CIMM Committee Meeting

     Honourable members, I see a quorum.

    In conformance with Standing Order 106(1), the first item of business is to elect a chair, and I'm ready to receive motions to that effect.

    Mr. Jaffer.

    I'd like to nominate Norman Doyle, please.

    Are there any further nominations?

    I second that nomination.

    Okay. I declare the nominations closed.

    (Motion agreed to)

    It is my pleasure to welcome Mr. Norman Doyle as the chair.

    Does the committee want to proceed to the election of the vice-chairs?

    Some hon. members: Agreed.

    The Clerk: There are two vice-chairs. The first one is for the official opposition, so we'll go there first. Are there any nominations?

    Ms. Guarnieri.

    I'd like to nominate Andrew Telegdi, who has infinite wisdom on this topic.

    Are there any further nominations? Nominations are closed.

    (Motion agreed to)

    Mr. Telegdi, congratulations as the first vice-chair.

    Now we'll proceed to the second vice-chair.

    Mrs. Deschamps.

    I'd like to nominate my colleague Meili Faille for the position of second vice-chair.

    Are there any further nominations? Nominations are closed.

    (Motion agreed to)

    I declare Madam Faille as the second vice-chair.

    Now I will invite Mr. Doyle to take the chair.

    Some hon. members: Hear, hear!

    Thank you for the opportunity to chair the committee. Having won this very difficult election by such an overwhelming majority, I must say I'm overwhelmed.

    I want to congratulate the vice-chairs as well.

    Maybe we should go around the table, at the advice of the clerk, to introduce ourselves, say hello, and whatever. Then we'll get on to our next order of business.

    We'll start with you, Albina. Just introduce yourself, your riding, and what have you.

    I've been elected since 1988, and some of my colleagues keep pointing out that I'm getting very long in the tooth here on the Hill.

    I represent the riding of Mississauga East—Cooksville, which has a healthy percentage of new Canadians, and I'm very much looking forward to working collaboratively with all of you.

    Thank you.

    Thank you.

    Andrew.

    I was elected in 1993--the class of 1993. I've sat on this committee since 1998, most of the time as an official member. There was a time when I wasn't an official member, but I sat here anyway.

    In the next months I'm looking forward to getting some of the work done that was interrupted by the election.

    I'm Meili Faille, the Member for Vaudreuil-Soulanges. I was first elected to the House in June 2004 and this is my second term of office. I've always found it a pleasure to serve on the Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration. I'm better known these days as Ms. Refugee Appeals Section. Therefore, don't be surprised if I bring up once again the need to have a refugee appeals section. I also intend to focus on having foreign degrees and skills recognized. I think we're going to have some very interesting discussions on these topics.

    I'm delighted to serve as vice-chair and to contribute to the work of the Citizenship and Immigration Committee. In the past, I worked for Employment and Immigration.

    Thank you.

    Good day. I'm Johanne Deschamps and I'm also beginning my second term of office. I was first elected in 2004. I represent one of the loveliest ridings in Quebec, a riding that boasts a number of tourist attractions as well as scenic mountains and lakes. I'm referring to the riding of Laurentides--Labelle, home to Saint-Sauveur, Intrawest and Mont-Tremblant. Please come and visit us if ever you have the chance.

    I'm the foreign affairs critic for Africa and Central America, a responsibility I share with Ms. Francine Lalonde. Also, along with Meili Faille, I'm my party's representative on this committee. I look forward to drawing on everyone's experience as well as to putting my own to work. I wish us all a productive session.

    Thank you, Mr. Chair, and congratulations on your election, and to the vice-chairs as well.

    Thank you.

    I was first elected in 2004 in the riding of Burnaby--Douglas, but I worked in Burnaby--Douglas for 18 years before that, first, briefly here on the Hill, and then for 16 years in the constituency office. I did a lot of immigration casework in those days. That's where my interest in the work of this committee is based.

    My riding has a large immigrant population; almost 50% of the population in my riding is immigrant or visible minority. The largest group is people of Chinese background, from either Taiwan or PRC or Hong Kong. There's also a large Korean community in the riding as well, but almost everybody else is represented in the riding.

    I'm looking forward to the work of the committee. I think we did some excellent work on citizenship issues in the last committee, and I hope the government will consider that work, but I think there is lots to be done on refugee and immigration interests. I hope we will spend some of our time in those areas this time around.

    Thank you, Bill.

    Barry, go ahead, please.

    My name is Barry Devolin. I am the member for Haliburton—Kawartha Lakes—Brock, which is a riding in central Ontario. Part of my riding is actually in the GTA as well. I was first elected in 2004, almost two years ago.

     I also look forward to the work on this committee. I don't have a lot of background on these files, so I'm trying to get up to speed as quickly as possible.

    Rahim, go ahead, please.

    Thanks, Mr. Chair, and congratulations to you and the vice-chairs.

     It's a great pleasure to be here again. My name is Rahim Jaffer, and my riding is Edmonton—Strathcona. I was elected in 1997, so I've been around for a little while. I had a chance, at least, to work on this committee the last time around, and I'm happy to say that we achieved some good things. I think we had a good spirit of work towards each other, and that was exciting. With the new members we have joining us, I'm hopeful that tradition will continue. I think it will.

    I look forward to working with all of you on some of the pressing issues that, as Andrew said, we had started to deal with in the last round. Hopefully we can continue that.

    Thanks.

    Good. Thank you.

    Nina, go ahead, please.

    Thank you, Mr. Chair.

    Congratulations to you, Mr. Chair, and to the vice-chairs as well.

    My name is Nina Grewal. I come from the beautiful province of British Columbia, and my riding is Fleetwood—Port Kells.

    I was on this committee before, and I'm really very happy to be working with all of you.

    Ed, go ahead, please.

    Hi. My name is Ed Komarnicki.

     Again, congratulations to the chair and the vice-chairs. I look forward to getting to know you and to working with you.

    I was elected in 2004. I represent the riding of Souris—Moose Mountain in southeast Saskatchewan. It's a progressive little area. We have quite a bit of economic growth there and some immigration issues that relate to that.

    I'm the parliamentary secretary to the minister. I'm hoping that we'll have constructive time with regard to the many issues that immigration is facing or will be facing in the next while.

    Thank you.

    I don't believe we have all members of the committee here, but we do have about five members on the committee who were on the committee last time around, so we're fortunate to have that continuity and to have you, Andrew. I keep hearing great things about you, your knowledge of the committee and what have you. It's good to have people on the committee who have a knowledge of it.

    Now, where do we go from here? I think we have motions that we can pass out. You can have these motions and look at them over the weekend, and we'll deal with them on Monday.

    Go ahead, Rahim.

    Is that going to be the job of a steering committee, or are we going to determine the schedule of meetings this committee wants to have--when and how frequent? Are we going to do that today or not?

    No. I think we'll be doing that on Monday, actually getting the schedule worked out and what our order of business will be. The meeting days, I'm informed, are Monday and Wednesday at 3:30.

    Monday and Wednesday. Okay.

    Yes.

    Are there any other questions you want to vet before we adjourn until Monday?

    Thank you. The meeting is adjourned.