This is a necessary provision and safety valve to address the circumstances of those who this bill would automatically make citizens, and for whatever legal, professional or personal reasons, it may be problematic. The proposed provision is crafted in such a way that it would.... The persons notifying the minister and the department, and fulfilling these limited conditions—i.e. they have another citizenship and they don't reside in Canada—would be deemed never to have automatically been made Canadian citizens.
The reason that's desirable, as we spoke about some committee hearings ago, is that it's difficult to know ahead of time how the automatic citizenship provisions in this bill and these amendments may interact with other countries' laws. This proposal is the most effective way of addressing that concern by deeming someone to never have been a citizen. It leaves no room for interpretation, we would suggest, by another jurisdiction.
Thank you.