Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I will ask three questions, Minister, and I will give you all the time to hear your answers, but before I go there, I would like to quote from the previous Liberal minister of immigration, the Honourable Joe Volpe, who said this:
Gone are the days when Canada could rely on wave after wave of immigrants from familiar European sources
--and later--
Countries design immigration programs to benefit their national interests. Even considering refugee systems, the needs of the individual immigrant is secondary to the country's economic interest. Effective strategies for recruitment, integration and retention, then, can only be measured against the return on investment.
That's self-explanatory, at least to me. It tells me that they've always recognized that the system does not work. It is broken, and things need to be changed.
Minister, why are we in this backlog mess in the first place? What are the specific areas of IRPA that cause these problems and backlogs, and how do they affect Canada's immediate and long-term economic future?