Okay.
Thank you very much for coming to the committee and for your presentation.
I've looked through all the documents, and speaking as a Liberal, obviously multiculturalism, tolerance, community, and fairness are hallmarks of our party's tradition and I think of Canada's tradition. I also come at this from an economic point of view as well as from a social point of view.
If you take a look at Canada right now, we have an aging population that is set to retire in 2012. We have a great demand for workers of all varieties, especially in western Canada, where we can't find enough skilled workers at all. When you have a demand problem, with an increasing demand for Canadian citizens, and you have a supply problem, with a backlog of new Canadians, yourselves included, it seems like it's an easy fit to bring the two together, based on social values and based on economic values.
I have a few questions. First, in your view, with regard to the country of asylum class, as set out by the immigration and refugee protection regulations, if they clearly meet those objectives then why does the minister need to intervene? Can't the applications be made through that channel and be accepted?