Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
I'd like to take this opportunity to welcome you. I'd like to thank you for having agreed to appear before the committee. It has become a habit, in fact, since we began our study of the board, problems related to the backlog and problems that refugees are experiencing. That is why we decided to ask future members to appear before the committee so that we can ask you some questions. This also gives us an opportunity to see you and to learn why you want to do this job.
With regard to the duties you are required to perform, are you able to work in French? What level of understanding of this language do you have? Among the complaints that we heard, some concerned the workplace. The members are not always able to work in their language on a daily basis. I'd like to know your language level, with respect to the duties you have. I believe that this is important because the people whose cases you hear, as my colleague mentioned earlier, come from various regions throughout the world, including some where people also speak French. Other complaints we heard in offices in western Canada and in Toronto concerned the difficulty of being served in French, which is one of the two official languages.
I would also like to know whether, since your appointment, you have had the opportunity to meet with partners, such as immigration consultants or the Canadian Bar Association, to talk about the future of the Immigration and Refugee Board, or IRB. There are many problems. It takes far too long for cases to be heard.
I believe that earlier my colleague was trying to understand your priorities as a manager. So, the difficulty of scheduling meetings is causing a lot of problems for the partners, and agencies working with refugees. Many of them do not have a lot of funding. Yet, it takes about 30 to 40 hours to prepare a refugee application. People at legal aid also have very little time to prepare a case.
What do you think about this, with regard to the partners concerned? I can appreciate that you want to be efficient and hear cases within a six-month period. In fact, that has always been the board's intention. No one likes to have a backlog, because the longer people wait, the more settled they get, the more attached they are to Canada. So you will understand that we are aware of all these issues. But how do you, as a manager, see this? Please tell us too what you want to achieve and why you wanted to become a member.
Thank you.