Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship  Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague across the aisle for her important advocacy on this issue on behalf of her constituents in Vegreville. To respond to the increased demand in various business lines, and to expand the operations of the IRCC, the department has made the difficul

Leader of Tibet  Mr. Speaker, I rise today to speak about Tibetan leader, Dr. Lobsang Sangay. His Holiness the Dalai Lama relinquished political leadership of the Tibetan community in 2011, and Dr. Sangay was the first person ever elected to the post of Sikyong, or government leader, that same ye

Business of Supply  Mr. Speaker, during the course of the voting I was in my place when I voted. However, after concluding the vote, I made the mistake of inadvertently getting up and going to sit next to Minister McCallum to discuss an issue with him—

Business of Supply  I will try to be three times lucky, Mr. Speaker. I was in my seat during the course of voting. I apologize for having inadvertently left my seat after the act of voting. In the spirit of consent that seems to be permeating the House today in terms of what we allowed for the NDP,

Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship  Mr. Speaker, the situation in Vegreville is not one of job loss, but of job maintenance, and in fact job creation. The individuals in Vegreville will have their positions secured in Edmonton. In addition, in moving the processing centre to Edmonton we will increase efficiencies,

Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship  In answer to his question, I can tell my colleague opposite that, once the security, health and testing criteria have been met, there is still another step involving the country itself. For example, if the person is in Lebanon, Jordan, or Turkey, the country has to issue that ind

Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship  Mr. Speaker, first, I want to thank the hon. member for Portneuf—Jacques-Cartier for his question and his support for this truly national plan. As the hon. member said, there has been non-stop processing of files of government-sponsored and privately sponsored Syrian refugees. T

Business of Supply  Mr. Speaker, as I outlined in my opening comments, we need to work with international organizations, the IOM and the UNHCR. The UNHCR targets people who meet the convention definition of a refugee and focuses its efforts on those who are identified as most vulnerable. The issue

Business of Supply  Mr. Speaker, I thank the hon. member for his question and for his passion on this issue. We have had many discussions about this over a considerable amount of time. There are two aspects to the member's question. One is, as the member for Calgary Nose Hill noted, making sure tha

Business of Supply  Mr. Speaker, with respect to those two points raised by my colleague opposite, the actions of the committee are a significant symbolic step forward in the type of collaboration that can be undertaken when members of different parties work together. That is why it was highlighted

Business of Supply  Mr. Speaker, I appreciate my colleague's question and her support on this issue and human rights in general. With respect to what the Yazidi people are going through in Iraq and the Middle East, it is absolutely clear that we need to look at things differently. As for our develo

Business of Supply  Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the opportunity to participate in this important debate. I first want to acknowledge the advocacy on this issue by the member for Calgary Nose Hill. She has put a very important motion on the persecution of minority groups in Iraq and Syria before the H

Business of Supply  Mr. Speaker, I want to acknowledge the advocacy and commitment of the member for Calgary Nose Hill on this issue and many others in respect of the immigration portfolio. I want to ask her a short but simple question. Does she believe that the parties in the House could work coll

Multiculturalism in Canada  Mr. Speaker, for almost 150 years, immigration has been the story of Canada. Like millions of Canadians from coast to coast to coast, I was not born in this country. I came here as a refugee from Uganda, fleeing the persecution that my family and I faced in our country of birth s

Standing Orders and Procedure  Mr. Speaker, I will respond straight to the question from the member opposite because I do not believe this is a partisan issue. The role of parliamentary secretaries at committees is something that has been a subject of considerable debate. The issue of how they were deployed by