Mr. Speaker, I listened to the member's speech and, of course, I take exception, because here, once again, another NDP member stands to give us a speech very similar to the previous one we heard, speaking about the issue of dual citizenship. The difference in the example he gave about himself personally being born in Canada and having only a Canadian citizenship and the person with dual citizenship is that the person with the dual citizenship, as the member ought to know, also has dual benefits in that other country. However, that person would not have acquired Canadian citizenship had he or she not stood and sworn or affirmed that he or she would faithfully observe the laws of Canada.
I submit to the hon. member that if people perform an act of treason or terror against a country, they are not fulfilling that very pledge that they made on the day they made the commitment to become a Canadian citizen. It is their responsibility to abide by that commitment that they made.
The member spoke about wait times to obtain Canadian citizenship being upwards of 30 or 31 months. I do not disagree with him on that.
The bill, however, would provide for the process to go from a three-step process to a one-step process, which would give more decision-making authority to senior officials who are familiar with files to process citizenship and would reduce that backlog from 30-31 months to under a year.
Would the member agree that this would benefit him and his constituents?