Citizenship and Immigration committee  We're still at the beginning, I must admit. As I described, I think Hong Kong, for instance, got online today. And most of the missions got it since November. We started a bit earlier, but now that is the case. It allows us...because all the information that is entered in one place is available immediately at the other place.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I think I should answer this question. I am the one who picks the targets; it's not Sean. We reduced it in order to give it to other missions that had applications where processing was longer, in order to reduce the processing time where it was longer and where we had larger inventory.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  For Taiwan, parents and grandparents, as of December 31 there were 37 people, so that's probably about 10 or 12 families.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I don't have all the details, but the amount of money that has been invested in Canada is divided using a formula to the provinces that participated. Quebec has its own program, but all the other provinces are getting the money. They are investing it in all kinds of services they are providing to the population.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  You're right. In an ideal world, we would have more points of service and more local information. What is difficult, however, is that, for a functional office, we need a sufficiently large critical mass. In a number of places, in Nairobi, for example, if we applied the rule that we should have a specific minimum number of officers, we would have five offices with one and a half officers each.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  If I could add one thing, there was no overall target. Those 55 were taken away from somewhere else.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Okay.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  We don't base targets on what has happened in the past. We look at the applications we have in the inventory, what stage they are at, and how old the applications are from a particular country. For instance, in the case of Warsaw, we don't have any applications that are older than 2009.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I'd like to introduce my colleague Sean McLuckie, who is working in our office in Taipei. The Taipei office deals with applications received essentially from Taiwan. Without any further delay, here he is.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  It's just that some of the questions are policy questions, and Mr. Boekhoven has no impact on which target he's going to get.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  First, I'll clarify the issue of the immense area covering 18 countries. In China, we have two offices covering virtually the same area as that covered by the Nairobi office. You can't focus solely on the geographic boundaries of that part of Africa. As far as possible, we try to perform all administrative functions in Canada.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  The main issue of having intake control on areas where we can is by far what would have the most impact on processing time. It's true for skilled workers. It's true for privately sponsored refugees, for instance, which is another area where we're trying to reduce the number of applications...or have a better match between the number of applications with regard to the output that we are allowed to...to proceed.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I should probably reply to that. The funds that you are describing are what we ask from any applicant who does not have a sponsorship of some kind in order to make sure they will have enough money to support themselves for that year. If they have relatives, if there is no undertaking of any type that would force that individual to help the new migrant, we have to ensure that the new migrant starts with the financial capacity in order to settle.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  For the family members, for instance, depending on the category.... For parents, there is an undertaking that for 10 years they will support their parents when they're here. So there is a guarantee that we, or the province, will not incur costs related to the fact that someone came to Canada without the necessary adequate financial support.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  The provincial nominee is essentially an independent movement. Some have relatives. Some provinces have created a program where they favour relatives, but currently in the legislation there is no legal base for it.