Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Minister, for appearing this morning.
It's certainly not easy to jump into getting involved in a new ministry right away, but you are obviously prepared and ready for the committee.
One of the comments you just made was about the additional investments we've made over the last three years in the ministry. Perhaps you could comment further on that.
One of the additional investments we made was the $109 million over five years to reduce our backlog. You've done a very good job of outlining how we've addressed that backlog in the 2008-09 budget, and we're seeing the results of that investment. It was implemented based on the action plan for faster immigration. Perhaps you could describe further the effort and work put forward, and what that additional investment will mean for immigrants who come to our country.