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Mr. Chair, those numbers are given to provinces and communities to help support the people who come to their provinces as well.
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Mr. Chair, the last I heard, the taxpayers were the Canadian population.
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Mr. Chair, that is exactly why we are working to reduce our numbers, and those numbers are decreasing.
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Mr. Chair, that is why the ineligibility requirements in Bill C-2 are there. It is to ensure that we deal with the people who do not have legitimate claims. My—
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Mr. Chair, to begin, I would like to thank my colleague. I greatly appreciate his co-operation. We have met once already, and I look forward to working with him to improve the situation, not only in Quebec, but also across Canada. Could my colleague repeat his question?
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Mr. Chair, departmental plans for my department are due in November. They are always due in November.
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Mr. Chair, I really appreciate that question. It is a very good question. I can tell my colleague that I will talk to departmental officials about it. I will keep my colleague posted.
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Mr. Chair, what I can say is that estimates have been established for now. I cannot predict what the future will bring.
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Mr. Chair, again, this is very important. What I can say is that the department's plan is coming. My colleague is right. However, when he talks about modernizing the immigration system, we are at $134.8 million for this year.
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Mr. Chair, I really appreciate these questions. I must point out that I have only been minister for a few weeks. It is important for me to answer my colleague's questions. I understand these issues. They are important. I think the processing time is probably related to Ukraine and Afghanistan.
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Mr. Chair, I know there has been a 71% reduction in visitors who have—
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Mr. Chair, we are working on reducing processing times. I have already met with representatives of the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada, who assured me that they are working very hard and efficiently. I think that Bill C-2 will help a lot.
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Mr. Chair, as I said, I really appreciate my colleague's questions. They are important. What I am saying is that we are working to reduce processing times—
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Mr. Chair, as I understand it, the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada processes 85,000 claims a year.
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Mr. Chair, I think that the member is talking about the Canada-Quebec accord. Is that right?
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Mr. Chair, we understand and recognize the role that Quebec plays in welcoming asylum seekers. We have always supported Quebec. The number of asylum seekers in Ontario and Quebec is very high. That is why we are working with the provinces to—
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Mr. Chair, the federal government has paid the Government of Quebec $750 million in consideration of the challenges associated with temporary accommodation and asylum caused by irregular border crossings. We always work with the Province of Quebec—
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Mr. Chair, we remain committed to doing our part and working with Quebec to fulfill our national and international obligations towards people fleeing violence.
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Mr. Chair, yes, the Quebec government received $750 million, not $750,000, for temporary housing for asylum seekers.
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Mr. Chair, since 2017, Quebec has received $590.8 million under the interim housing assistance program. That represents nearly 50% of all funding allocated under this program.
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Mr. Chair, that is an important question. The two levels of government jointly administer the temporary foreign worker program. Quebec controls more than 50% of the immigration for this type of worker, but we are here to work with Quebec, regardless.
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Mr. Chair, I have only been here for three and a half weeks, and I want to continue working with all the provinces, including Quebec, but also with my officials. We are going to come back to this. There have been many changes to many programs.
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Mr. Chair, let me welcome the colleague to the House to ask me questions tonight. As I have said, we tabled the levels plan for 2025—
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Mr. Chair, the plan that we tabled is that, by the end of 2027, we will decrease—
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Mr. Chair, again, we have tabled the levels plan. It is a levels plan that had been consulted on by provinces—
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Mr. Chair, I really appreciate these questions from the colleagues across the way. I very much look forward to working with them to enhance our immigration system—
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Mr. Chair, these are important questions. Canadians are watching. Canadians are looking. We all campaigned a short month ago. Canadians deserve to have—
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Mr. Chair, we are reducing the number by 5% of the population. This is in our levels plan, and we are on track to meet that.
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Mr. Chair, the first quarter of 2025 figures I have been provided meet and exceed the reductions that have been targeted.
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Mr. Chair, population targets are not simply due to immigration, asylums and so on. There are people who also give birth who are Canadians and people who die.
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Mr. Chair, we are getting there. We are reducing our immigration targets. We have Bill C-2 in front of us to deal with the large surge of asylums—
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Mr. Chair, I do not understand where these questions are coming from. I do not know if it is something these members think—
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Mr. Chair, again, I have been in this seat for about three and a half weeks. I think the questions being posed on the other side are either totally misplaced or they are wrong.
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Mr. Chair. I have been receiving briefings daily. Prime Minister Carney convened—
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Mr. Chair, I am proud of the work that I and the government at that time did in Nova Scotia. In 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2017, we were living in different times. Right now we have an economic crisis in the country overall. We need to manage our immigration numbers.
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Mr. Chair, we need to contextualize the numbers when we present them in the House. There are facts. The public safety minister was here, on Thursday I believe, and he is in charge of answering those questions.
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Mr. Chair, again, people whose visa expires, or people who should not be here, need to leave. If they do not, that is a CBSA—
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Mr. Chair, again, my role here tonight is not to talk about people leaving and the people who are here with an expired visa and so on, in terms of how many have left. That is completely a CBSA function, and public safety takes care—
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Mr. Chair, I have answered that question a number of times. I will try one more time. People leaving because of an expired visa or deportation, or anything of that matter, is the purview of the Canada Border Services Agency, which is not—
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Mr. Chair, that question gives me the opportunity to talk about our immigration levels plan, which does set permanent resident numbers. For the first time, this past year, temporary numbers have been set. I am proud of the work that was done prior to my becoming a minister. It is working.
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Mr. Chair, I need to thank the Prime Minister for having faith in me and selecting me to be the minister. I would say the answer is known as to why we would need somebody at that helm, because we—
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Mr. Chair, my message to the member and to those listening is that people who have expired visas and are not to be in Canada should leave. If they—
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Mr. Chair, we work with the CBSA, or the CBSA is there to take control of those circumstances.
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Mr. Chair, again, we have set the targets for permanent residents. We have set the target for temporary residents, which would include the international students—
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Mr. Chair, I will tell you one thing that I agree with the member on: Immigrants did build this country. I congratulate her for getting that one right. Our temporary targets were developed to achieve the objective of reducing the proportion of non-permanent residents to 5% of the total population by the end of 2026. Supporting the Canadian economy continues to be our priority. We will work on brin…
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Mr. Chair, I know the member works very hard for her constituents, and I appreciate that. She spoke about the borders act, which is Bill C-2. What I will say, and this is what I have said, is that the integrity of the immigration system is critical to supporting border security and assuring Canadians that the system is well managed, including protections against fraud and misuse. The border bill w…
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Mr. Chair, these are very important questions, and I take them seriously—
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Mr. Chair, the 2024 assessment was done.
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Mr. Chair, as I already replied, yes, we do consider the U.S. as a safe third—
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