Madam Speaker, in recent weeks, the provincial nominee program in the province of Prince Edward Island has come under fire due to an alleged scandal involving bribery and fraud. Government workers have come forward to speak to the large amounts of money exchanging hands, potential political interference and a complete lack of accountability. This, of course, raises the issue of integrity in our immigration system.
All Canadians and all members of the House want to be confident that our immigration system is fair, transparent, accountable and operated with integrity. However, there are many aspects of the immigration system that cause Canadians to wonder if this is indeed the case in other programs as well.
The temporary foreign worker program comes to mind. There are serious issues of enforcement across our country where workers in Alberta, British Columbia or across the Prairies are working in conditions that violate our employment standards in those provinces. There is the possibility of exploitation of those workers, as we saw last year when an employer operated a lumber camp where workers were housed in deplorable conditions and treated far below the standards that Canadians have come to expect.
We have immigrants who are not on the citizenship track through the temporary foreign workers program. I might point out to Canadians that we now have more temporary foreign work visas issued every year than we have permanent residents coming to this country.
What does it say about our country when we let people come to Canada, not to be part of our society, not to make a life for themselves and their families and not to become citizens, but for their inexpensive labour before we send them home after using them?
We have a backlog that has recently been confirmed by CIC officials to be over one million long. Wait times are unacceptable. We are telling the world that we want people to come here. We invite people to come make their lives in Canada. We need them to come here and build our economy but then we make them wait for years to come, or worse, years to bring over their family members.
There are good economic reasons to increase the number of permanent residents who we accept every year, especially in the case of family reunification. This would only bolster the integrity of our system.
With respect to wait times, it is not uncommon for people to wait 10 to 13 years to bring their parents or grandparents to our country. It is not uncommon to wait five to ten years to bring a skilled worker to this country. Part of integrity in any system is having faith that it can be operated in an efficient manner, and that is not the case right now with many parts of our immigration system.
Then there is the issue of consultations. There is a disturbing trend to the manner in which the government is developing policy. It claims to be doing wide-ranging consultations, however, many people and groups are left out of the consultation process. This was the case last summer. People who are not invited to consultations are told that they can submit an online statement. How can they feel confident that their views will be heard and acted upon? The minister toured the country seeking input about the levels of immigration our country should have and yet many groups and people were not consulted by the minister and their views were ignored.
Last week, the Minister of Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism and the Minister of Human Resources and Skills Development announced that they would be doing consultations on temporary foreign workers in Alberta but the Alberta Federation of Labour is not welcome. It cannot get answers from the ministers.
Canadians want to know that we have good policies. Canadians want to know that our system is administered in a fair and efficient manner.
Live-in caregivers want to be reunited with their families and people who apply for temporary resident visas in this country want to ensure we have a fair program and a fair policy.
Canadians want integrity in the immigration system. I ask the government to assure Canadians and tell us how Canadians can have that confidence, not only in light of what has happened in Prince Edward Island but also with respect to the comprehensive immigration system that we have?