Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Following the fall of Saigon in 1975, thousands of Vietnamese fled their homes and ended up in the Philippines. Over the years, many countries have taken them in; unfortunately, there are still some 150-odd who are still in the Philippines without status.
I was pleased to advise their representatives here just a couple of weeks ago that Canada will be processing their applications to come to Canada on humanitarian and compassionate grounds. We're expediting that process. Naturally they'll have to meet security and criminality standards, because our first duty is to protect those who are already here, but I was pleased to advise them that we will be treating them on an exceptional basis in both the family class and the skilled workers class. We hope to have all of these applications resolved by the end of this calendar year.