Mr. Speaker, in terms of how many people would be impacted by this legislation, the reality is that the majority of lost Canadian cases were remedied by the legislative amendments that were implemented in 2009 and 2015, with about 20,000 people either acquiring citizenship or having their citizenship restored through the amendment.
The government has not tracked births abroad since the Citizenship Act came into force in 1977, so it is impossible to estimate the number of persons born abroad to Canadian citizens. The department only becomes aware of these individuals if they choose to engage with a department for services, for example, seeking proof of citizenship or a passport. Moreover, not every person who has become a citizen automatically through previous legislative amendments will choose to engage the department on their status and request documentation of the status. Between 2019 and 2023, inclusively, IRCC received an average of 48,000 applications for proof of citizenship certificates annually.