Mr. Speaker, I want to commend my colleague for raising some very good issues. Also, I know the minister has come back from a number of meetings he has had in other countries hat are faced by unscrupulous immigration consultants. In particular, I believe he was in Australia and India.
I had a chance to meet with the prime minister of India during his visit to Canada. I also had a chance to raise the issue of fraudulent immigration consultants who take advantage of very vulnerable people. In my riding, which is one of the largest multicultural, multi-ethnic and multi-religious ridings in the country, a number of very vulnerable individuals have been impacted and affected by these fraudulent immigration consultants.
I also wrote to the prime minister of India, hence the basis for my question. When I wrote to him, I also asked him to work with foreign governments such as Canada to ensure that they had legislation in place so these unscrupulous immigration consultants would not take advantage of vulnerable people and provide individuals with a false sense of hope for them to come to countries like Canada.
In regard to this legislation, we have spoken about having statutory powers for a regulatory body. What other initiatives does my colleague think Canada needs to put in place to also ensure we work with foreign governments, with countries like India, to ensure they can also put forward legislation to prevent immigration consultants who act unscrupulously from taking advantage of individuals?
Many of these people actually sell their homes, or mortgage their houses or sell off any assets they have because of a false hope they have been given by immigration consultants. What legislation does he think the government needs to put in place to build upon this to ensure there is also the help and collaboration of foreign governments?