Citizenship and Immigration committee  Absolutely I will continue during the question period.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Yes, we believe it's important to function that newcomers speak one of Canada's official languages. As I said in my presentation, many folks are able to speak in English and French as a way of functioning. However, having language requirement as a condition of citizenship, especi

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I would hesitate to comment on something that I haven't read myself. But on the face of what you've just read, I have many problems with the whole idea of folks being asked to sign off on a document that talks about Quebec values, and having that be a condition for Canadian citiz

Citizenship and Immigration committee  We have a robust language training system here in Canada. Resources are always a problem because of scope and scale, more so than content and quality. It is interesting that you are asking the question, because that was exactly what our concern was when the changes were made to B

Citizenship and Immigration committee  For decades we had—

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Mr. Chair.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  For a very long time, we had the age of requirement for writing the Canadian citizenship test between 18 and 54. The changes to lower the age to 14 and to increase it at the upper end to 64 were an arbitrary decision that was made. We flagged at the time that there were a signifi

Citizenship and Immigration committee  For many refugees who have been victims of violence and war, who have had many years of deprivation, or who have spent a generation in a refugee camp, regardless of how many hours of language training they have, they may never be able to acquire the language at the level where th

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I don't remember what Ms. Rempel's first question was.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  One of the reasons we are wanting the upfront proof of language is because of cost. We've heard both sides of the spectrum. We've heard from folks who have lived all their lives in Canada, and for some reason didn't apply for citizenship until they were much older. English is the

Citizenship and Immigration committee  We've asked, and that was the conversation I wanted to have about issues of disability. There are folks who do have disabilities who may not be able to write, or even speak, or sign about the test. With the introduction of Bill C-24, we were active in advocating, together with so

Citizenship and Immigration committee  With the elimination of the need for upfront testing, that will take care of the financial barriers, but we're also concerned that citizenship went from $200, to $400, to $630. Imagine large families having to pay that significant amount of money. This is not in Bill C-6, but thi

Citizenship and Immigration committee  What we have been encouraging, and some member agencies—we have 238 agencies across the province of Ontario—have been doing, is ensuring there are language classes available on weekends, or in the evenings after work hours. Child care and child minding continues to be a signific

Citizenship and Immigration committee  We anticipate that those who have come in and refugees who will continue to come in will meet the three out of five requirements, but once again those who have spent many years in camps may not be able to pass the test.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  OCASI is the umbrella policy, advocacy, and research body, but my member agencies across the country, particularly in large urban centres, work with I would say hundreds of live-in caregivers per year.