Immigration and Refugee Protection Act  Madam Speaker, it is my absolute pleasure to rise today and speak to Bill C-242. I want to thank my hon. colleague from Dufferin—Caledon for bringing forward this bill and addressing a very important issue for many families and ethnic communities all across Canada. This is a very practical and compassionate bill that many have talked about and many people have emailed and called about.

Immigration and Refugee Protection Act  Madam Speaker, I thank my hon. colleague for this great, compassionate and very thoughtful bill. The member for Vancouver East touched on the parent and grandparent reunification process. Over the last three years, there has been a very bad transition, and the grandparent and parent classes have suffered for so long because of the backlogs the federal government created in immigration.

Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship  Mr. Speaker, the situation for Ukrainians is dire. Many Canadians of Ukrainian heritage are worried about their family members trying to flee the war. One person called the Ukraine hotline to ask about his parents' PR application. He was told that someone from Ukraine who applied a year or two ago had no priority.

Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship  Mr. Speaker, today at the citizenship and immigration committee we agreed to pass a motion in support of Ukraine, including calling for visa-free travel. The Liberals voted against it. All opposition parties are calling on the government to implement visa-free travel for Ukrainians.

Permanent Residency for Temporary Foreign Workers  Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my hon colleague from Surrey Centre, first and foremost for bringing forward this motion, and also to congratulate him on being number one on the list. It is a rare win, so I wish him big congratulations. Most importantly, I thank him for bringing such a thoughtful bill forward.

Emergencies Act  Madam Speaker, trust has been completely broken by the Prime Minister, because he has not only repeatedly violated ethics but has also gone back on his word multiple times. Trust is the issue here. How can any Canadian continue to trust the Prime Minister? In his last question, my hon. colleague from the Bloc pointed out that a recent poll shows that a small percentage of Canadians trust the Prime Minister now.

Emergencies Act  Madam Speaker, the member said “directly and actively”. The Prime Minister directly and actively forced this to happen in Ottawa, because he refused to listen to Canadians and he refused to sit down and listen to views that opposed his own. We did not need to get to this point.

Emergencies Act  Madam Speaker, what I will say is that all of the borders were already cleared. The provincial government stepped up and the local police stepped up. The federal government did not, and they had already cleared those borders. What the federal government did is a complete overreach.

Emergencies Act  Madam Speaker, in the last few weeks I have received phone calls from constituents asking me why it came to this. How is it that Canada, the true north strong and free, has come to declare a national emergency to handle trucks parked in downtown Ottawa? Let me be clear: It is time that the rule of law was restored in Ottawa, but what happened is a direct result of the fear and division created by the Prime Minister.

Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship  Mr. Speaker, 23 Liberal MPs' requests to help Afghan refugees were ignored. Liberal ministers were briefed months before Kabul fell. These warnings were ignored. My letters to the Prime Minister and the minister continue to be ignored. Afghan refugees write to the government every day pleading for help.

Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship  Mr. Speaker, nine months before Kabul fell, 23 Liberal MPs sent a letter to the Minister of Immigration and the Minister of Foreign Affairs warning them of the dangers Afghan interpreters and those who serve Canada would face when the Taliban took over. They pleaded to help them immigrate to Canada with their families as soon as possible.

Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship  Mr. Speaker, they were busy knocking on doors. There is no pride in only achieving 20% of that target. The minister should be ashamed of himself for abandoning them and then standing up for an election instead of helping those Afghans. The minister should be thanking the veterans, NGOs and those of our NATO allies that actually stepped up when his government failed to.

Foreign Affairs  Madam Speaker, last August a 17-member Canadian Forces evacuation operations advance team arrived at Ali Al Salem Air Base near Kuwait City so it could link up with the U.S. and U.K. teams already on the ground in Kabul to save Afghans desperate to flee the Taliban. They sat idle for days awaiting orders to deploy, wasting precious time to evacuate Afghans, with many losing their lives.

Foreign Affairs  Madam Speaker, I will tell members why since the government's answers are absolutely useless. The government was more focused and had a higher priority on saving itself and on triggering a selfish and unnecessary election. While our allies were collectively evacuating over 70,000 people, the government told its own Liberal MP to mind his own business when he pleaded with the PMO to help those Afghans.

Business of Supply  Madam Speaker, what my colleague is highlighting is what I have been talking about in my speech, about trust. I think Canadians lost a lot of trust because of all the failed policies and back and forth that they kept seeing from the Liberal government. This is the same government that the Prime Minister said last year would not call an election.