Mr. Speaker, it is a pleasure to rise this evening to talk about what I believe is an important issue. The government has been negligent in dealing with the consequences of a decision it has made. It regards the health services that are necessary for the refugees who are in Canada. These are bona fide refugees I am referring to.
Earlier this year, the minister made a decision to cut off certain health benefits to those refugees, at a substantial cost. We have had stakeholders from coast to coast to coast come out as strong advocates for these very vulnerable individuals, appealing to the government to reverse its decision.
We have since found out that the government did not do its homework. There was no consultation whatsoever done with the different provinces and the stakeholders prior to the minister making these cuts. The minister used the excuse that it would be incorporated into the budget, and that is the reason why no consultation was done.
Therefore, I brought forward a motion to the citizenship and immigration committee, of which the parliamentary secretary and I are members, to have the committee study the impact of these cuts by the minister of immigration. I brought forward the suggestions each member had received from front-line doctors who treat refugees and wrote to the committee members asking for the opportunity to come to the committee to detail proof of the adverse outcome of this reckless policy decision.
We have stakeholders who want to come before the committee. I brought forward the motion so that the committee could listen to what would actually happen as a direct result of the decisions made by the minister of immigration regarding refugees.
My question now is this. At the very least, why will the government not afford the opportunity to those who generally care about our refugees to come before the citizenship and immigration committee, so at least they can be heard? The government would then have a better understanding of the ramifications relating to the cuts that were made to refugee health care.