It's really quite simple. When you have a system that is fundamentally flawed to start with, throwing more money and more people at it isn't enough to fix it. Yes, it's necessary, but it's not sufficient. We have to find ways to fix a very badly broken system. That's what we're proposing with our legislation, but along with our legislation we're also making administrative changes and putting more resources into it, so we are taking the advice of more resources, but that's not enough. You just can't keep piling it on, because if you do that, people will say we are processing faster so they will flood us with even more applications, for which we need more people, then more applications, and it becomes an out-of-control spiral.
The country only has a finite capacity each year to welcome newcomers, whether it's in housing, schooling, any sorts of jobs for these people. We want newcomers to succeed when they get here. This is why we're saying let's welcome the newcomers and give priority to the newcomers who are going to be able to get the jobs here. Those are the jobs that need to be filled. That works for the newcomers and their families. That works for Canada, and that's what we're after. We've seen statistic after statistic showing that newcomer success rates have been declining over the last 10 to 12 years. I don't think it's a coincidence that during that same period of time, settlement funding was frozen by the previous government. That's why we are investing $1.4 billion in new money in settlement funding, so that newcomers get the chance to succeed quickly and integrate into our culture.
We're taking a lot of steps. We're introducing the Canadian experience class this summer. We've launched the Foreign Credentials Referral Office to help would-be newcomers identify where and how to get their credentials evaluated before they even get here, and then if there is a gap between their skills and our standards, they have the opportunity to upgrade to Canadian standards before they even land, helping to ensure their success once they get here.
We want to change that past trend of the downward slope of newcomer success. We want to get more newcomers here faster and we want them to succeed sooner.