Citizenship and Immigration committee  I question your facts. Tell me how Latin-based immigrants can learn English or French faster than Asian-speaking immigrants. If I heard you properly, I think that is just ridiculous. I think immigrants from around the world have the ability to learn other languages, and I would question the premise you're about to launch.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I had some good discussions with Premier Campbell about this, and the Minister of Citizenship and Immigration for Ontario, Mike Colle, and many others as well. We're looking at ways to help provinces that already have great numbers of immigrants, but we're also looking at ways to help, for instance, Atlantic Canada to find a way to regionalize immigration so we can make sure they continue to go up in population instead of down.

Public Safety committee  Chairman, the CSIS deputy director, Jack Hooper, told a Senate committee that CSIS was able to screen only 10% of immigrants coming to Canada from the region of Pakistan and Afghanistan. The quote was: “We're in a position to vet one-tenth of those.” When asked if that meant CSIS was not satisfied about the 90% of immigrants coming from that region, Mr.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  We're ready to start our committee meeting. I want to welcome the minister to the Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration. I want to remind all that our proceedings today will be televised. The minister is here, of course, to present his estimates for the Department of Citizenship and Immigration. As you can see from the form that's been handed out, it will be votes 1, 5, and 10 under the Department of Citizenship and Immigration, which have been referred to our committee today.

Citizenship and Immigration  Mr. Morgan said that “most immigrants who abuse our society have come in as refugee claimants--

Citizenship and Immigration  I ask the Minister of Immigration to apologize to Jamaican and Vietnamese Canadians for the appointment of Gwyn Morgan.

Seniors  The position we are taking will work very well for the seniors the hon. member is speaking about. This particular provision will ensure that we do not compromise our immigration policy.

Canadian Citizenship Act  I call upon the Conservative government to keep its promise and table a new Citizenship Act that ends discriminatory practices and to use as its guide the unanimous 12th report of the citizenship and immigration committee from the last Parliament entitled, “Updating Canada's Citizenship Laws: It's Time”.

Budget Implementation Act, 2006  Mr. Speaker, the problem facing the immigrant community these days is the issue of wait times for sponsoring their parents, grandparents and other relatives. The former Liberal government provided $70 million to reduce wait times for processing immigrants who wanted to come to Canada.

Budget Implementation Act, 2006  The Canadian Strategy for Cancer Control duplicates what is already being done in Quebec. In immigration, the recognition of immigrants’ professional credentials is a very good thing, but once again, this is something that is decided in Quebec and the provinces. It would be better to give provinces the money so that they can exercise their own jurisdictions.

Public Safety  Speaker, hockey aside, statements made by certain members of Congress are unacceptable. One member of Congress claimed that our immigration system is responsible for the presence of many members of al-Qaeda in this country. Canadians are justifiably proud of our immigration system, which is based on the values of acceptance and respect.

Status of Women committee  Garnett Picot wrote that particular article. There have been some questions regarding immigrants and aboriginals. I'd like to do a bit of advertising and state that the census data will be released starting in March. It is really the census data that will enable you to understand the situation of particular groups, understand what is going on for people who are 75, 85 and older, on and off reserve.

Status of Women committee  On our schedule on Tuesday, February 20, will be the Native Women's Association of Canada--to be confirmed--and the National Organization of Immigrant and Visible Minority Women. Perhaps that will give us a different perspective as well. Thank you once again for coming. Thank you, members. The meeting is adjourned.

Status of Women committee  Yes, certainly recent immigrants are participating less in the labour market. Of course that has an impact, not only now but in the future, in terms of their well-being.

Status of Women committee  Thank you, Madam Chair. When it comes to those women who have already retired, all the under-tasked women, immigrant women, and aboriginal women, do you see a positive trend in the improvement of their status?