Madam Speaker, prior to question period, I was talking about the changes being proposed to Canada's immigration and refugee laws. For the benefit of those who are tuning in now, we are talking about Bill C-31. I was also talking about how proud I am as a refugee myself, coming here almost 28 years ago, to be a Canadian and about how disappointed I am to see our immigration system not being able to keep up with the demands that have been placed on it and the problems that has created.
We cannot keep up with the pressures on our immigration system and the unfortunate spin-off of problems. People are fed up waiting to go through the application process, either on the refugee process side or on the general immigration side.
We have seen many problems over the last number of years because of the lack of resources that have been placed in this particular area of the government. We hope this will be changed.
Even though the Minister of Citizenship and Immigration touts the new legislation as being tough and fixing many of the current problems facing the system, it will not accomplish its objectives and will likely to significantly slow down the entire immigration system. This is a big concern for us in the official opposition and for Canadians.
No matter what is contained in the new act, it will never be effective if the government does not ensure that there is improved management of the system, better training, tighter auditing and more emphasis placed on enforcement.
I want to touch on the idea of enforcement in light of the people smuggling and the number of refugees who have come from China in the recent past. This has raised a lot of questions about our immigration system and specifically the track record of the government on the management of the department. We do need to seriously address these questions.
The passage of Bill C-31 would be like signing a blank cheque to a government that has proven incapable of managing Canada's immigration system. The regulations will actually determine how the new immigration laws are applied and enforced. As I said, the immigration minister had the opportunity to make this bill work better but she has not done so.
The area I want to touch on specifically is where we saw some really tough talk from this minister, especially when it came to describing the new legislation. The bill will not deliver the necessary changes to re-establish the integrity of the immigration system and protect our borders from organized crime, terrorists, people smuggling and illegal immigration. These are things that are very important to Canadians in light of some the things that have happened recently. They want to see their immigration system work and their borders patrolled effectively. They want to see the resources needed to process immigrants and refugees put into the department to make the system work more effectively.
The bill provides for higher maximum penalties for the crime of human trafficking. On the surface this appears to be strengthening our laws, and it does, but it will have little or no effect on the flow of illegal immigration to Canada.
The stiffest penalties would apply only to those in charge of people trafficking operations. They are untouchable under Canadian laws as they operate primarily outside the country. The biggest problem is how to actually bring to justice the people who are profiting from the illegal trafficking of people. If the bill does not even begin to address this issue, then we have failed. The government has failed to strengthen this particular part of the bill and to stop the problem of illegal refugees and immigrants coming to this country.
The mid-level organizers who may live in Canada are protected by organized crime rings and are rarely caught and seldom convicted. Once this bill comes into force, it would be surprising to see even one person convicted and given a harsh penalty for the crime of human trafficking.
The current maximum penalties have never actually been applied to anyone convicted of people smuggling. In fact, as of 1999 the highest penalties ever handed out were 10 months in jail and a $3,000 fine. This is hardly the type of justice that should be put down on these sorts of people who are creating the crimes specifically pertaining to immigration.
With respect to enforcement, Bill C-31 mirrors the current Immigration Act. All that has really changed is how the act is laid out. The minister's strong message should not fool Canadians into believing this piece of legislation will fix the system. This bill lacks the necessary teeth to seriously address Canada's growing illegal immigration problems.
The bill is touted as the result of extensive consultation with the Canadian public, industry experts, law enforcement agencies and parliamentarians. The fact is that successive studies and reports were ignored by this minister. She would be hard-pressed to point out where even a handful of the recommendations can be found in the bill.
We have seen over and over again that when recommendations are made through the public process, through inquiries, through a number of different channels trying to involve the public to improve legislation, to be reflective of what Canadians want in this country, that the government seems to ignore grassroots Canadians. It seems to ignore the people that this type of legislation affects the most.
This is unacceptable to Canadians. It is unacceptable to the official opposition. We see legislation continuously pass through this place that could go a step further, that could be better, that could help Canadians. However, unfortunately, with the government's lacks of response to grassroots Canadians, we do not see legislation being improved the way we would like to see it improved and the way Canadians would like to see it improved.
Even if the new immigration bill were good legislation, which it is not, it would not be effective until the government implements better management, training, auditing and enforcement within the system.
For 10 years the auditor general has stated that Canada's immigration and refugee system is in serious need of repair. The government has continually failed to listen to Canadians as well as potential immigrants and refugees.
The auditor general in his recent evaluation of Canada's immigration department states:
On the whole, we are very concerned about the Department's ability to ensure compliance with legislative requirements in this area. We noted serious deficiencies in the way it applies admissibility criteria related to health, criminality and security. It is somewhat disappointing to note the limited progress it has made since our 1990 Report....We believe that the Department needs to take corrective action without delay to ensure the integrity and effectiveness of the Canadian Immigration Program.
This is the auditor general speaking about Canada's immigration department and still the government refuses to acknowledge some of these criticisms, even from its own advisers.
This is something which Canadians need to take note of, especially when we are dealing with a bill that hits so close to home, the immigration and the refugee matter. It is a shame that this government will not even listen to its own auditor general.
Considering the abysmal track record of the government and its management of the department, this is a very dangerous piece of legislation. Much of the regulation in the bill is left to the regulation side and is not included in the legislative process in the House.
I also want to talk, generally, about what Canadians want to see when they look at their immigration system and the things that system should provide. Canadians want an immigration system which will accommodate independent immigrants who will quickly add to our economy, which will welcome genuine refugees and which will reunite these people with their families as soon as possible.
The government has failed to deliver what Canadians want in this new bill. There are a total of two clauses in Bill C-31 that refer to independent immigration. The rest is left to the regulations, as I said. Regulations will give the minister and her department the authority to determine, without guidance from the legislation, the definition of the terms child and common law partner; how to apply to amend the point system; how many of these applications would be approved every year; the number of immigration applications accepted each year; and the designation of classes of people such as spouses, foreign workers or foreign students who would be eligible for landing.
This raises a few concerns for Canadians to have this sort of discretion left to the regulations and not defined specifically in the legislation.
Through the committee process my colleague from Lakeland, who is our immigration critic, put forward a number of amendments to deal with this area, trying to strengthen this legislation to make it more responsive to some of the things I have mentioned, and especially trying to put some teeth into it.
In the committee process we would hope there would be an effort made by all members of this place to be non-partisan and to put forward amendments to improve legislation, no matter what side of the House they sit on. Committees are supposed to represent democracy and bring forth good ideas to make legislation better. They should not be involved in partisan politics.
However, we have seen committees continuously deteriorate to become havens of partisan politics, where we do not try to help one another improve legislation, especially when a member of the opposition puts forward amendments which could make government legislation better. Government members continuously vote down those amendments. It is not that opposition members want credit for those amendments, they just want to see Canadians well served. They want to see legislation improved and they want to see the committee process work.
Time and again we see the government continuously slap opposition members in the face. It slaps the committee process in the face and does not allow the committees to work the way they are supposed to. It is disheartening. It is disheartening to members of the opposition who are trying to serve their constituents and trying to improve legislation for Canadians. It is disheartening for Canadians who sometimes have the opportunity to tune in to committees. We do not even open up that process as much as we should. It is disheartening to Canadians to see their parliamentary system not working the way it should to improve legislation. We in the official opposition continue to fight to improve the transparency of this place, to improve the way the committee system works and hopefully to even have freer votes in the House to improve legislation. No matter what side of the House members sit on, if they have good ideas which can improve legislation, those ideas should be heard and endorsed in the House.
Canadians are concerned with how immigration will benefit Canada. This legislation provides no clear or firm laws to govern immigration. Once again, Canada's immigration system will be left to the hands of bureaucrats and the government, leaving very little room for accountability to the Canadian public.
I would like to summarize some of the points I have made in my speech today, especially in light of this bill and the changes that have been proposed to the immigration and refugee protection bill. The Minister of Citizenship and Immigration touts this legislation as being tough; that it will fix many of the problems Canada's immigration system faces today.
As I and many of my colleagues have demonstrated, this bill will not accomplish its objectives and is likely to significantly slow down the entire immigration system.
That is the result Canadians do not want. The result we were fighting for was to make our immigration system work better. We want to have a system which focuses its resources properly, which makes this process work more effectively and which processes legitimate refugees and immigrants more effectively, not a system which is bogged down by a government that fails to lead and fails to make its system more transparent.
As I mentioned at the beginning, as an immigrant to this country it disappoints me greatly that this government will not act to implement the changes which Canadians want.
