Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship  Madam Speaker, the member opposite is a classic example of that party's efforts to pit one group of immigrants against another. That is exactly what the Conservatives are doing. The member opposite knows full well that refugees and asylum seekers are processed by the Immigration and Refugee Board, while other immigrants and resettled refugees, as well as family class immigrants, go through the regular immigration stream.

Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship  We have invested $117 million for more border security operations and we made a $74 million investment in the Immigration and Refugee Board for faster processing of asylum claims. The party opposite has absolutely no credibility on this issue. What have the Conservatives proposed? They have proposed turning the entire 9,000-kilometre border into an official port of entry without extra resources. They have even suggested that we commandeer a barn at a port of entry.

Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship  When her party was in power, it was against making investments to protect vulnerable people; it was against making investments to secure our border, and it was against making investments to fast-track refugee processes. When we decided to make those investments, the Conservatives voted against them. They voted against additional resources for border security. They voted against additional resources for refugee processing. Finally, they voted—

Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship  We have made the necessary investments in speeding up work permits for asylum seekers so we minimize the impacts on provincial social services. What is irresponsible is Conservatives cutting funding for CBSA and pretending that they care about the border. What is irresponsible is cutting funding for the IRB and refugee processing. What is irresponsible is having toxic relationships with provinces.

Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship  We have invested, as part of budget 2018, $173 million for border security operations, and $74 million for the IRB for faster processing of refugee claims. What is scandalous is that the Harper Conservatives cut $390 million from CBSA—

Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship  What that party did when it was in government was to irresponsibly cut $390 million from CBSA. It is very rich for that member to talk about border operations when the Conservatives cut much-needed investments in CBSA.

Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship  When the time came to invest in CBSA, the party opposite voted against that measure. We will take no lessons from the Conservatives on this issue.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  The honourable member is suggesting that I've removed something from a product that hasn't been completed, so I'd like to set the record straight about that—

Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship  However, for far too long these people have been waiting to reunite with their own families. Under the mismanagement of the immigration system by the Conservatives, caregivers have been facing wait times of between four and five years. Our government will eliminate the caregiver backlog by the end of 2018, and we will establish a new processing time of only 12 months for new applications.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  When conditional PR was put in place by the Conservative government, women's advocacy groups, other advocacy groups, experts, everyone told them to not do that, because it would place women in vulnerable situations. They didn't listen. They went ahead with a wrong-headed policy, and here we are.

Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship  Mr. Speaker, Canadians and the international community recognize this government's record and leadership on welcoming refugees, and I am proud of our record and our leadership. We are investing more than $700 million this year on refugee resettlement and integration services; $62.9 million in budget 2017 for legal aid for refugees to better make their case in front the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada.

Official Languages committee  We spent $76 million more on settlement services for refugees and all newcomers. I think that record speaks for itself. The record left to us by the previous government was abysmal on the part of settlement and integration.

Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship  Our government is deeply committed to gender equality and combatting gender-based violence. The former Conservative government ignored women's rights groups, it ignored experts, and it ignored immigrant women's groups, which denounced the conditional permanent residency as a wrongheaded policy that trapped vulnerable women in abusive relationships.

Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship  Speaker, we made a promise to Canadians that we will fix the immigration system to grow our economy and reunite families and eliminate the backlogs that were left behind by the Conservatives. Our multi-year immigration plan is the most ambitious yet. It supports GDP growth, attracts more investment into Canada, creates additional jobs for Canadians, and boosts innovation.

Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship  We inherited a system under that party, where we were waiting for 24 months for citizenship. We cut that down to 12 months. Under the Conservative members' party, when it was in power, it was taking 48 months for spouses to be reunited. We now have a new standard of 12 months. We eliminated 20,000 cases from the spousal backlog.