The Standing Committee on Finance received a report from the Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration entitled “Consideration of the subject matter of Part 6 of Bill C-50”.
Dated May 15th, the report recommends that the Citizenship and Immigration Committee undertake a study on the immigration system in order to address identified challenges. The report reminds the Committee that their previous report Reclaiming Citizenship for Canadians informed Bill C-37, the ‘Lost Canadians’ bill.
The Conservative Party of Canada issued a dissenting opinion, arguing that the proposed changes to immigration legislation will in fact meet the backlog issues and that refutes much of the charges made by opponents to the proposed changes. An excerpt:
“The current system is especially problematic, since in a few short years, all of our net labour growth will come from immigration. These systemic flaws undermine Canada’s ability to meet our immigration goals, particularly the goal of providing for Canada’s economic and family reunification needs. Urgent action is required. That is why changes to the IRPA were included in Budget 2008. Advantage Canada (2006) identified that Canada needs the most flexible workforce in the world – an issue that is critical to Canada’s future”.
Neither the dissenting opinion or the report specifically address children. Should the committee agree to undertake a study, let’s ensure that the study identifies issues and develops solutions that will work for immigrant children and their families.
