Citizenship and Immigration committee  Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. I might add that my interest in the subject is from my experience as head of the Canadian immigration service for five years and having spent most of my public service career dealing with immigration and refugee issues. I have been before the

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Quite frankly, I'd be very surprised if any province would take this as an opportunity to cut off asylum seekers or make them face a residency period of time. I think it's a straw man.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I wasn't sure what the Ontario government's concern was, but it seems to me that what we have been discussing here today is at two levels. One is a jurisdictional change, or a housekeeping change. Other than that, it's a dire threat to the whole asylum system and the refugee prog

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. I support the amendments to the Federal-Provincial Fiscal Arrangements Act because I think it makes good sense and logic to do it. The provinces are responsible for setting the residency terms under the health care act and it's the provinces that

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Yes, I certainly think so. As I said before, I think the average Canadian would be shocked and very much concerned if his neighbour was convicted of acts of terror or treason, or had gone off to another country to fight against Canadian troops or their allies. I think they would

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I think the fact that they'll have to wait a year longer than they used to is an added benefit in conditioning them to Canada and Canadian society, and Canadian values, so I think it definitely will help in that regard. I think that's important because Canada has drastically chan

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Yes.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I think I've made it clear that I support that wholeheartedly. You know, we hear about the convention against statelessness, but let's face it, that convention was in 1954. It was brought up again in 1961. That was a different world in a sense. I'm afraid, as someone once said, t

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Well, as I mentioned in my presentation, I'm in favour of this bill going one year beyond the current act. I think it makes sense to have a person wait for four years before applying for citizenship. The provisions in the bill are fairly strict, I think, since a person has to l

Citizenship and Immigration committee  That's what I wanted to say. I support the bill. I think it's an opportunity for the committee to make some fundamental changes and improvements in the law because, as you know, we may have to wait another 40 or 50 years before another change is made. So it's important that you

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Thank you, Madam Chair. I am very pleased to be before the committee. I remember when the 1977 act was passed and that was almost 40 years ago, so I think it is time for some changes in the legislation. I'm also pleased to see that we've extended the wait time by at least one

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I think the immigration program is really highly pressed; there's no question about it. Take the volume of not only the visitors, who are numbering in the hundreds of thousands, but also the temporary workers, the approximately 280,000 temporary workers in 2012, I think it was,

Citizenship and Immigration committee  It's a pleasure to be back before the committee, and I thank the committee for inviting me again. When I was a young immigration officer, one of my first jobs was working in the minister's officer as a liaison between the political side and the department. One afternoon the mini

Citizenship and Immigration committee  The minister has the power, I gather, in the new bill to designate countries that are safe for refugees, but even these people under the bill have the right of a hearing, and also the right to seek leave to the Federal Court. My prediction is that's going to jam up the system, wh

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Mr. Chairman, can I just make a comment, with Mr. Lamoureux's permission—