Question Period: Country Agreement

question period: Calls to renegotiate the agreement have come from both the NDP and Conservatives in the wake of a steady flow of asylum seekers coming into Canada from the U.S. over the last few years, according to CTV. I've written to Secretary Nielsen telling her we would like to engage with them in a conversation on how we can improve and enhance the Safe Third Country Agreement. In an interview with Evan Solomon, host of CTV's Question Period, Blair said he has sent a letter to United States Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen asking to start their discussions about how to change the more-than-decade-old agreement to better address the issues at the Canada-U.S. border. We're dealing with changing circumstances, Blair said. Under the current agreement, refugee claimants have to apply for asylum in the first country they arrive in, if they arrive at Canada-U.S. border crossings, with some exceptions. Blair, when appointed to the new ministerial position in July, was asked to lead conversations with the aim of improving the legislation in ways that would, as Blair said in the interview, help regularize the rate of, and where, people are entering into Canada. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.