Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I will even withdraw what I said and apologize to my colleague.
Let us talk about numbers. In the Atlantic region, on January 26, 2026, there was a backlog of 3,038 claims. On February 28, 2026, there were 1,364. Now that it's April, it's no longer 1,364 claims. In the Quebec region—this is very important, because it's near and dear to my heart—there were 11,535 outstanding claims on January 26, 2026. There were 9,222 on February 28, 2026. Now that it's April, there are fewer. In the Ontario region, there were 34,544 outstanding claims on January 26, 2026. There were 24,496 on February 28, 2026. In the western region and the territories, there were 35,112 outstanding claims on January 26, 2026. On February 28, 2026, there were 31,515.
I'm not going to go through all the figures. There are other regions, and some are waiting. I'm not going to make up numbers here so as not to distort the information. That isn't something I do. Despite the backlog, work has been done quickly. That much is clear. That work is phenomenal. We aren't going to divert resources.
This motion makes no sense. It's going to cost a great deal of money and resources. I don't know. I hear my colleagues talking about millions of pages; that's going to cost a great deal of resources and money.
Our officials, Mr. Chair, are not robots. We'll say it.
I'd like to remind my colleagues of something or get back to basics: the backlogs of old age security claims are the topic of today's discussion. Since the start of the year, the department's teams have been working tirelessly to process all the claims. The inventory and the work are going very well, even though it isn't finished. As an example, on January 26, there was a backlog of 3,038 outstanding claims for the Atlantic region. A month later, on February 28, there were 1,364 outstanding claims left.
Why am I telling you that? It's because, although the work is progressing, we won't stop until all the claims have been processed. I'd also like to point out that these claims are mainly paper-based, contain errors and ask our teams to assist Canadians through the process. Above all, it's important to know that an error could affect the benefits that a senior might receive for the rest of their life. I'm talking about a whole lifetime, Mr. Chair, the rest of their life. That makes precision even more important—