Madam Speaker, I was surprised by the government's tone in this debate.
The government is talking about the 10,000 refugees that it promised would arrive before December 31. How many refugees did it succeed in bringing to Canada by December 31? Approximately 10,000. It was simply a realistic promise to say that 10,000 refugees would be brought to Canada by December 31. The government promised that 25,000 refugees would be brought here. The 25,000 arrived three months later in 2016. I hope that the government will change its tone. It is not really the tone that I was hoping to hear today.
I am wondering whether my colleague thinks that the ideal response would be to compensate for the United States' decision by welcoming more refugees to Canada, thus sending the international community a clear message that, if our neighbour and ally does not want to take in any more refugees, we will compensate for that and meet our international obligations. We are going to ensure that our country takes a more active role in protecting refugees if our neighbour does not want to do so.
Is this not the time to compensate and send a strong message like that to the international community?