Mr. Speaker, it is a privilege to stand once again in this chamber to speak to the legislation before us.
I was disappointed to hear that our Liberal colleagues are working to overturn the common-sense amendments that the Conservatives and the Bloc passed at committee in our deliberations on Bill C-3. It is not surprising that they are getting help from their traditional coalition partner, the NDP.
The Liberals have turned our immigration system into a nightmare. Now, they want to pass even more legislation that will not fix the issues they have created but will continue to add to this huge mess. They want to potentially add thousands of new citizens without the necessary housing, health care or jobs to support them.
At committee, Conservatives put forward multiple amendments to make this lousy bill into a slightly less lousy bill. I would like to thank our Bloc colleagues, who worked with us to get these amendments through the committee.
The Liberals will say that they have to pass this legislation because a lower court ruling said that the first-generation limit of citizenship by descent could go on indefinitely. What they failed to mention is this: Not only did they not appeal the court ruling, but they have the control as to how it is implemented through legislation they put forward.
The previous Conservative government put in place a rule that said that if somebody was going to pass down their citizenship to a child born abroad, they could only do it for one generation, and that somebody who obtains citizenship by descent had to have a substantial connection to Canada. Liberals want this substantial connection to be three years over the course of someone's life. The first amendment passed at committee was to harmonize the residence requirements for someone obtaining citizenship through naturalization with citizenship by descent.
It really does not make sense to my constituents and, I believe, to Canadians across this great country to bestow citizenship on someone whose parents lived here 30 years ago for a three-year period of time. Now, they have not lived a day in the country, know nothing about the country and potentially do not speak the language. They and their parents have not contributed to the economy of this country. They have not lived their lives here, ever, but would be automatically bestowed citizenship without the checks and balances that would be inherent in going through the normal immigration streams. Conservatives proposed that new citizens be required to live in Canada at least three consecutive years out of five years to have the provisions in the bill apply to their descendants.
Given that the Liberal government has shamefully dropped the ball repeatedly on conducting thorough criminal background checks for immigrants, providing proof of three years of residency within the five-year period over the entirety of somebody's life would cause huge administrative problems and carry a high risk of fraud. How is an immigration officer supposed to verify three years of physical presence using records that could be decades old or may not exist?
Just to clarify so there is no confusion, the Liberals want three years over the course of somebody's life. We are proposing three years over a five-year period. That is a reasonable change. It was supported by the Bloc and passed at committee, but we now read in today's news that the NDP has partnered with the Liberals to vote down this very important amendment. This will also make the massive process and backlogs that the Liberals have already created even worse, hurting genuine immigrants waiting for service.
The second amendment passed at committee was to add a language component. I would argue that it is hard enough for new citizens to establish themselves and get ahead in Canada as it is when they speak a little of either of Canada's official languages, English or French. How can they integrate and actively participate in Canadian society if they are unable to communicate or speak one of our official languages? Our citizenship laws need to help immigrants become integrated into Canada, not push them further away. Language is part of our national identity and it is a bond we all share. The ability to communicate with each other cannot be understated.
I am a bit confused by the Liberals voting against this amendment because, when the Liberal Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship was asked at the citizenship committee what she believed Canadian values are, she stumbled, mumbled and then admitted that official languages are part of our Canadian values. If the minister believes English and French are part of Canadian values, why is the Liberal government not actively looking to celebrate and promote them within the bill, which the very same minister brought forth to Parliament?
Worse still, the bill does not require mandatory criminal background checks, meaning citizenship could be given without a full security screening. The importance of background checks cannot be understated. Canadians expect that the people we welcome into the country are law-abiding citizens like them. They expect that the people who are walking in the streets and who are at the community centres and the malls, around the schools and everywhere else are law-abiding citizens. A background check would correct that issue. It would address that very issue.
Unfortunately, the Liberals are saying that no background checks are required for this stream of people who have never lived here before and who come here at the ages of 30, 35 or 40. They could have done whatever they wanted in their country, but they are owed their citizenship so we should just give it to them. It does not make sense. That is not what Canadians want.
Removing this requirement, which Canada has for other immigration pathways, is irresponsible, dangerous and certainly a lot less safe. We deserve better. Canadians deserve better. We are seeing high crime in our communities, where violent attacks are taking place in once-quiet and once-safe neighbourhoods. Not requiring background checks for new citizens puts Canadians at risk and will only worsen the crime seen in our communities.
The Liberal government is acting irresponsibly by putting forward legislation that will make critical issues worse. Its working to overturn the common-sense amendments the Conservatives and the Bloc passed at committee is reckless. This bill undermines Canadian citizenship and what it means to be a Canadian. It will result in new citizens with very little, if any, connection to Canada. We will not know if they have a criminal background or if they uphold any Canadian values. In many cases, we will be unable to prove with certainty that applicants were in the country for the required period of time. Records may simply not exist, let alone the difficulty in trying to ascertain something from 30, 40 or 50 years ago.
I support the section of this bill regarding international adoptions. I have spoken at some length in this chamber about how I adopted my own children internationally, so this issue touches close to home for me.
We are making Canadian citizenship worth less by setting the bar so low for those obtaining citizenship by descent. It is unfair to every person who worked hard, learned one of our languages and had to pass all the necessary tests required.
In closing, the Liberals' mess in immigration has worsened every crisis in our country: housing, health care and jobs. They brought in too many people too quickly, without any plan. Now communities are overwhelmed. Young people cannot find jobs and newcomers are struggling to find housing and food. Unemployment right now among youth in the greater Toronto area is hovering around 20%. Already, what the Liberals' plan for international students and temporary foreign workers has done is overwhelm the system. Our own youth in Canada cannot find the entry-level jobs that were readily available to most of us in the House when we were their age.
Now they want to bring in additional people without proper background checks and add to the system, putting an even bigger strain on housing, health care and jobs. There are people waiting in hospitals in the greater Toronto area and across the country five, six, seven or eight hours to get service. They cannot get that service.
The Liberals say that we should never mind doing any background checks. They have found another stream that they want to add to the system. They will make it so easy for those people to just walk into the country. This bill will continue to add to the chaos. It cheapens Canadian citizenship. It requires yet more bureaucracy. It worsens the trust in our immigration system, which was once the envy of the world.