Madam Speaker, I rise today to speak to Bill C-3, an act to amend the Citizenship Act. I will be splitting my time with the hon. member for Ponoka—Didsbury.
Being a Canadian should mean something. Citizenship is not merely a passport or an identifier. It should mean pride, belonging and responsibility, but Bill C-3 risks turning Canadian citizenship into little more than a slogan and a check box, and in doing so, it cheapens the value of Canadian citizenship. When we start treating citizenship like a formality instead of the privilege that it is, we weaken the pride and unity that make our country strong. This bill cheapens what it truly means to be Canadian.
Canadian citizenship is more than a passport. It is a promise, a bond of loyalty and shared values. It is a commitment to the nation in which one lives. It means saying yes to the social contract that binds us.
As citizens, we contribute to the society in which we live. We contribute in exchange for rights and privileges. These rights and privileges have been fought for, died over and earned over hundreds of years. Citizenship is about taking an active role in our towns, cities and neighbourhoods, helping one another, building community and taking pride in this incredible country we call home. This bill would turn that privilege of citizenship into a mere piece of paper.
Under Bill C-3, some people living outside of Canada could automatically become Canadian citizens even if they have never set foot here, if they were born or adopted abroad and if their parents spent only about three years in Canada, just enough to meet the bare minimum requirement of 1,095 days that Bill C-3 sets out. This requirement does not even have to be consecutive days spent here.
The individual would not need to know our culture and may never even visit Canada, yet they would receive the same rights and privileges as someone who was born and raised here, or someone who chose to immigrate to Canada lawfully and build their life here. There would be no application process, no citizenship test and no background or security check. A person born with few ties to Canada would be granted full privileges, like those contributing.
A consequence of this may begin to arise in Canada's health care system. Already as it stands today, over 6.5 million Canadians are without a family doctor. Wait times in hospitals have skyrocketed. There are over 80,000 foreign-trained medical professionals in this country who are not working in health care. Canada is paying more into health care today than ever before and outcomes continue to worsen. In 2024, the median wait time for health care was 30 weeks, the longest wait times ever recorded in this country.
We have also had record population increases over the past 10 years. This is not a coincidence. Adding more people to any system that has not grown to keep up will result in worse outcomes, be it in health care, housing or societal cohesion.
Imagine a Canada where citizens who have never set foot on Canadian soil come into this country and begin receiving health care. They benefit from a system that working Canadians have contributed their hard-earned dollars to. This would only further the strain and demand we are already seeing in a health care system that is barely afloat.
Bill C-3 would give out citizenship automatically, with no screening for criminal history, no review for national security and no check for any real connection to Canada. At a time when many countries are working to keep their citizenship processes strong and secure, the Liberal government is lowering the bar.
Under Bill C-3, a person could live here on occasion, spend most of their life abroad and have a child overseas, and that child would still become a Canadian citizen automatically, without any review and without any ties to this country. That cheapens what it means to be Canadian.
For generations, becoming a citizen has meant something real. It has meant putting down roots, working hard, learning our history and contributing to our communities. It has meant earning the right call ourselves Canadian and being proud of it. However, the bill would open the door to citizens of convenience, people who can enjoy the benefits of being Canadian without sharing in the responsibilities that come with it.
This is part of a large pattern. After 10 years of the Liberal government, Canada's immigration system is broken. It is not the fault of newcomers who were promised a better life, but it is the fault of a government that has brought people into Canada under false pretenses, mismanaged our immigration programs, failed to plan for housing and ignored the strain on health care and social services.
The Conservatives support restoring citizenship to lost Canadians and ensuring that adopted children are treated equally, but the bill would go far beyond that. The Conservatives tried to fix these problems in committee. We proposed common-sense amendments that would have protected the values of Canadian citizenship. We asked that parents passing on citizenship by descent or adoption show a real residency in Canada for consecutive years, just as any naturalized citizen must do. We proposed language and knowledge requirements so that new citizens by descent understood Canada's history, laws and responsibilities. We required security screening for adults so that anyone gaining citizenship would be vetted and would pose no threat to national safety. We also called for the minister to report annually to Parliament on how many automatic citizenships are granted abroad and to disclose any cases where security screening was waived.
These were reasonable, balanced and responsible changes. They would have restored integrity while still addressing the unfair treatment of lost Canadians.
Due to the hard work of Conservatives at committee, with the help of our colleagues in the Bloc, these amendments were successfully carried, but just yesterday, the government caved to the radical NDP and rolled back these common-sense amendments, once again proving that they do not value what it means to be Canadian and that the bill is nothing more than a vote-buying ploy.
The government says that it wants fairness, yet it refuses to protect the value of Canadian citizenship. The Minister of Immigration has an opportunity to fulfill her promise to help lost Canadians while ensuring citizenship is not given to those with no real connection to Canada.
This is about fairness, but it is also about integrity. It is not fair to the millions of immigrants who came here, learned our language, passed their citizenship test, paid taxes and built lives here to see others receive the same citizenship automatically from abroad. That creates a two-tiered system where some earn their place and others inherit it with no effort.
For decades, immigrants came to Canada under harsh conditions. Many came with nothing and worked to earn their place in Canada. They came with barely any money let alone the privilege of citizenship.
We can fix this. The Conservatives believe citizenship should be based on loyalty, service and contribution, not on loopholes and paperwork. We can restore pride in Canadian citizenship and give newcomers a system that is strong, fair and consistent. However, Bill C-3 would not strengthen citizenship; it would weaken it. It would trade commitment for convenience and a genuine connection for technical calculation. Canadians deserve better.
We must reject the watering down of our citizenship and the broken immigration system the Liberal government caused over the past 10 years. We must return to a society where our values are championed, not spat on.
Canada is founded upon principles that recognize the supremacy of God and the rule of law, where everyone has the fundamental freedoms of conscience, religion, thought, belief, opinion, expression, peaceful assembly and association; where every citizen has the right to vote; where every citizen has the right to enter, remain in and leave Canada; where everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of the person; and where every individual is equal before and under the law.
I came here to this House to defend these principles, and I along—