What we're trying to do here is bring some common sense and some good management techniques to the backlog. We're trying to make sure we get families together faster than they have been. The wait times for those people have been growing. We're also trying to get skilled workers here sooner and get the ones here who are needed for the jobs. It's a better fit for everybody.
We do have arrangements with the provinces for compensation in terms of refugees, and it's a factor that goes into the annual general transfer. Recognition of increases or decreases in the number of refugees going to each province is already accounted for there.
When you talk about the families, this is very important. Refugees are, as I mentioned earlier, a separate case from the regular immigration stream. Yes, we have some challenges. Yes, we have to make sure we uphold our number one responsibility as a department, which is to ensure the safety, the security, and the health of those who are already in this country. To do that we have to do extensive security checks; we have to make sure that people who are allowed to come pass the criminality test because we don't want bad guys coming in; we want good guys coming. And we, as a country, as a government, believe every government's first job is to defend its people, and that's what we're doing when we stop people from coming in who we have determined have criminal records.