Citizenship and Immigration committee  This brief is being jointly presented by three organizations: Amnistie internationale, and the Table de concertation, which is a Quebec-wide coalition of 140 groups serving refugees and immigrants, as well as the Centre justice et foi, a Jesuit centre for social analysis in Quebec. For several years, our three organizations have been greatly concerned about the low acceptance rate for the Pre-Removal Risk Assessment, PRRA.

Committees of the House  More important, we have to accept what the courts have said. The courts have ruled on this a number of times. This is an immigration holding facility. Those people are deemed to be a danger to Canada. That is the responsibility of the Parliament of Canada, all the members of the House, and to Canadians as a whole.

Committees of the House  Rehabilitation is certainly one of the issues, but they are there for a defined length of time under sentence of the courts. These individuals are being held in an immigration facility for the purpose of removal from Canada. Rehabilitation, as I already indicated, is not part of the process. The facility has frequently been described by many in the House as a three-sided cell.

Committees of the House  I must stress that the option that has been provided by the committee to appoint the official who does that kind of work in our federal prison system, who has that expertise and who has shown a personal interest in having his mandate extended to cover the Kingston Immigration Holding Centre is a very honourable direction to take. It is one that will give the government excellent advice and good options. It also gives the detainees access to someone with a proven track record and the ability to hear their concerns and make appropriate recommendations.

Committees of the House  Speaker, the point is that for the very reasons that the member outlines I was particularly pleased and proud to see that in the new terms and conditions for funding of the women's program, there are three specific areas, one of which is a focus on funding visible minorities and immigrant women. There is an understanding of where the needs are, what the history is, and that there needs to continue to be a focus on that type of funding. We are glad to see it there in the new terms and conditions.

Committees of the House  Many of the changes that women currently enjoy in our society came about because of the court challenges program set up by Pierre Trudeau, cancelled by the Conservative government, and brought back in by our government when it came into power in 1993. It has now gone, so women, women who are poor, immigrant women, no longer have that access to be able to change things for themselves, to be able to seek remedies through the courts. That program that was there for them has been gutted. When the government talks about what it is doing for women, one has to wonder what exactly it means and what exactly it is talking about.

Committees of the House  The Minister of Indian Affairs and Northern Development, the Minister of Justice, the Minister of Citizenship and Immigration and the Minister of Health have done numerous things, and more ministers have done more things. We believe in the status of women. We believe that we have to get rid of the barriers so women can come forward, become educated and be full participants in Canadian society at the economic level, the cultural level and every level.

Committees of the House  The current program excludes the self-employed and the large number of parents (such as recent immigrants, new entrants to the labour force and many part-time workers) who do not meet EIs stringent work requirements. With more and more mothers of school-aged children in the workforce, it is good public policy to support this valuable contribution to society by reducing the economic impact of having children.

Committees of the House  Barriers such as the need for training or updating their skills, the need for personal advice on preparing job applications and for interviews, the need for mentorship in their local communities, or the need for immigrant women to access services, whether the services are being provided by non-profit organizations or different levels of government: these are real needs faced by women in communities all across this country.

Judicial Appointments  It is interesting that the member for Notre-Dame-de-Grâce—Lachine would speak about the quality of the appointments being made by our government when her government, in which she was a minister, appointed somebody named Luciano Del Negro to the Immigration and Refugee Board. I believe he is the husband of the member of Notre-Dame-de-Grâce—Lachine.

Industry committee  Yes, I have two other areas. One is on the skills shortage. We bring over a lot of immigrants. For the jobs where we need the skills, in the construction industry, for example, we know there's a housing boom in the urban centres of Calgary, Montreal, Vancouver, and Toronto. It's a desperate situation, but the immigration policy of the point system right now doesn't work.

Industry committee  I have three areas of questions. The first one is on employment insurance and training programs. The second one is on immigrants and our immigration policy and our workforce. The third area is on the infrastructure--transportation and public transit. On the first one, recently TD Economics said in one of its reports that because of the changing labour market realities, it's leaving a large group of the labour force uninsurable under EI and a complementary set of programs is urgently needed to fill the gap.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  As the issue of protecting true Falun Gong practitioners is a matter of life and death, and with the submissions of the above information, we ask that the immigration committee pass the motion attached in this regard. We truly appreciate your time and the opportunity to be here to discuss this issue with you today.

Committees of the House  I move: That, in relation to its study on refugee issues, twelve (12) members of the Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration be authorized to travel to Kingston, Ontario on February 11 and 12, 2007, and that the necessary staff do accompany the committee.

Transfer Payments  We need a green renovation program modelled on Toronto's successful better building partnership. We need the funds to train our workforce, recognize foreign credentials and help new immigrants to find good jobs. We need to invest in our cities as they are the keys to prosperity in Canada.