Yes, I absolutely agree. We agree that it takes too long. I think we have to find a better match for the number of individuals being referred to the program, the capacity, and our targets to process them.
For example, this year to date visa offices have assessed over 7,600 applications for privately sponsored refugees and have issued 3,200 visas. But as I mentioned, many of the referrals, more than half of them, do not meet the criteria. They have all been folks who are in genuine need of protection. We could have had many more refugees in Canada today.
We work very closely with the sponsorship agreement holders and meet to talk on a regular basis. We provide training to work towards a better match between the people they can support and those who are in genuine need of protection. We can then organize ourselves overseas to make it happen more quickly.