Mr. Chairman, before I reply, I want to recognize my fellow director Albert Tang in the audience—he just stepped out. He's with me here today.
You know, it's a cliché now: immigrants built this country. Now we are debating today whether we want them in here or not. I think the prescription is just wrong to deal with the situation we have. It's the wrong prescription for the problems.
The front-line officers already enjoy a lot of discretion. The immigration officer always has to be satisfied with what we provide, and sometimes it's difficult. You have to wait a lot of time and many years to come to the officer. You have to satisfy him. And he still can make it difficult for you.
We have been talking about this human pool of capital. The old immigration law passed in 1976. It took us 25 years to come with a new one in 2002. We thought we had a good immigration law that set out the framework for people to work, but obviously we are debating this problem because it didn't work out that way. I don't think it is the problem with this framework; it's the problem with how it has been implemented and it will be administered.
So giving more powers, discretional powers, to the minister is just the wrong way to do it.