Citizenship and Immigration committee  Right. Again, we would require the cooperation of the provinces, given their jurisdiction around regulation of professions. For those who are acting as representatives, if they are providing poor advice, we can refer them to the disciplinary committees of the three bodies, but given the extent of the work of ghost consultants, actually getting a handle on the numbers and policing that with a view to laying charges or pursuing those types of activities would be very difficult.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  It's a bit of a balancing act between federal and provincial when we look at actual proceedings before the minister. IRPA allows the authority for regulations to be developed around which individuals will be allowed to represent a client in any proceeding before the minister, and that's the authority under which we've developed the regulations that we have now.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  As I said earlier, in terms of understanding the scope of activity both in Canada and overseas, particularly by ghost consultants, where no federal or provincial authority is aware of the activities, it would be very difficult to quantify or to measure that type of activity.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  When instances of irregularities, if I can put it that way, come to our attention, we will refer them to CBSA for investigation or to the RCMP, depending on the nature of the infraction, whether it would be IRPA or Criminal Code.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  No, we have not.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  CSIC is an independent, arm's-length body. It operates independently of CIC, as do the law societies and la Chambre des notaires. CIC has no role in the governance of CSIC; it is guided by the Corporations Act as a registered non-profit corporation.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  As we work forward through this, we have already posted on the CIC website updated information on the use of consultants and how clients should be guided in that selection. We are also looking at developing a series of posters and advertisements to be put on our mission websites, working with Foreign Affairs and our offices overseas.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Yes.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Thank you for your questions. Mr. Chairman, I would like to respond to the first question concerning representatives that are not members of the CSIC or of another organization. It's very difficult, as I said in my opening remarks, for CIC to be able to monitor with our partners the activities of so-called ghost consultants who may be providing a service for a fee.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Yes, Mr. Chair, we'd be prepared to do that.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  We will endeavour to do this within the next two to three weeks.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Yes.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I believe the minister and officials will be appearing before the committee in early May to discuss main estimates and Bill C-50. Today I'm prepared to speak about the role of immigration consultants.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Based on the systems and information we have available with partners, we'll be able to provide the committee with what information we have.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I'm not aware of any such records, but I'll check with our human resources department.