Speech (House debate)

{
    "time": "2008-06-02 12:25:00",
    "attribution": {
        "en": "Hon. Andrew Telegdi (Kitchener\u2014Waterloo, Lib.)",
        "fr": ""
    },
    "content": {
        "en": "<p data-HoCid=\"1130471\" data-originallang=\"en\">Mr. Speaker, in terms of dealing with the numbers, an important concept for us to understand is that we let in about 250,000 immigrants a year. About 300,000 to 400,000 people wishing to come to Canada make application. As long as we have a mismatch between the number of people wishing to come here and the number of people we actually let in, we will have a growing backlog.</p>\n<p data-HoCid=\"1130472\" data-originallang=\"en\">Last year the government said that it brought in 430,000 newcomers to Canada. If all those people coming into Canada were immigrants that would have helped to deal with the backlog. However, the problem was that about 190,000 of them were people with temporary status, about two-thirds of them were temporary foreign workers and one-third of them were foreign students. Had we applied the whole 430,000 to deal with the backlog, we would have made a dent. Instead, we have bumped up the numbers by close to 100,000 people in terms of the backlog itself, even though we brought in an extra 190,000 people.</p>\n<p data-HoCid=\"1130473\" data-originallang=\"en\">I agree with my colleague across the way. This is really dangerous. Will Canada become a country of temporary foreign workers or will we bring in people who will make an investment and help us build a country? Will we be bringing in temporary foreign workers, the ones on the lower end who are in a virtually indentured situation, a servitude situation where if they step out of line they will get booted out of the country, or will we bring in people who have many skills? For those lower skilled workers, however, the government is proposing to give them temporary permits so they cannot apply for landed status. Does my colleague have a comment on that?</p>",
        "fr": "<p data-HoCid=\"1130471\" data-originallang=\"en\">Monsieur le Pr\u00e9sident, en ce qui a trait aux chiffres, il est important de comprendre que, chaque ann\u00e9e, nous accueillons environ 250 000 immigrants par ann\u00e9e tandis que de 300 000 \u00e0 400 000 personnes font une demande pour venir au Canada. Tant et aussi longtemps qu'il existe une disparit\u00e9 entre le nombre de personnes qui veulent venir ici et le nombre de celles que nous accueillons r\u00e9ellement, nous seront aux prises avec un arri\u00e9r\u00e9 croissant.</p>\n<p data-HoCid=\"1130472\" data-originallang=\"en\">L'ann\u00e9e derni\u00e8re, le gouvernement a dit que le pays avait accueilli 430 000 nouveaux arrivants. Si ces derniers avaient tous \u00e9t\u00e9 des immigrants, cela aurait contribu\u00e9 \u00e0 r\u00e9gler le probl\u00e8me de l'arri\u00e9r\u00e9. Toutefois, le probl\u00e8me, c'est que environ 190 000 d'entre eux avaient le statut de r\u00e9sident temporaire, dont environ les deux tiers \u00e9taient des travailleurs \u00e9trangers temporaires et le tiers, des \u00e9tudiants \u00e9trangers. Si nous avions accueilli 430 000 personnes qui figurent dans l'arri\u00e9r\u00e9, nous aurions fait des progr\u00e8s. Au contraire, nous avons augment\u00e9 l'arri\u00e9r\u00e9 de presque 100 000 personnes, m\u00eame si nous avons laiss\u00e9 entrer 190 000 personnes de plus.</p>\n<p data-HoCid=\"1130473\" data-originallang=\"en\">Je partage l'avis de mon coll\u00e8gue d'en face. La situation est tr\u00e8s dangereuse. Le Canada deviendra-t-il un pays de travailleurs \u00e9trangers temporaires ou laissera-t-il entrer des gens qui investiront et contribueront au d\u00e9veloppement du pays? Accueillerons-nous des travailleurs \u00e9trangers temporaires, ceux qui sont au bas de l'\u00e9chelle et qui sont pratiquement li\u00e9s \u00e0 leur emploi par un contrat non r\u00e9siliable, une situation de servitude dans laquelle, \u00e0 la moindre d\u00e9sob\u00e9issance, ils seront jet\u00e9s hors du pays, ou accueillerons-nous des gens qui poss\u00e8dent de nombreuses comp\u00e9tences? Dans le cas des travailleurs qui poss\u00e8dent moins de comp\u00e9tences, le gouvernement propose de leur accorder un permis de s\u00e9jour temporaire, ce qui les emp\u00eache de demander le statut de r\u00e9sident permanent. Qu'en pense mon coll\u00e8gue?</p>"
    },
    "url": "/debates/2008/6/2/andrew-telegdi-4/",
    "politician_url": "/politicians/280/",
    "politician_membership_url": "/politicians/memberships/2588/",
    "procedural": false,
    "source_id": "2500805",
    "h1": {
        "en": "Government Orders",
        "fr": ""
    },
    "h2": {
        "en": "Budget Implementation Act, 2008",
        "fr": ""
    },
    "document_url": "/debates/2008/6/2/",
    "related": {
        "document_speeches_url": "/speeches/?document=%2Fdebates%2F2008%2F6%2F2%2F"
    }
}