Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I want to thank the panel for coming today and enlightening us and sharing with us some of the difficulties they have.
Mr. Diachuk, you were talking about timelines and the waiting game that is happening in Kiev. I have recently requested through access to information the timelines in different ports or posts, and Kiev certainly is one of those posts where it takes a great length of time for people to apply to come to Canada. Since 2005, timelines have gone up by about 20%, while the inventory of people who are applying has gone down by about 2%.
There are some horror stories. You talked about Kiev. There are horror stories in China, where in the last two years the increase in timelines has gone up by about 48%, while the application inventory has gone down by 41%. But that's a different story.
Certainly, this is why this minister is bringing in new legislation, thinking they can fix things, as we did in 2000. It's only because of the backbench MPs of the Liberal Party screaming and yelling and the lawyers taking Immigration to court that they have seen the light. The same thing is going to happen this time around.
However, you talked about undocumented workers and people who have been taking advantage and people who are made to do things that everyday Canadian citizens and/or landed immigrants wouldn't do. You shared some of those stories. We have in this country, depending on whom you talk to, anywhere from 25,000 to a quarter of a million to half a million undocumented workers.
It has been the push by a lot of members around this table, as well as other individuals, that somehow we should either come up with an amnesty or come up with some form of regularizing them. We always hear minister after minister say we can't do it, that there are security issues, that CBSA will not cooperate with Immigration Canada. The immigration minister is out, and the provinces certainly don't want to talk to the federal immigration minister. The police have problems, and even yesterday we heard “We don't track these people once they come to Canada, so we don't know where they are or where they go”, and about exit controls and all that stuff.
So I was wondering, since you're the front-line workers, whether you would like to share with us your views on undocumented workers. Should we move into regularizing them? Should we move to say, “You've been in Canada for 10 years, and if you have a job, a union base, an employer, if you've been filling out your income tax, if you don't have problems with the police, then yes, it's time for you to land”?
Should we land people who have been here for five or ten years undocumented? What's the feeling in the community you're talking to? Is there some sort of wish to have an amnesty? Is there some sort of mechanism we can use that says, “You've been in Canada for five years and have been working, we haven't been able to kick you out, you've been paying taxes, your kids have been going to school, and you're a good citizen”?
Can you share some of your insights, please—any one of you?
I would like to share the remainder of my time with my colleague, Mr. Telegdi.