Thank you, Mr. Chair, and thank you all for coming and making your presentations.
As I think most of the people sitting around this table would agree, increasing and ramping up our immigration policies in Canada is a top priority. It's the future for Canada. I come from western Canada, where we have massive labour shortages in all walks of life, skilled and unskilled workers, and at the same time we're faced with a massive backlog of people trying to get into Canada. As well, as you've documented today, there are up to 200,000 people who are in Canada right now who could very easily apply for citizenship and be a productive, full-time member of our society.
I know over the last nine months we've seen very little action from this new government. I think immigration is not high on their list of priorities at all. They have an inability to count past the number five, so I don't know what else is going to be on their list of priorities.
I have a few questions for you that are quite straightforward, simply trying to elicit your thoughts and your views on a few different issues. One of them is the refugee appeal division, the RAD. I think most of the members of this committee are in favour of the refugee appeal division. I was wondering what your views were on that and why you think it's important.