Citizenship and Immigration committee  Absolutely, Mr. Trudeau. To back up a bit so that we're clear, CMI provides voluntary education for immigration consultants, and actually to lawyers as well, who take our courses. Because of the changes in immigration law and policy, just because you become a CSIC member today doesn't mean you're competent to continue representing clients, so CMI provides, as one of our mandates, voluntary education in the form of courses and seminars that immigration consultants and lawyers can take to better themselves, become more competent, and ensure they're up to date with changes.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Yes, Mr. Trudeau.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Good afternoon. The Canadian Migration Institute is honoured to be here today to share our views on Bill C-35. CMI is the voice of the immigration consulting profession. Since our inception in 2007, we have grown to more than 1,800 fellows, who can be found across Canada and overseas.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I don't believe any Bill C-50 numbers have been published yet because it's still too early. When we're back here on November 20 we will be meeting with CIC, and we've asked them for processing. I can tell you that we recently visited the regional program centre in Buffalo, New York.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Sure.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I'm not familiar with the numbers you're looking at, Ms. Mendes.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I was actually here last year and I was the only one I think at that time. I was the vice-chair of CSIC and we actually came in support of Bill C-50.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Unfortunately, I have no hard numbers with me. We're going to be back here on November 20 in a CIC immigration practitioner meeting. We've asked the department for hard numbers regarding the CIO. I can only comment that, overall, we have over 1,500 fellows who belong to CMI. We have a very robust community, and on the whole, the changes brought about in federal skilled worker processing have been positive.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  We are actually preparing a more fulsome report for the committee. Unfortunately, it was only confirmed on Monday that we would be appearing on Thursday and speaking about these issues, so the best I could muster is my speaking notes. But we will be bringing something forward to the committee.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Before IRPA, there used to be business processing centres all over the world, and they specialized in business-type applications from investors and entrepreneurs. This is why one of our recommendations would be to look seriously at a centralized intake office within Canada that would have the expertise to do the front-end processing to be comfortable with the numbers.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  As you know, IRPA came in, and under R11 there are designated areas that process your application based on your country of residence or citizenship. That was one of the reasons.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Yes.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  FD basically means the file is closed when you're doing a final disposition, so the file is closed.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Well, that's what Quebec has done; for 2009 they've set it to actual investments made and landings rather than that the file is closed.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  If I may, in the federal program the $400,000 is invested once a selection decision is done.