Mr. Speaker, as we resume after the summer it is my honour to rise for the first time under the petitions rubric to present a petition that is really urgent and important. It is from Victoria Advocates for Refugees. This petition comes to us as an e-petition.
The petitioners make note of the fact that Canadians responded with great generosity and enthusiasm to the government's efforts to bring in Syrian refugees. Some of those private sponsorships remain unfulfilled.
What the petitioners request of this House is to eliminate the backlog of private sponsorships by the end of this year, to commit to at least 20,000 UN Convention refugees in each of the next five years, and to move toward greater flexibility for additional private sponsorships, so that if refugees are deemed acceptable, they are able to get the resources more expeditiously to settle those refugees within Canada.