Citizenship and Immigration committee  In the last six months, there have been twenty of them.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  It is basically because--

Citizenship and Immigration committee  --anyone who applies for a Canadian passport is required to provide proof of citizenship, and this can be done in a number of ways. If they don't have proof of Canadian citizenship, the matter then becomes an issue. It's become a particularly important issue because of the American decision to require passports.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Mr. Chairman, we have systematically made the information available to all our missions abroad, and we have a practice there of having both pamphlets and posters in various Canadian embassies. And as people contact Canadian embassies abroad, if citizenship matters arise, people are reminded of this sort of thing.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  This is a matter of detail, so I'll answer, if I may. The passport office, I think, was the lead in dealing with anticipated increases in demand because of the United States regulations, and we have shared some information with them. Since this became a significant issue, we've put into place arrangements with the passport office, which will remain in effect, whereby any case they encounter in which citizenship is an issue will be referred to Citizenship and Immigration Canada.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  As you may know, Mr. Chairman, one of the objectives of the new system is to integrate the 13 existing systems, many of which are outdated. Do we have a document management system? Yes, Ms. Faille,we do and we are hoping to make substantial improvements. As to your question about the nine-month timeframe, we will have to look into that.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  That's essentially correct, Mr. Chairman.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Our view is that we are in absolute full compliance with the act in respect of reporting. The other components of the act that require us to either seek consultations or additional authorities do not apply. That's because we do not have specific timelines against each of the individual categories, we have broad ranges.