Sure.
Just on the actual effectiveness of the immigration policies that we've implemented to deal with some very serious challenges facing our immigration system, I'm not going to pretend everything has been perfect, because the shock to our system that came from COVID-19, an outsized response to Ukraine and Afghanistan, and the fact that Canada became the most popular place in the world to come to in order to seek economic opportunities have put real strain on our system. We've advanced policies to put more resources in the system by hiring more than 1,250 people, to relax administrative barriers in a number of different ways and to embrace the adoption of digital technology that will speed the processes up.
The figure that Ms. Kusie raised of 2.1 million cases in the system has actually been dramatically reduced. Since this summer we've been able to reduce the number of cases in our inventory by more than half a million. We are back to the service standard we enjoyed prepandemic for family reunification cases and for federal express-entry cases. We are very close on study permits and work permits for new applications that are being made. We have some work left to do on visitor visas, which we're working very hard to advance as quickly as possible, but there is real and tangible progress that people are feeling in communities.
Does it need to go faster? Yes. Will it go faster in the future? Yes.
We're doing the hard work now and have been doing the hard work over the past year, including by adopting digital processes. There will be bumps along the way, but we're doing everything we can to get families back together more quickly, to get workers into the businesses and to allow more people to visit Canada for important life events.