Those are excellent questions.
We are learning from their experience. We are increasing the scale of this initiative beyond the smaller scale of those two countries. By definition, our EOI will be different because we have different immigration programs. As I say, it's a framework for our existing programs. Our programs will change, but they're not going to change dramatically as we approach January 1, 2015. Our immigration will remain different from theirs.
What is the competitive advantage? We are going to be faster. And I hope that, with time, more of our immigration—which is already rising—will be driven by online applications, by electronic processing. We'll have to do that if we're going to meet the sixth-month timeline. That's the main competitive advantage that Australia and a few others have had over us—the processing times. We've had backlogs and they haven't.
The other advantage we have is the strength of our economy. EOI will only work and economic immigration will only continue to be successful if there are jobs and if we have the strong and in many ways unique position that Canada has in the world today, with its potential recognized, with its financial system highly rated for stability, and with whole sectors developing on a scale that few other countries can boast.
But this brings us back to the issue of what the Liberals are really saying on immigration. I think it is disturbing, because we've heard it from their leader and we've heard it from their critic. They express concern that we are focusing so much on economic immigration. Since when has Canada ever had a period in its immigration when we didn't want the people coming here—our ancestors, our friends and colleagues, our neighbours—to work when they got here? That is what immigrants themselves want. That is why they come, to contribute to our economy. Yes, they come to bring their culture and benefit from great cities and great communities, but they want to work. They want to support their families, they want to contribute, and they want to practise their professions. That has already been the story of Canadian immigration, and we want it to continue to be that.
It's disturbing when anyone around this table or in the House says there is the Canadian economy here and its needs on one hand, but we want immigration to be something separate from that. The logic of that just doesn't add up, I think, in the eyes of most Canadians.