Mr. Speaker, it is always an honour and a privilege to rise on behalf of the great people of Swift Current—Grasslands—Kindersley.
I want to take a few moments here as I begin my speech to say happy birthday to my daughter Kenzie. She turned 11 today. Happy birthday, sweetie. I love her very much. I am really proud of the great young girl she is growing up to be, and I look forward to seeing the great woman she will be as well. This morning, she had to get up at 5:30 a.m. to get to the hockey rink in time for practice. She did that, and her teammates sang her happy birthday on the ice, which was pretty exciting. I think she brought cupcakes for her teammates. They got to celebrate her birthday at the hockey rink, so that must have been a lot of fun.
We have a bill before us today to deal with immigration. Immigration is always a fun topic to talk about. My grandmother immigrated to Canada from Scotland, and I have a great appreciation for people who have immigrated to Canada. I can track down the history of my family, the country of origin they came from, how they came to North America and what that journey looked like for them. We can obviously see the contributions that many people have made to Canada in building this country. This country is largely a country of people who have immigrated to Canada, so we know how important immigration is. I think it is important to make that comment right off the top.
I was happy to see that we were able to get many strong amendments at committee. I also want to echo the sentiment from some of my colleagues earlier. The minister mentioned that they were open to amendments. There was another member from Ottawa here who said, “Let us work fast at committee, make the improvements”. Even the member from Winnipeg said that he wanted to talk about the amendments. We have heard him talk a lot about some of the amendments here tonight, but more so about how he does not think it is right that the Conservatives and the Bloc voted in favour of amendments and they got added to the bill. I mean, the minister herself said that she was looking forward to amendments to the bill, and we were able to get those amendments. I think it looks really good, with the amendments we put into the bill.
In particular, there is the requirement for consecutive days in Canada, to have the time that is laid out in the bill be consecutive. I think that is a good starting point, because beyond the people who were affected by a decision, that four-year period, who were impacted by the bill originally, there is obviously the ripple effect for other folks who would be impacted by the bill. When we look at the requirement to spend 1,095 days in Canada, the government wanted it to be an arbitrary number for a parent. We made an amendment to make that consecutive time spent in Canada, which is a key piece. It would show a more substantive commitment to Canada and being committed to our country. I think that is a very strong place to start, because we want people who are going to be citizens of Canada to have a vested interest in Canada. If a person has no interest in Canada, if their parents have not spent any time in Canada, it would seem natural that there would be tough requirements to be able to gain Canadian citizenship, because there is a certain value that is added to our citizenship. However, we have seen, for 10 years, the Liberal government water down what it means to be Canadian. We continue to see that trend with this particular bill.
Going back to the case of my grandmother immigrating from Scotland, let us transpose that to Scotland, a country that has gone through its own independence revolution to break itself free. Looking at Scotland's requirements, one parent has to be born in Scotland. Based on the Scottish requirements, my mother would have been able to become a Scottish citizen, but it would not apply to me. I think about the 1,095 days. It would not be easy for me to spend 1,095 days in Scotland. I would have to have a very strong interest in being in Scotland. Therefore, that requirement is very important. I think it is a good amendment that we have here, and I look forward to continuing on this thread tomorrow when I have a chance to speak again.