John McCallum

[Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship, June 9th, 2016]

Mr. Speaker, of course the situation facing Yazidis is deplorable, but from the beginning we have welcomed vulnerable refugees as determined by the United Nations, irrespective of religion. In addition, we are admitting refugees from other countries, including Yazidis. We are very proud of the fact that we have admitted almost four times as many refugees as did the Conservatives.

[Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship, June 8th, 2016]

Mr. Speaker, we actually satisfied 46,000 Syrian refugees who we admitted in the space of seven months.

It is true that in view of the enormous generosity of Canadians, and that is a good thing, who want to support refugees, we have been unable to keep up with the pace of demand for refugees from all these generous Canadians. That is why we have stepped up to the plate. We have committed to bring in all the refugees whose applications were made by March 31. We have sent more officials out into the field. We are working very hard to satisfy the demand of—

[Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship, June 8th, 2016]

Mr. Speaker, I certainly do not accept the premise of that question.

In terms of achievements, I will update the member on a very good number. Ninety-nine per cent of all the refugees are now in permanent housing. While it is true that we do not have precise numbers on jobs and language training, because that takes longer than finding housing, we are certainly investing much money and making much progress in terms of language training. We are working with employers to get jobs for the refugees.

We are working hard on all fronts.

[Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship, June 8th, 2016]

Mr. Speaker, I am very proud of what Liberals have done on refugees.

In seven months, we admitted 46,000 refugees, which is twice as many as the Conservatives admitted in a whole year. We re-established refugee health care, which the Conservatives had abolished, and that had been declared unconstitutional. We are spending hundreds of millions of dollars to welcome refugees, including the teaching of English and French.

[Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship, June 8th, 2016]

Mr. Speaker, that is certainly not what the Liberals are doing. Our acceptance of refugees is based on those who are most vulnerable, as determined by the United Nations, irrespective of religion.

I might point out that in seven short months, we admitted twice as many refugees as the previous government did in a whole year, so I am proud of our record on refugees, especially compared to the previous government's.

[Temporary Foreign Workers, June 7th, 2016]

Mr. Speaker, I am aware that there is a problem with foreign agricultural workers. The officials in my department are working very hard. They told me today that these workers will arrive on June 25 or earlier. I believe they will be here in time to do the work.

[Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship, June 7th, 2016]

Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank my colleague for her good question.

Supporting francophone immigration is a priority for our government and for me, and I am proud to say that we are launching an improved version of this program. The new program will make it easier to hire francophone workers and will support the vitality of francophone minority communities.

[Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship, June 7th, 2016]

Mr. Speaker, I have already commented on photo ops, but the general point is that because of the overwhelming generosity of Canadians, I am probably the only immigration minister in the world whose main challenge it is to bring refugees into this country quickly enough to satisfy the immense demand by Canadians to support them. So this is a very good thing. It reflects the generosity of our country.

However, at the same time, I have committed to bring in all of those Syrian refugees whose applications were submitted before March 31 of this year, and we have committed additional—

[Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship, June 7th, 2016]

Mr. Speaker, we will put to one side the reason people were laughing. I think it was perhaps because they thought I was funny.

However, in answer to the member's question, we do not consider anything to do with our resources for refugees to be amusing. I mentioned just a minute ago that we have committed $600 million to settlement for refugees in 2016-17 and an additional $37 million for Syrian refugees. The language training is important, and we have committed the funding for that language training to occur.

[Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship, June 7th, 2016]

Mr. Speaker, if the government wanted to send somebody somewhere for a photo op, I suspect there are people in this aisle it would probably send before it sent me.