Welcome to meeting number five of the House of Commons Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration.
Pursuant to the order of reference of Monday, September 22, the committee is commencing its study of Bill C-3, an act to amend the Citizenship Act, 2025.
We have the Honourable Lena Diab, Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship, and senior officials with us for the first hour to answer questions.
We have three witnesses on the second panel, one from the Bloc Québécois, one from the Conservatives and one from the Liberals, during our last hour.
The minister is very popular. You have all indicated that you have questions for her, and because we have only one hour, I will be very strict with time. I have brought aids with me today. I have two cards. Yellow means wrap up in 15 seconds; red means your time is up and your microphone will be turned off.
As always, kindly wait until I recognize you by name before speaking. I will remind everyone to kindly not speak over each other, as it will be hard for our translators to translate and makes their job very difficult. Thank you, Monsieur Brunelle-Duceppe, for always reminding us of this.
Of course, please ensure that all your comments are addressed through the chair.
Members, I know you know this, but it's always good to reiterate: Please raise your hand if you wish to speak. The clerk and I will manage the speaking order as best we can.
Thank you in advance for your co-operation.
Now I would like to welcome our witnesses for the first panel of today's meeting.
We have the Honourable Lena Metlege Diab, Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship.
We also have senior officials with us, including Catherine Scott, assistant deputy minister, settlement and citizens; Uyen Hoang, director general, citizenship branch; and Erika Schneidereit, counsel, legal services.
Welcome, senior officials.
Welcome, Minister Diab. I now invite you to make an opening statement of up to five minutes, after which we will proceed with a round of questions.