Citizenship and Immigration committee  In India, it is more complex. India and China, in particular, are a little bit nuanced. However, they are very close in terms of regulating their own to work with immigration with outside.... Those are countries that send their people outside. Philippines is another example. It means that the inside individuals who want to work for or with external countries like Australia, New Zealand, Canada or the U.S. have to be regulated.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I would address that issue a little bit differently, if you don't mind. I would think there should be something that is more under the international law. Because the college is anchored under Canadian statute and federal statute in particular, the college should, in my humble opinion, be able to have MOUs with either the same level of college, or even government to government, or college to government.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  We have 2,500 members.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  You probably wanted to say members, because we do not represent clients. We are the advocacy body.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Yes, that is correct. In the section you mentioned, it lists those titles, and says, “or equivalent other titles”.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  They will be going further. I don't want to give them more examples, if they're listening to me, but if they start using “adviser”, “immigration adviser”, “immigration agent” or whatever, these can be added to that list, as per the current section you mentioned under the bill.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  No. French is my first language, and in French, "consultant" is relative to conseiller, but even in Quebec law, they use the word “consultant”. Why? This word has been anchored in Canadian history of immigration for at least 50 years, I would say, if not more. Everywhere in the world, it is “consultant”.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  As I mentioned in my speech, being anchored in the federal law gives an extraterritorial power, and I believe in the upcoming two to three years, the college should be getting exemplary cases where they can, and they would, I assume, stop and bring to justice some of what we used to name “out of jurisdiction”.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  It is. Mr. Damitz, would you like to answer that?

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I will take this, but I can't speak on behalf of the government, you will all agree. This is twofold. The first one is that the government in the bill has funding in order to create more awareness. I'm sure you have seen that in the bill. However, on another side, we worked with the government in the last five years to facilitate and allow those who come forward.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  If you look at the bill, number one, there's a change in governance. Therefore, the people on the board won't be the same. The balance of the board is different. The approval of the code of ethics is different, and the approval of the bylaws is completely different. In addition, there are regulations that will be drafted probably after the bill gets royal assent to become an act.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I want to answer that question, if I may. I'm sorry, but I beg to differ, because the say of the members is still there. When we look at the act, I would say that it is an act that would support the majority of the profession. Right now, for example, members can vote for members.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Actually, to add to what Mr. Gagnon just said, the complaints are confidential. In other words, clients are protected until they arrive in court, if necessary. Clients therefore have a guarantee of professional protection reinforced by the fact that there will be new federal legislation.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Will do. Under proposed subsection 85(7), it mentions that it can represent an EOI, which is an expression of interest. Thank you for the time and it's a pleasure to answer your questions.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Thank you, Madam Chair. Members of the committee, good morning. I have accompanying me today, Mr. Gerd Damitz, who is the past president and co-founder of CAPIC. On behalf of the Canadian Association of Professional Immigration Consultants, I want to thank the committee for their unanimous bipartisan proposal of federal statute regulation through the Parliament, and acceptance of this proposal.