Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship  Mr. Speaker, the member might understand that the reason the report is a little late is because something called an election happened. That caused the delay. I can assure the House that this report will be tabled within the prescribed time. While I cannot comment on the numbers

Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship  Mr. Speaker, it is a bit much. It leaves me a little speechless. We are not conducting a war on history. We may put in a little less than is the Conservative vision of history, but we are a party of history. We are a party of evidence, a party of science, and one of the worst t

Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship  Mr. Speaker, I thank the hon. member for her question. I am entirely in agreement with her that the current situation is a mess when families' waiting times have ballooned and mushroomed over the last decade. It is my single top priority to bring those processing times down sharp

Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship  Mr. Speaker, as I said before, I basically agree with the propositions of the hon. member. I would point out that in our platform we committed to double, from 5,000 to 10,000, the number of parents and grandparents who could apply every year. That has been done. We have promised

Citizenship Act  moved for leave to introduce Bill C-6, An Act to amend the Citizenship Act and to make consequential amendments to another Act. (Motions deemed adopted, bill read the first time and printed)

Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship  Mr. Speaker, the member should check his facts. Yesterday I said that more than half had gone to permanent housing, not less than half. I think he should get his facts right. It is a bit much for the Conservative side to be saying that Liberals do not treat refugees as people.

Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship  Mr. Speaker, that is a misguided question. When we went to bring the refugees from these countries, we took the lists provided by the United Nations, which were lists of the most vulnerable people in the region. We contacted those people and many of them, thankfully, are now in C

Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship  Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank my colleague for that good question. We have restored the refugee health care program that the Conservatives did away with. The courts ruled that cutting this program was cruel and unusual. It was a good program for refugees and a good public

Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship  Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to say that we have a real plan, and it is evolving as it ought to evolve. We are now at close to 16,000 refugees. We will hit our target of 25,000 refugees by the end of February. The refugees are settling across the country. I just a read a story abou

Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship  Mr. Speaker, as my colleague across the aisle probably knows, the removal of the visa was in our platform. This is a major step in improving Canada–Mexico relations. I have been in consultation with my department on the issues involved in this, we have been studying it carefully,

Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship  Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for her strong support on the issue in general. I would remind the member that we have recently launched a family links program, which seeks to match Canadians wanting to sponsor refugees with Syrian Canadian families whose relatives need help.

Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship  Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for his great question. Obviously, when spouses entering Canada have a conditional status, they are at risk of domestic violence because they have no status here. The government is determined to change that, so that all spouses who enter Canada i

Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship  Mr. Speaker, I assure the hon. member that the levels plan will indeed be presented to Parliament well before the deadline date. We are working on this. One of the things to come out of it, as I mentioned earlier, is an astounding, unacceptable increase in the processing times, p

Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship  Mr. Speaker, I can assure the member that my government looks into every item of that nature. However, the best summary was provided by a refugee from Syria, currently staying in a Toronto hotel, who was reported as saying this by the media today: I’m just happy to be here. The

Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship  Mr. Speaker, it seems the Conservatives have trouble figuring out whether we are doing it too fast or too slow. However, as I have said to Canadians many times, it is more important to do it right than to do it fast. We are certainly doing it right in terms of security and health