House of Commons photoWon his last election, in 2015, with 56% of the vote.
Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship April 19th, 2016
Mr. Speaker, such behaviour is clearly against the rules and the perpetrators will be held to account. If judged appropriate by the appropriate authorities, they could be charged as well under criminal law.
That being said, the vast majority of Canadians are displaying extraordinary generosity to the Syrian refugees.
Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship April 18th, 2016
Mr. Speaker, in the near future, we will be making it easier for international students to become permanent residents. We will also be reducing significantly the processing time for families.
Already we have brought in more than 26,000 Syrian refugees. We have re-established refugee health care. Also, we have re-established the principle that there is one, not two, class of Canadian citizens.
Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship April 18th, 2016
Mr. Speaker, refugees always spend some time in hotels. For the third time, I would inform the member that 87% of those refugees are now in permanent housing.
Also, I am probably the only immigration minister in the world whose major problem is an inability to get refugees to Canada fast enough to satisfy the overwhelming generosity of Canadians, but I am working on it.
Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship April 18th, 2016
Mr. Speaker, it sounds like the hon. member did not hear my answer to the previous question. Perhaps she could revise her questions in light of what has been said. The point is that these people are largely out of hotels, with 87% in permanent housing.
The other thing I said was that we were under budget. We have delivered this program on time, under budget, and it is good news.
Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship April 18th, 2016
Mr. Speaker, not only can I say that we are under budget, I can also say that I am extremely proud of our refugee program, which has brought 26,000 people to Canada. Yes, there were some hotel bills, but 87% of those refugees are now in permanent housing, and their hotels were a temporary cost only.
Therefore, the member should celebrate the success of our refugee efforts.
Immigration April 15th, 2016
Mr. Speaker, I totally agree. We will get rid of this two-year waiting period.
When we were in opposition, expert groups made it abundantly clear that this system gave rise to unacceptable domestic abuse, and for that reason, we committed to getting rid of it. We will get rid of it in the coming months. At the same time, we will introduce major new initiatives to reduce processing times for spouses, who now have to wait up to two years or more which is totally unacceptable.
Ethics April 15th, 2016
Mr. Speaker, this government has demonstrated a level of transparency and integrity that Canada has not seen in 10 years.
With respect to the event in question, the commissioner said before the event that there was no problem, and her opinion has not changed since the event. I do not understand why the opposition continues to ask questions about something that is not a problem.
Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship March 24th, 2016
Mr. Speaker, I am happy to report to the House that, while three weeks ago the proportion of refugees in permanent housing stood at 52%, as of yesterday the proportion of the Syrian refugees in permanent housing had increased to 78%. While I have always said that there would be bumps along the way, this is clearly strong progress, and I am confident that every single one of these refugees will be in permanent housing before the end of June.
Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship March 22nd, 2016
Mr. Speaker, it is true that over the last 10 years, these Conservatives starved my department of money and diverted resources from families, to the point where it takes an unacceptable two years for a husband and wife to be reunited.
We are putting more money in. We are learning from the Syrian experience to do things faster. And first and foremost, my objective is to clean up this big fat Conservative mess.
Questions on the Order Paper March 21st, 2016
Mr. Speaker, pursuant to the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, the Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship tables the “Annual Report to Parliament on Immigration” on or before November 1 of each year, or, if a house of Parliament is not then sitting, within the next 30 days on which that house is sitting after that date. The 2016 immigration levels plan, which was recently tabled alongside the annual report, includes admission ranges for resettled refugees by stream--government-assisted refugees, privately sponsored refugees, and blended visa office-referred refugees.
The 2016 plan sets a target of 44,800 resettled refugees--government-assisted refugees, blended visa office-referred refugees, and privately sponsored refugees--within a range of 41,000 to 46,000. This level of admissions is more than triple the admissions in 2015 and is sufficient space to allow the resettlement of 25,000 government-supported refugees from Syria, and also to meet ongoing multi-year resettlement commitments, outlined below.
More specifically, the levels plan establishes the following admissions targets for resettled refugees: 24,600 government-assisted refugees, within a range of 24,000 to 25,000; 2,400 blended visa office-referred refugees, within a range of 2,000 to 3,000; and 17,800 privately-sponsored refugees, within a range of 15,000 to 18,000.
For the government-assisted refugee stream, each year, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, IRCC, allocates admissions in the levels plan to various vulnerable populations to support the department’s multi-year resettlement commitments. Canada’s ongoing multi-year commitments are as follows: Eritreans, 4,000 persons by end of 2018; Congolese, Democratic Republic of Congo, 2,500 persons by end of 2017; Colombians, 900 persons by end of 2016; and mixed populations out of Turkey, e.g., Iranians, Iraqis and Syrians, 5,000 persons by end of 2017.
Accordingly, government-assisted refugees resettled in 2016 will include individuals from the countries of origin listed above. Resettled refugee admissions not allocated to a multi-year commitment are used for individual protection needs, and new refugee situations, as they emerge. Refugees resettled under the blended visa office-referred stream are selected from the same pool as government-assisted refugees referred by the United Nations High Commission for Refugees according to the above criteria. And, blended visa office-referred refugees will, correspondingly, be from similar countries of origin.
Admissions in the privately sponsored refugee stream are not determined in advance in the same way admissions for government-assisted refugees are guided by multi-year commitments. Private sponsors name the refugee(s) they wish to sponsor, and thus the number of sponsored refugees from different countries of origin fluctuates from year to year based on sponsorship. In 2014, for example, the top nine countries of origin of privately sponsored refugees were Eritrea, Syria, Somalia, Iraq, Afghanistan, Ethiopia, Congo, Pakistan, and Sudan.