Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Welcome, Mr. Minister, to this committee.
You referred to the increase in the numbers of immigrants in planning for 2007. Over the years there have been alleged promises by the previous government to attempt to hit 1% of the population as an immigration target. That has never been met over the years, but there have been modest increases. Yet at the same time I note in your remarks that settlement funding since the early 1990s, 1994, has not been provided, while the numbers have gone up. I'm encouraged to see in your 2007 plan that the economic class has been increased by 15,000 compared to 2006, and the family class also has its targets raised to 5,000 members, including the parents and grandparents by 1,000. Having said that, there has also been a budgetary item of $307 million over two years, to be used for settlement and immigration.
What are your hopes and aspirations regarding the settlement funding and the immigration funding? And what correlation do you see between that and numbers or increasing numbers? Have any of these funds started to flow? How is that coming along?