Immigration Act  First of all, what I told the House was that the funds earmarked for Phase II of the St. Lawrence Action Plan will be spent on cleaning up the river. Having said that, I must point out that the St. Lawrence runs all the way from Brockville, Ontario, before reaching the sea in the Lower St.

Immigration Act  Since there are no more members who wish to speak, the period provided for the consideration of Private Members' Business has now expired. Pursuant to Standing Order 96(1), this item is dropped from the Order Paper. Before asking unanimous consent to call it 6.30 p.m., I would like to wish everyone a happy St.

Immigration Act  Madam Speaker, I rise on a point of order. Since it is St. Patrick's Day and I happen to know that you, Madam Speaker, are wearing a shamrock on your gown, I thought it would be appropriate to thank you on behalf of those of us in this House who are of Irish descent. Of course, I include the hon.

Immigration Act  May I call it 6.30?

Immigration Act  Agreed. A motion to adjourn the House under Standing Order 38 deemed to have been moved.

Immigration Act  Madam Speaker, we are starting the adjournment debate 10 minutes early, and although I cannot make any assumptions about the absence of members from this House, I would nevertheless appreciate it if a member of the government would respond to this motion. On Tuesday, I put a question to the Minister of the Environment about Phase I of the St.

Immigration Act  Madam Speaker, I second the private member's bill of the hon. member for Scarborough-Rouge River. In my riding of Don Valley North about 50 per cent of the population are new Canadians. Of course I am one of them. This bill will help the system in many ways. It will cut the red tape in our embassies or visa offices overseas.

Immigration Act  Hear, hear.

Business Of Supply  Madam Speaker, I am delighted to take part in the debate today. I would like to commend the hon. member for Crowfoot on his comments. I did not know until he spoke just now that he was formerly a member of a law enforcement agency. I would like to say that in my years as a practitioner of law, both as a defence counsel and as a prosecutor, I worked extensively with members of various police departments; municipal police in Halifax and Dartmouth and the RCMP, and I have great respect and admiration for them in what is a very tough job.

St. Patrick's Day  Irish people, like my family and those throughout this land, have made a significant contribution to help keep Canada whole. In the mid-1800s thousands of Irish immigrants fleeing famine and poverty came to Canada for a better life. Many settled in Nova Scotia and the Annapolis Valley and helped make it the very special place it is today. To paraphrase a famous saying, it is on a day like today when we realize there are only two types of people in the world, those who are Irish and those who wish they were Irish.

Canadian Foreign Policy  Malnutrition, the lack of democratic rights, the denial of basic human needs and the 17 million refugees in 1991, in addition to the 30 million displaced people, prevent us from turning a blind eye to the inappropriate development of the southern hemisphere countries, as our reality will be affected if only with respect to immigration and the environment. Most developing countries were hurt by the economic crisis in the current global climate. In the 1980s, the reduced terms of trade were accompanied by the debt crisis and the overexploitation of natural resources to resolve this crisis.

Canadian Foreign Policy  They prospered tremendously but corruption and mismanagement set into the Czarist regime and finally some of the people started immigrating to the United States. In 1874, when the first Mennonite people came to the United States, they brought new strains of wheat along with them which were used pretty well until the 1930s.

Canadian Foreign Policy  About two hours ago the Minister of Foreign Affairs met with the Ukrainian Canadian Congress under the presidency of Oleh Romaniw to discuss such matters as political issues, technical assistance, trade and economic issues, consultations with the Minister of Foreign Affairs and immigration issues as they pertain to Ukraine. This is the kind of input that we welcome, not only input through parliamentary standing committees but meetings such as the minister had just prior to my speaking here.

Canadian Foreign Policy  My constituency of Matapédia-Matane is as vast as an entire country. My question is this: Why is it that new immigrants to Canada usually settle in the large cities rather than in the regions? Is it because the unemployment rate is higher in our regions, or is there some other reason?

Canadian Foreign Policy  In the matter of human rights, again Canada has a loud voice and is a champion for better human rights both at home, as we have heard day after day in the responses of the minister of immigration to certain sentiments that we do not share on this side of the House about welcoming people to Canada, and in our efforts to encourage other governments to respect human rights where it is not the case in their own countries.