Mr. Speaker, I want to pick up on one aspect of the budget that the government has unfortunately not addressed, and that is the issue of citizenship.
It is going to become more difficult for an individual to get Canadian citizenship. It is also going to become much more costly. There are 1.5 million landed immigrants here in Canada. Ultimately we want them to become citizens of Canada, but they are going to pay a lot more money to get their citizenship as a direct result of the Conservative government. They will have to pay somewhere in the neighbourhood of $300 or $400. As well, they will have to get IELTS testing done, and the government is expanding the age for this testing from 54 to 60. The Conservatives seem to have missed the mark.
There has been a huge increase in the backlog. Even after someone qualifies for Canadian citizenship, he or she has to wait another two or three years. It seems to me that the government should be speeding up the process so that when individuals qualify for citizenship, they will not have to wait for two or three years, and possibly far longer, to acquire it.
I wonder if the member could comment on that.