise the question of the unfairness surrounding the whole notion of getting a visitor visa.
I know the tourism minister recently went to China to say how wonderful it was that we finally received the designation so more tourists could come from China to Toronto. That would definitely help our tourism industry. It is good for our economy and for our culture.
What we have not examined is the fact that 20% of those people who apply for visitor visas get turned down. When members of Parliament ask the visa office why they have been turned down, they are often given a standard form letter along the lines that their economic ties to the home country are not sufficient. What does that mean?
A few months ago, through Standing Order 43, I asked the Minister of Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism what precise criteria was needed at each of the visa offices around the globe to qualify visitors and allow them to get tourist visa approval.
I received a very interesting response, and that was there really were no specific criteria. There are no specific guidelines as to how much money people need to be making, what kind of job they need, what kind of property they need to have in their home land, how many family members need to be there. None of that is written down. There are no set rules.
How does one define economic ties? My constituents feel this is very strange. They have told me they have friends whose parents are making x dollars and that they are making the same amount or even more. They ask me why one set of parents can come to Canada to visit but theirs cannot?
How would I ever answer that question? We do not know the criteria. We do not know what the dollar amount is that people need in their bank account or what their salary needs to be to qualify as rich enough to come to Canada as a visitor.
I created a Facebook group called “Fairness for Visitor Visa”. I captured quite a large number of stories of people who were unable to bring their relatives or friends to Canada.
Allow me to read one or two of the stories. One of them is from Havva Seydaii. She says:
“My mother-in-law was denied a visitor's visa for the second time to come attend her son's (my husband) graduation from Ryerson University even though we provided all documents to prove she would not stay permanently in Canada. We even had a letter signed by a notary public. The really strange thing is that she visited Canada before in 1999 and returned to her home country, Turkey within 2 months, clearly indicating that she has no desire to stay here. My husband and I are both Canadian citizens and could sponsor her if we wanted to but she does not want to live in Canada and just needs a visitor's visa. It is obvious that the visa approval process is flawed and unfair. It causes people—