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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, 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. Speaker, it is an absolute honour to be here this evening as the minister of immigration, refugees and citizenship. I want to take a moment to really thank the constituents of Halifax West for placing their faith in me and electing me a second time as their member. I am joined this evening by the deputy minister, Dr. Harpreet S. Kochhar. I want to take a moment to thank him and all the staff w…
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Mr. Speaker, first, I would like to thank my colleague from Longueuil—Saint-Hubert for the question. It is a very good question, a crucial question. My answer is that we are taking important steps to strengthen the integrity of our immigration system while honouring our humanitarian commitments. That is why we introduced changes to ensure that our immigration system can handle such challenges now …
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Mr. Speaker, the hon. parliamentary secretary is a member from my home province of Nova Scotia. He has been an absolute delight to work with since I was elected federally, but even prior to that when I was a member of the Nova Scotia Legislature. He reminds me often of how young he is, but there is no age in this place. We all come from such different backgrounds. The member is quite right that I …
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Mr. Chair, first of all, allow me to thank the hon. member for Moncton—Dieppe for her advocacy and for being a champion, not only for her community but for many members who have been here in Parliament, including me, for the last number of years. Through budget 2024, the government invested $411.2 million in the federal health program for 2024-25, topping up existing funding and ensuring that refu…
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Mr. Chair, temporary residents enrich Canada's economy and cultural fabric, so the government is committed to reducing temporary immigration growth to better align with the needs of our labour market, housing supply and community capacity. In order to accomplish this, a study permit cap has been introduced, and eligibility requirements for work permits have been tightened, including a reduced inta…
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Mr. Chair, again, the government is committed to sustainable immigration levels, so we are calibrating the volume of immigrants to help alleviate some pressure on the housing demand. As such, IRCC is stabilizing permanent residents as well as temporary admissions to less than 1% of Canada's population annually beyond 2027. We are focusing on attracting global talent from around the world in order …
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Mr. Chair, I have been the minister for a total of about three weeks already, and I do not recall saying statements like that.
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Mr. Chair, again, we are managing our targets. We have committed to reducing both our permanent residents and our temporary allocations. We have 2025-27 levels—
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Mr. Chair, we are working toward sustainable immigration by reducing our temporary resident numbers as well as our permanent residents. We have tabled the two-year levels plan, and it is there for the member to actually see.
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Mr. Chair, let us use the facts here; the member's numbers are totally inaccurate. There have been 290,000 net new arrivals in Canada through the international student program. I do not know where she comes up with numbers. I would contextualize the numbers that she seems to read.
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Mr. Chair, again I would say that we are working on sustainable immigration. We have committed to reducing the temporary numbers as well as our permanent residency numbers. Canada—
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Mr. Chair, again, those numbers are taken way out of context.
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Mr. Chair, we recognize that there are challenges in our housing and infrastructure. That is why we have tabled the levels plan that works on sustainable immigration. We are reducing our permanent residency—
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Mr. Chair, to be clear, when a person's visa expires, they are expected to leave the country. That is a question for CBSA and the minister of public—
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Mr. Chair, again, we have rules in this country, and we expect people to follow those rules.
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Mr. Chair, CBSA is in charge of removals. I would suggest that the member should be asking the public safety minister the questions on that. Again I say to her that we have rules in—
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Mr. Chair, people coming to Canada temporarily to work, to study—
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Mr. Chair, those people whose visas have expired are expected to be leaving.
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Mr. Chair, those numbers would be for the Department of Public Safety. People whose visas are expired, if they have not renewed them, and there are many people who renewed their—
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Mr. Chair, we know that for the first quarter, we have reduced our numbers at well below the targeted rate.
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Mr. Chair, all the numbers have been tabled in terms of our targets. We are exceeding those targets for the first quarter of 2025.
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Mr. Chair, we have begun to decline for the first quarter of 2025, to 7.2%. The—
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Mr. Chair, again, we have met and exceeded the target for the first quarter of 2025.
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Mr. Chair, our 2027 target is 5% of Canada's population. We are working—
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Mr. Chair, is the member asking me what Canada's population is, of people who live in Canada?
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Mr. Chair, we are on track to meet the target that we have set for our immigration number, and that is to reduce the overall number of permanent and temporary residents in this country.
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Mr. Chair, that is probably a question for the Minister of Health, but what I can say is that we are looking for doctors and nurses to come and help us here.
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Mr. Chair, once again, it is not the fault of immigrants. Yes, there is an economic crisis, and we, on this side of the House, are working to reduce the number of temporary and permanent visas because we know that there is a crisis. We are continuing to work—
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Mr. Chair, that is absolutely not my intention.
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Mr. Chair, we are working hard to manage immigration by 2027. We have already released all the figures. We will reduce the number of temporary and permanent visas.
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Mr. Chair, we are reducing the number of visas for students and workers. We are working in every way possible to bring those numbers down.
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Mr. Chair, once again, the issue of people leaving the country is a question for the Minister of Public Safety. We are, however, in close contact with my counterpart.
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Mr. Chair, I want to thank the hon. member for Winnipeg North for all his reflections and accurate information. Immigration is indeed key to growing our economy and strengthening our communities. I have talked to the provinces and territories since I have become a minister. They are all responsible for immigration, and believe me, they all agree on that. Canadians rightly want a robust and sustain…
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Mr. Chair, I am not sure how many minutes I have, but I absolutely love the question. I cannot agree more. Diversity in Canada is definitely our strength. It is diversity in our culture, people and languages. I cannot wait to go back to my communities and celebrate Portuguese heritage and Filipino heritage. Actually, next weekend, in my home city of Halifax, the Filipino fiesta is happening. It is…
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Mr. Chair, I would love to accept the hon. member's invitation. I just want to say that I have received so many invitations. I wish I had lots of hours in the day to be able to fulfill them, but I am going to do everything I possibly can.
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Mr. Chair, I have spoken about the pride that I have in the fact that we have tabled the two-year levels plan, which targets decreasing the temporary student population, as well as the temporary—
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Mr. Chair, again, we are working to stabilize the immigration numbers, but we also want to bring in talent.
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Mr. Chair, the reason we are here today is that we recognize that there was strain on our system because of the immigration that is growing.
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Mr. Chair, we have already exceeded the expectation that we are reducing it, so—
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Mr. Chair, we are meeting those targets; in fact we have more than met the expectation of the targets.
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Mr. Chair, we are targeting the talent that we need, including physicians and people who work in construction. There are specific programs that were designed to target bringing those individuals to our communities.
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Mr. Chair, again, we have brought in physicians, nurses and health care workers, people to actually care for Canadians, through those programs, and that is something we will target and keep bringing.
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Mr. Chair, we have a dedicated stream that will work with the provinces and the communities. In fact, in my own province of—
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Mr. Chair, again, the provinces and the communities themselves are also working on these pathways. I know, as a former minister—
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Mr. Chair, I do not think the member really has been here throughout the whole proceedings. Estimates were tabled. We have our levels planned. We have the numbers of the different categories of people who are being brought in. We have met those—
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Mr. Chair, I cannot discuss personal or individual cases on the floor of the House, for privacy reasons.
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Mr. Chair, COVID caused the strain on our system. We had more people coming in throughout all of Canada. There was a lot of—
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