| Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada
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Madame Chair, on behalf of the Government of Canada and on behalf of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, the Right Honourable Prime Minister of Canada, I'm very pleased to join you here today for the adoption of the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration, on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.The Compact is the first time the international community has worked together to develop a comprehensive framework on migration.
| Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada
| speeches
Thank you very much. It’s a pleasure to be here with you. I know this community very well. It’s a very wonderful community and what makes Etobicoke North such an amazing, dynamic community is the strong women who are here.
| Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada
| speeches
Bonjour et merci d’être ici ce matin. It’s always a pleasure to address the Canadian Club, because I know many of you in this audience are engaged with immigration and more broadly on issues around Canadian public policy.
| Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada
| speeches
I’d like to begin by acknowledging that we are gathered on the traditional territories of the Musqueam, Tsleil-Waututh and the Squamish Nations. And I’d also like to thank my colleagues, of course, Sukh Dhaliwal, Ken Hardie, Dan Ruimy and Randeep Sarai for joining me this morning for this really important announcement.
| Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada
| speeches
Good morning, everyone. I want to begin by acknowledging that this event is occurring on the traditional territory of the Algonquin peoples.
Two weeks ago, I was in Nigeria representing the government of Canada. I met the foreign minister of Nigeria, as well as the permanent secretary in the Ministry of Interior and a number of officials, civil society, and media to talk about positive aspects of the Canadian-Nigeria immigration story, attracting more Nigerian international students, attracting more tourists, attracting more applicants under the Express Entry system and also pitching our Start-up visa program in Nigeria because there’s a lot of innovation there.
| Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada
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Thank you, Marco, very much for that kind introduction. I just want to also acknowledge the presence of my federal colleagues here, the Honourable Salma Zahid, Member of Parliament for Scarborough Centre, yes, for Scarborough Centre, and Rob Oliphant, my colleague, as well as Jenny Kwan, who's my Opposition Critic and Member of Parliament for the New Democratic Party.I also want to take an opportunity to thank all of you for joining us here today, especially the caregivers who are in the room today, for the services that they provide to Canadian families and to our communities. Thank you very much.
| Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada
| speeches
Thank you very much for that kind introduction. Good afternoon, and thank you all for being here. I'd like to first recognize that we are on the traditional territory of the Mississaugas of New Credit. And I'd like to thank Tulip Retail for hosting us today.
| Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada
| speeches
Vancouver, British ColumbiaSeptember 5, 2017 Thank you very much. It's wonderful to be back in Vancouver. I was here a number of times. Well, the first time I was here as a new Immigration Minister was to promote more transit travellers to consider travelling through Vancouver Airport, and how the federal government can help with that, with respect to having a more facilitative approach towards transit travellers for select number of cities and low-risk countries. If you have a United States visa and you're travelling from certain parts of Asia and you're going through Vancouver, then we will not ask you to obtain a Canadian visa. Through that, I was able to interact with the folks here, to learn about the potential of that traffic to dramatically expand Vancouver Airport and create real economic benefits for the region.
