Parliamentary Speeches
333 speeches by Marie-France Lalonde — Page 7 of 7
Routine Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, with regard to (a), as of February 16, 2022, approximately 14,840 persons’ applications have been received under the special immigration program for Afghan nationals and their families who assisted the Government of Canada. With regard to (b), of the applications in process under the special immigration program for Afghan nationals and their families who assisted the Government of Can…
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Madam Speaker, on March 26, I had the pleasure of participating in the official openings of some new businesses in my riding of Orléans. I want to congratulate Louise and André Chouinard, the new owners of a terra20 franchise, which sells sustainable products to promote a healthy lifestyle. Their new store on Tenth Line Road features an exclusive ecobar, where customers can purchase refillable bot…
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Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague for his question. Since day one, Canada has been there to help Ukrainians fleeing Putin's war. We will continue to work with them. More than 12,000 Ukrainians arrived this week alone. My colleague is well aware that we cannot talk about specific cases. I strongly encourage him to come to see me, and we will work together.
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Madam Speaker, once again I thank my colleague for his question. I just want to make one thing clear to the House. Since the beginning, we have received and processed over half a million permanent residence applications. In fact, we set a record. We welcomed 143,000 permanent residents to Canada over the last three months. We need to do more, and that is exactly what we will continue to do.
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Mr. Speaker, I would like to again thank my colleague for his question and co-operation since the start of the crisis, this war in Ukraine. We are working with all our partners, including the airline companies. We recently announced the easing of biometric requirements to allow three cohorts of people to arrive in Canada more quickly. We will be there for Ukrainians, before and after.
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Mr. Speaker, I would like to inform the House that we have welcomed over 12,000 Ukrainians to Canada so far. We have been there from the beginning. Let me remind the House of what we have done. We have launched a new program, we have relaxed the biometric requirements and we have brought in more agents to process applications. At the settlement centres, we will continue to be there.
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Mr. Speaker, Canada will continue to support people who are fleeing the war in Ukraine. As I said, we have increased the number of employees and biometric units in the regions, and we are sending in more personnel. I would also like to inform the House that we have extended the hours of operation at our visa application centres in accordance with local laws. Again, we will continue to work on brin…
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Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the question because it also gives me an opportunity to clarify and mention the announcement made by the Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship this morning about our involvement. We are expanding the federal settlement program for Ukrainians who want to come to Canada to offer language training, orientation, employment assistance and other supports for Ukraini…
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Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my colleague for all his work and collaboration. What I can tell the House is that we have been working with our partners, including in the airline industry, from day one. I would also like to inform the House of the actions the government is taking. We are sending biometric instruction letters to clients every four hours, we are increasing the number of employees in b…
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Madam Speaker, let me be very clear to this chamber: We have zero tolerance for racism and discrimination of any kind, and that is why IRCC has already worked hard to address racism and create real, lasting change. We have already made significant progress with our anti-racism task force and new training to address unconscious bias. There are still many more things to do, and we will continue work…
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Mr. Speaker, insofar as Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada is concerned, for indicator management within the Chinook Excel tool, keywords are used to notify officers of trends that IRCC has detected or highlight a particular factor of concern, not to sort visa applications. Keywords are also used to identify positive considerations such as applications that may require expedited processi…
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Madam Speaker, I sat at the same committee and I certainly appreciate the member's advocacy in all the questions he has raised. I want to be very clear: There is zero tolerance for racism and discrimination in all aspects and in all programs we want to deliver. The member knows there have been tangible actions that are happening right now within our ministry, and I will be happy to follow up on hi…
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Mr. Speaker, insofar as Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada is concerned, with regard to part (a) of the question, IRCC officers may use the Chinook spreadsheet tool for assessing temporary resident visa, study permit and work permit applications. Chinook is not used to assess permanent resident, or immigrant, applications. Therefore, we cannot provide a breakdown identifying the acceptan…
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Mr. Speaker, as I mentioned, Canada will welcome Ukrainians fleeing Putin's war. We have announced this new program that will cut through red tape and expedite the arrival of Ukrainians to safe harbour for up to three years. This is the fastest, safest and most efficient way for Ukrainians to come to Canada. It eliminates most of the travel requirements for all Ukrainian nationals, with the except…
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Mr. Speaker, I really want to thank my colleague for his question. As he mentioned, the government is certainly looking hard, and as aggressively as possible, at how to get as many people as possible here as quickly as we can. This is what we have been doing from the beginning. More than 10,000 Ukrainians have arrived in Canada. We will continue to work with our partners. I would also like to poin…
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Mr. Speaker, certainly, Canada will provide a safe haven for those fleeing Russia's large-scale invasion of Ukraine. Since January, Canada has welcomed more than 10,000 Ukrainians. Last week, as members know, we launched our new Canada-Ukraine emergency travel authorization, which will make it easier, faster and safer for Ukrainians to come to Canada. We are working with our partners, including pr…
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Mr. Speaker, I thank my hon. colleague for his question. We completely agree that we need to help. That is why we launched the new Canada-Ukraine authorization for emergency travel last week, which will allow Ukrainians to come in. We are working with our partners, including the provinces and territories, the business community, the Ukrainian Canadian community and settlement agencies, on how best…
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Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for the question and certainly for his collaboration since the beginning of the war in Ukraine. I would say to him that we are working with our partners, including the airlines. What is more, I would like to point out to the House the exceptional work that has been done with the SickKids hospital and the departments here to welcome Ukrainian children, who can now …
Read full speech →Adjournment Proceedings
Madam Speaker, I would like to thank the member for King—Vaughan for her question. I am pleased to respond to it. With the border closures and worldwide travel restrictions, the pandemic created unprecedented challenges for our immigration program. Despite these challenges, Canada was still able to finalize a record number of entries last year by processing an unprecedented number of landings. In …
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Madam Speaker, as a local MP, I have certainly heard the frustration, like my hon. colleague, of those who are trying to come to Canada to reunite with their family. As I said, we sympathize with these families and understand the difficulties they face, and we have made a commitment. We are on track to bring more than 40,000 Afghan refugees to Canada. We are close to 10,000 already. As for the war…
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Mr. Speaker, March 8 marks International Women's Day and I would like to take this opportunity to thank all Canadian women in my community of Orléans, in this House and across Canada for their passion, dedication and contribution to our society. This morning I had the privilege of celebrating this remarkable day at my annual women's day breakfast and I would like to thank OCCO Kitchen for welcomin…
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Mr. Speaker, that is a very good question because it gives me the opportunity to share what the government has done since the very beginning. We have been in touch with our municipal and provincial partners. Since we are talking about democracy, I need to share a story with the House. Before entering federal politics, I was a provincial member of Parliament. Every single Thursday, a Canadian of As…
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Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for her very delicate question. From the beginning, we have seen people brandishing hateful flags and encouraging conversations that go as far as to say that the Prime Minister of Canada should die, that he should be killed. I agree with her that in Canada, we must deal with issues involving extremists.
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Mr. Speaker, I will be sharing my time with the hon. member for Egmont. It is with sadness that I rise in this House this morning because of the circumstances outside of our Parliament, but with the privilege to bring the voice of our community of Orléans, a community that has sent me once again to the House of Commons in 2021 with the clear understanding of the importance of the public health mea…
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Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for the question. As parliamentarians and as a government, it is not for us to dictate police instructions and operations or what the justice system is currently doing. I will leave that to the people who are better qualified than I am when it comes to the legal process that has been triggered in the past few days. I would just note that the GoFundMe page has stop…
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Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for the question. I would like to point out some of the progress that has already been made. We are back down to a 12‑month wait for spousal sponsorship applications. We have processed more than 500,000 new applications for study permits, which represents a 32% increase in our production. It is no secret that pandemic-related closures in the world have had repercu…
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Mr. Speaker, Canada remains firm in its commitment to welcome 40,000 Afghan refugees to Canada. We are sparing no effort to resettle Afghan refugees as quickly as we can, and I am happy to report that more than 7,500 Afghan refugees have begun their new lives here in Canada, while overcoming extreme challenges. We are welcoming new arrivals every week. We will continue to do everything we can to s…
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Mr. Speaker, as always, our commitment to modernizing our immigration system is relevant. I was very happy to see that our government invested $85 million in improving our immigration system. We are more than happy to say, as we talk about some of the success of 2021, that we welcomed more than 405,000 new permanent residents last year. We are welcoming more skilled workers and international stude…
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Mr. Speaker, today, I want to share with the House the work that Chef Joe, a resident of Orléans and well-known owner of Thali Ottawa and Coconut Lagoon, has done through his leadership and philanthropic work during the pandemic. Chef Joe has really stepped up throughout this crisis. His dedication in helping to support the most vulnerable is commendable. Despite the stress of opening and having t…
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Mr. Speaker, I had the privilege of visiting the Pharmasave Avalon Compounding Pharmacy last October, along with my counterpart, MPP Stephen Blais. The owner and pharmacist, Andrew Hanna, specializes in bringing customized medication with a doctor's prescription to his clients. It was truly impressive to see the technology on site. Today, I want to thank Mr. Hanna for his involvement and leadershi…
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Mr. Speaker, it was a privilege to invite the people of Orléans to a movie night at Ciné Starz last Friday. As everyone knows, the pandemic has had a profound effect on our ability to host events and meet in person, so I am proud that we were able to get together before the holiday season. It was heartwarming to see generations of families spending rare quality time together, and enjoying a free m…
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Mr. Speaker, Orléans is full of outstanding residents. Two Orléans residents received 2021 Order of Ottawa awards last Thursday, November 18. Congratulations to Michael Allen, the president and CEO of United Way East Ontario, and Ian Faris, the senior vice-president of chamber network relations and advocacy at the Canadian Chamber of Commerce for this well-deserved recognition. Last week I also ha…
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Mr. Speaker, pursuant to Standing Order 36(8)(a), I have the honour to table, in both official languages, the government's response to eight petitions. These returns will be tabled in an electronic format.
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