Chris Alexander

[Citizenship and Immigration, May 15th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, the member should be ashamed of her comments. Refugees and the children of refugees are receiving the interim federal health care program. We are proud of that record.

The opposition is calling for failed claimants, fraudulent claimants, bogus claimants to receive health care. That is the direction the Wynne government has gone into. That is the direction some doctors have gone, unilaterally, into. We will not support that approach. Many, many voters across this province and the country and many, many taxpayers are asking the same question. Those responsible for those decisions will be held accountable.

[Citizenship and Immigration, May 15th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, will the member apologize for her lack of understanding of the refugee system, of the asylum system? She has insisted refugees are not receiving health care from the federal government. Every one is receiving it.

She would have us pay for failed refugee claimants, fraudulent refugee claimants, bogus refugees claimants and, it sounds like, for visitors to Canada. This is a decision the Wynne government has made. This is a decision that some doctors are calling for unilaterally. They will have to account to voters and to taxpayers for those decisions.

[Citizenship and Immigration, May 15th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, we have been very clear on this matter. The interim federal health program is intended for genuine refugees. We are not going to give funding provided by Canadian taxpayers to fraudulent or failed refugee claimants, nor to all the visitors to Canada. They number 10 million per year. We cannot afford it and it is laughable for the NDP to suggest it.

[Citizenship and Immigration, May 15th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, it was a statement put out by the Department of Citizenship and Immigration in error. As soon as it had been put out, in error, it was retracted. I have publicly apologized, unreservedly, to Mr. Selliah, and still the NDP does not accept a public apology.

Will the New Democrats apologize for having misused taxpayer money in Montreal and elsewhere? We are still waiting.

[Citizenship and Immigration, May 15th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, that was a statement issued by my department that never should have been issued. I apologized to Mr. Selliah. We will continue to work with immigration consultants across Canada to regulate their profession better than ever before.

[Employment, May 15th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, thanks to the changes that this government has made, and especially those made by my colleague, the Minister of Employment and Social Development, when he was in this portfolio, we have fewer backlogs, we have faster immigration in our country and last year, we had 44,000 temporary workers who became immigrants to our country. That is five or six times the last number that the Liberals ever gave us.

We are on the right path. We are going to get the job market and the immigration system right for Canadians and for our economy.

[Citizenship and Immigration, May 15th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, is it really the position of the Leader of the Opposition that anyone who comes to Canada—and 10 million people come a year—should receive provincial health care? Is that his position? That is new. That is on top of the $20 million in new carbon taxes. That is on top of tens of thousands of dollars in new taxes.

That is unaffordable. That is not the responsibility of the federal government. That is the responsibility of the provinces. We will continue to protect refugees.

[Citizenship and Immigration, May 15th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, we have been very clear about who will receive and who will not receive the interim federal health care program following our reform of the asylum system. Refugees will continue to receive this absolutely essential program. Those who will not receive it are failed refugee claimants, fraudulent claimants, bogus claimants, and indeed, the 10 million visitors who come to Canada every year. They do not qualify for provincial or territorial health care. If the Wynne government in Ontario or the Leader of the Opposition want to reverse those decisions, they will have to be accountable to taxpayers.

[Employment, May 13th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, we will continue to review this program, as we review all of our immigration programs. We will continue to encourage and, in some cases, oblige our partners to do more publicity here in Canada in front of the audience that is Canadian youth, to tell them about the opportunities that exist in Asia, Europe, and Latin America for Canadians. Those opportunities are there, and sometimes they are not seized because of a lack of understanding and a lack of knowledge.

However, let us be very clear why so many foreign students are coming here under this program and relatively fewer Canadians are going abroad, for now; we think many more will go, over the long-term. It is because youth unemployment in this country is 1% lower than it was when the Liberals left office. Moreover, that is even after the worst global crisis in our lifetime. Youth unemployment is much higher in many of our partner countries than it is here, certainly in Europe, certainly in the United States. That is an advantage for Canada.

We are not going to apologize for the relative success of the Canadian economy, but we are doing everything in our power through the Canada jobs grant, through apprenticeships, through our planning for an immigration program, which is on target, to ensure young Canadians get first crack at today's opportunities and help us to build the sectors and the exciting regional opportunities of the future that are happening across this country.

[Employment, May 13th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, I thank the hon. member for Cape Breton—Canso for his continuing interest in this topic. I would first like to pay tribute to my parliamentary secretary, who is usually here at this time answering all manner of questions far better than I will be able to tonight. However, because this conversation began between the member opposite and me in question period, I am here to carry it on. It is an important one.

To give the short answer to the question, the reciprocity is there. In principle, we have opportunities, up to 60,000 places for young Canadians, in the 32 countries that are part of this international experience Canada program.

There have been times when we have achieved reciprocity, or virtually reciprocity, across the entire program. Those were times, to be very blunt, and the member well knows this, when the economic prospects, or the economic reality, in those countries in the job market was as strong as it was in Canada. Right now, it is not as strong in those countries as it is in Canada.

There is a disproportionately larger attraction for foreign students to come here than perhaps for Canadian students to go to some places.

We are looking at this program with a long-term perspective. I appeal to the member opposite to think of his own party's record in starting this program in 1951 and expanding it in 2003, for reasons that we all recognize are important.

Let us remind ourselves of the objectives of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act: to permit Canada to pursue the maximum social, cultural, and economic benefits of immigration, not just the economic but the social and cultural benefits as well; to enrich and strengthen the social and cultural fabric of Canada; to reinforce minority language communities; and to promote visitors, students, and temporary workers for the purposes of trade, commerce, tourism, and international understanding.

These are among the goals of our act. I would submit that the international experience Canada program is among those components of our overall immigration program that does the most to achieve those objectives.

These are really not temporary foreign workers. These are students, young people, often with high skills, with an interest in Canada. Of those who self-identify and tell us about the employment they receive, 87% have high skills. They come on exchange. They create opportunities for Canadians to go abroad. As other economies recover, we are convinced that Canadians will seize those opportunities.

They also perform some very important additional purposes for immigration in Canada. Let us keep in mind that 44,000 of our new permanent residents in 2013 were people who were already here as temporary foreign workers, including as members of the international experience Canada program. They were people who proved themselves here, studied here, worked here, and chose to stay here.

Second, we are looking to reinforce francophone immigration outside of Quebec in this country. This is one of the objectives we have as a government. It is no surprise that France is the biggest player in international experience Canada, and France is also the biggest source of francophone immigrants outside of Canada. In 2013, over 600 stayed as immigrants in provinces and territories outside of Quebec.

Finally, there is the question of good will and building trade relationships. We are being told on all sides that we need to do more to ensure that companies, sectors, and governments have people with international experience and international connections to help us seize the opportunities afforded by CETA in Europe, free trade with Korea, the continuing opportunities of NAFTA, and new opportunities in Latin America.

That is why we have these agreements to bring young people precisely from those countries, for the most part, to Canada in large numbers, to keep them here as immigrants, and to maintain connections with them over their lifetimes for the benefit of our country and the reciprocal benefit of those countries as well.