Senator Martin: Leader, there are well over 2 million applications caught in the backlog at Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada. Today, according to the government’s own website, the application processing time for a skilled tradesperson seeking entry to Canada is 70 months.

Despite the massive backlog and little evidence Canadians are getting good value for money spent on the McKinsey contracts, the Trudeau government revised an immigration department contract during the pandemic to give McKinsey even more money.

Leader, could you tell us why your government believed McKinsey deserved extra money from Canadian taxpayers for a job done so poorly?

Hon. Yonah Martin (Deputy Leader of the Opposition) moved second reading of Bill S-245, An Act to amend the Citizenship Act (granting citizenship to certain Canadians).

She said: Honourable senators, I’m honoured to once again sponsor and speak to Bill S-245, formerly Bill S-230, An Act to amend the Citizenship Act (granting citizenship to certain Canadians).

In the last parliamentary session, Bill S-230 was adopted in the Senate following debate and a thorough study at the Standing Senate Committee on Social Affairs, Science and Technology. The bill was unanimously supported and sent to the House of Commons but died on the Order Paper when the election was called.

As I said previously for Bill S-230, this current bill, Bill S-245, will address a specific gap in the Citizenship Act to capture a small group of Canadians who have lost their Canadian citizenship or became stateless because of changes to policy.

Many of these individuals were raised in Canada from a young age. Though they were born abroad, some came to Canada at a young age, as infants, in some cases. They went to school in Canada. They raised their families in Canada. They worked and paid taxes in Canada, and yet, they turned 28 without knowing that their citizenship would be stripped from them because of the change in policy to the Citizenship Act of 1977 that required Canadians born abroad to apply to retain their citizenship when they turned 28. As previously explained, this age-28 rule was passed, then forgotten. Those who did not apply to retain their citizenship before their twenty-eighth birthday subsequently became “lost Canadians” on their twenty-eighth birthday.

Bill C-37 of 2008, which repealed the age-28 provision and grandfathered all those Canadians who had not yet turned 28 to be included in the policy change, left out a small group of Canadians who had already turned 28, specifically those born in the 50-month window between February 15, 1977, to April 16, 1981. This small cohort of lost Canadians is the group for whom this bill was brought forward in this Parliament once again.

With the passage of S-245, we can reinstate this last cohort of “lost Canadians” affected by the age-28 rule and ensure that they are given the rights and opportunities that they deserve, as do all Canadians across our great nation.

I would like to thank Senator Omidvar for once again being the critic of this important bill and working in collaboration with me and tireless advocates like Don Chapman on such an important issue.

Honourable senators, I ask you to support this bill once again and, rather than send it to committee, that we expedite this bill straight to third reading and to the House of Commons, as we did earlier in this current Parliament with other familiar bills that also died on the Order Paper in the other house, namely Bill S-202, An Act to amend the Parliament of Canada Act (Parliamentary Visual Artist Laureate); Bill S-214, An Act to establish International Mother Language Day; Bill S-216, An Act to amend the Income Tax Act (use of resources of a registered charity); and Bill S-223, An Act to amend the Criminal Code and the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act (trafficking in human organs).

After Senator Omidvar speaks, I will seek leave to expedite this bill in support of the “lost Canadians,” who have been waiting far too long for this bill to become law. Thank you.