Mr. BRACKEN:

The minister is not concerned about the possibility of losing the organization's headquarters in Montreal?

Mr. HOWE:

I am very much concerned about it, but I believe that in the circumstances the members of PICAO recognize that the government of Canada is doing its 'best. I do not believe there is any complaint from the members at the moment regarding the arrangements that will obtain after April 10.

Hon. J. G. GARDINER (Minister of Agriculture) :

My understanding is that it does

not, but that decision was made by the prices and trade board and I would not care to give the reasons.

Mr. L. W. SKEY (Trinity):

Can the Minister of Reconstruction advise the house whether building materials allotted to projects such a? veterans hospitals will be considered as a part of the total allotment to a municipality, or whether such allotments of materials will be separate from the municipal allotment?

Hon. C. D. HOWE (Minister of Reconstruction) :

Projects such as veterans hospitals, which have the highest priority in the obtaining of materials, are not considered a part of the allotment to the municipalities. Supplies for projects of that type are furnished ex quota.

Mr. SKEY:

Arising out of my question to the Minister of Reconstruction I would ask the Minister of Veterans Affairs whether he can say w'hen Sunnybrook hospital will be completed, equipped and staffed.

^ Hon. IAN A. MACKENZIE (Minister of Veterans Affairs): I cannot make a statement

with any definiteness, but I can assure my hon. friend that, in conjunction with various other departments of government, we are doing everything we can to expedite the completion of the hospital in question.

Mr. W. F. KUHL (Jasper-Edson):

I wish to ask a question of the Minister of Labour, notice of which I have already sent him. Does the government contemplate permitting the use of German prisoners of war in the sawmills at Whitecourt, Alberta?

Hon. HUMPHREY MITCHELL (Minister of Labour):

Prisoners of war will not be used at Whitecourt, Alberta. At present there are thirty prisoners of war there, and they will be transferred on April 30 to another place.

Mr. F. E. JAENICKE (Kindersley):

When the house rose on Tuesday night I had discussed the phases of the bill which deal with British citizenship and upon which I maintain this parliament has no power to legislate, because we have repealed the applicability of the British Naturalization Act which previously gave us the power to make British subjects in this country.

I now have a few words of praise for the minister in connection with the section which deals with the qualifications of an applicant for naturalization. I am pleased that he has inserted paragraph (f) in section 10, which requires an applicant to have an adequate knowledge of the responsibilities and privileges of Canadian citizenship. I commend the minister particularly for the insertion of sections 37 and 38. Section 37 provides that:

The minister, with the approval of the governor in council, shall take such measures as to him may appear fitting to provide facilities to enable applicants for certificates of citizenship to receive instruction in the responsibilities and privileges of Canadian citizenship.

Section 38 gives the judge ivho hears the application authority to impress upon the applicants, by appropriate ceremonies, the respon-

Canadian Citizenship

sibilities and privileges of Canadian citizenship. I warmly approve these provisions of the bill, which will make for better citizenship and will impress the candidate for citizenship at the time he is received into the great family of the Canadian nation.

For a few moments I should like to deal with the sections of the bill which deal with the loss of Canadian citizenship. In that connection I have some criticisms to offer. If we take all this care which we now intend to take-and it is a far cry from the time that we made citizens prior to 1914 in western Canada at least-we should get a better citizenship. We should accept our citizens for better or for worse. There should be no discrimination so far as the loss of citizenship is concerned. Section 20 of the bill provides that if a naturalized Canadian citizen has left this country and resided outside of Canada for a period of at least six years he shall, with certain qualifications and exceptions, lose his certificate of naturalization in Canada. This refers only to a naturalized Canadian citizen. I am somewhat in favour of that. If a person leaves this country and has no connection with it at all, it should be presumed that he does not care to belong to this family any longer; but I suggest that we make this absence from Canada without reasonable and proper cause to be a presumption that he never intended to reside permanently in Canada, which would .mean that he did not make a bona fide application at the time he filed his application, and that it could be revoked for fraud. I mentioned a moment ago that I thought we should take our citizens for better or for worse. There is only one ground upon which the naturalization certificate should be revoked, namely, fraud. I consider a certificate of naturalization to be in the nature of a contract. The applicant for naturalization makes an offer to the government, and when the government issues the certificate of naturalization, it accepts that offer. These are the essential ingredients of a contract. If the contract has been induced by fraud or misrepresentation, it can be vitiated and repudiated. For the same reason a certificate of naturalization should be repudiated or cancelled. I submit, Mr. Speaker, that these are the only grounds upon which we should revoke a naturalization certificate.

As I have already said, the absence from Canada without proper . cause should be a presumption that the individual did not mean what he said when he made the application and said that he wanted to reside permanently in Canada. It will give the applicant a chance, under the provisions of section 21, to have a hearing and to state his case 63260-381

before the tribunal prescribed in that section, and still preserve his nationality or his Canadian citizenship if he has good grounds to offer.

Section 21 also deals with revocation. Paragraph (a) states-