Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I'd just like to thank the witnesses, Mr. Sandhu, Ms. Figg, and Ms. Daley, for coming here today and talking about the important issues that we've been discussing here in the citizenship and immigration committee.
As has been mentioned, Canadians are proud of the international reputation Canada has had as a fair, just, and compassionate society. I believe this is reflected in our refugee protection and resettlement policies and procedures. Judging by your résumés, which are impeccable, I can see that we are being well served by representatives like yourselves. So I want to thank you for your hard work and your public service.
I have a few questions, though, just to discuss the issue with respect to the refugee board. I know my colleague, Andrew Telegdi, already mentioned the fact that the number of vacancies, with respect to members, has been growing, the size of the backlog has been growing, and it appears that the processing time has also been growing.
This has always been a challenge for the government of the day, but after the election of the new...or I should say after the election of the aging Conservative minority government, this problem seems to be exacerbated, and it's just getting worse and worse, with 45 vacancies in one department and 10 vacancies in the other.
I have two questions, and the first question is to Mr. Sandhu. Since being newly appointed, how many files or cases do you have to deal with on a monthly basis?