Each year, Mr. Minister, close to 200,000 visitors try to come to Canada and are turned down.
The acceptance rates at missions abroad vary a great deal. If you are coming from Europe to visit your family, there is an 84% approval rate. If you're coming from Chandigarh—let's say your mother just passed away and you try to come here to attend the funeral—there's a good chance you're going to be turned down. In fact, there is a 43% approval rate from there, which means a majority of them are being turned down. It's the same for Islamabad, for which there is a 34% approval rate; and in Colombo, it's a 51% approval rate.
This means that if you have relatives in those areas and you try to bring them here to attend a wedding, the birth of a grandson, or, God forbid, a funeral, or to visit a dying father or mother, most likely you are going to get turned down.
The question is why? Why is there such a variance, an 84% approval rate versus a 43% rate?
And would you put in an appeal system, just like the U.K. and Australia have, so that it would at least be very clear why people are turned down right now? Right now, they just get a note saying, you have not been able to prove sufficient ties, whatever that means. You just end up applying again, and it could be the same officer who turns you down a second, third, or fourth time.