Mr. Speaker, the real problem is that asylum seekers are supposed to be people who are coming here because they fear for their safety, because they are in danger in their own country.
However, we have seen that the asylum process increasingly became a completely separate immigration stream used to get around the regular immigration process. This was tolerated by the government and suited its purposes. When we spoke out about this situation, members on the other side of the House called us every name in the book. It was very problematic.
What is unfortunate is that we could have resolved this situation 10 years ago. Everything in this bill, or most of it, helps to address the problem. The system became bogged down and all sorts of crises were created, including the housing crisis, the homelessness crisis and the public service crisis, just because this government did not want to deal with the problems.