Yes, thanks. Together with all the policy changes we're making, there's an ongoing process, as you say, of modernization on the operational side of the department, the most important element of which was the adoption and global rollout of our new IT platform, the global case management system.
Because of that we are getting more efficient. For example, we are now accepting temporary resident visa applications globally online. We're accepting those applications online. The number of online applications is still relatively small, but as our visa offices become more familiar with processing online applications, we believe that will enhance efficiency, as it has done for other countries that have done the same.
But I would actually say, Mr. Opitz, that the substantial increase in the number of temporary resident visas that we issued—the record number—is largely a function of demand. We have seen a huge growth in demand for people visiting or studying in Canada from places like China and India in particular, and other countries as well. Brazil has had very large growth. In China we have seen a tripling of the number of visitor visas, largely driven by tourism in the past couple of years.
Actually let me be very transparent with the committee. We're struggling to keep on top of the growth. Based on our projections we continue to see the same velocity of growth in markets like China for tourism to Canada. We are going to have a challenge to maintain our reasonable processing standards for those TRV applications, which is why I'm pleased that budget 2013 has included additional resources for my department to accelerate processing of temporary resident visas in critical markets like China, Brazil, and India, which will be offset by a slight increase in TRV fees.