House of Commons photoWon his last election, in 2025, with 55% of the vote.
Business of Supply May 24th, 2018
Mr. Chair, our government is committed to a robust, fair, and efficient asylum system. Adding more decision-makers and making the necessary efficiencies has resulted in a 40% increase in claim finalization and productivity last year by the IRB. In addition to that, the $74 million investment we will make in the IRB as a result of budget 2018 will result in faster processing of asylum claims by the Immigration and Refugee Board.
Business of Supply May 24th, 2018
Mr. Chair, I am proud of the fact that because of the budget 2018 investments in further border security operations, as well as in the Immigration and Refugee Board, more claims will be be heard faster and in a fairer and final manner so that those who are deserving of Canada's protection get to stay, and those who are not will know that their cases are final and will be asked to leave Canada and will be removed.
Business of Supply May 24th, 2018
Mr. Chair, the fact is that we are the party and the government that has invested in more border security operations and faster processing of asylum claims. We have ensured that we have an aggressive outreach campaign, which we have sustained over the last number of months, to ensure people are not misinformed about Canada's immigration and asylum processes.
We will ensure that immigration continues to be a great tool for economic growth for Canada. We will work hard on these processing times and eliminate the backlogs that have kept families apart for years. We have a record that is second to none in the world.
Business of Supply May 24th, 2018
Mr. Chair, we are proud of our immigration levels plan. It will meet Canada's labour market and skills shortages, reunite more families than ever before, and ensure that the benefits of immigration are felt throughout the country, with the provincial nominee program increase of 33%. We will see more numbers coming in through the federal skilled worker program. This is a program that allows the best and the brightest in the world to be attracted to Canada. We have seen a doubling of the number of francophone applicants, under the express entry system, who have been invited to come to Canada through permanent residency. We are proud of that record.
Business of Supply May 24th, 2018
Mr. Chair, we doubled the admissions cap for parents and grandparents from 5,000 to 10,000. In addition to that, we replaced the former unfair application intake process under the previous government, with a much fairer process of random selection. This year, our government aims to admit 20,000 parents and grandparents, with increases in 2019 and 2020. We are proud of that record. We are reuniting more families than ever.
Business of Supply May 24th, 2018
Mr. Chair, I am proud of the fact that we are the party that has reduced processing times for immigrants in all areas of immigration processing. In fact, the numbers prove the case.
Refugee claimants are processed separately from all other immigration streams. We are proud of that. We are proud of the record in which we have fulfilled our campaign commitment to double the number of spots for parents and grandparents. We are working very hard to reduce processing times in the parent and grandparent stream, as well as eliminate the backlog in the parent and grandparent stream.
Business of Supply May 24th, 2018
Mr. Chair, I am proud of the fact that our government is the government that addressed the long wait times and the backlogs that we inherited from the previous government. We have made the necessary investments to ensure that processing times come down in the spousal program, in the live-in caregiver program, and in the privately sponsored refugee program. We are proud of that fact. We are continuing that work. It has not been affected by our response to irregular migration.
Business of Supply May 24th, 2018
Mr. Chair, I would assume that as the immigration critic, the hon. member would know that refugee claimants are processed by the Immigration and Refugee Board, which is an entirely separate stream as compared to all the other immigration streams that are processed through our Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada department. Those two streams are separate and one does not affect the other. I would expect the hon. member to be aware of those two separate streams not affecting each other.
Business of Supply May 24th, 2018
Mr. Chair, we are proud of the fact that we are making the necessary investments in more border security operations as well as making the necessary investments into the Immigration and Refugee Board to have faster processing of asylum claims so asylum claimants can have finality to their decisions. Those who are deemed to need Canada's protection get to stay and those who do not are removed from Canada.
Business of Supply May 24th, 2018
Mr. Chair, this is precisely why we have embarked, since last year, on a very aggressive and sustained outreach plan to diaspora communities in the United States and beyond to ensure people are aware of the potential dangers of crossing our borders irregularly, to ensure they understand our asylum and immigration system, and to ensure they are not victims to misinformation by other parties.