I can certainly come and help you individually later on.
I would like to echo what Imran mentioned earlier: the federal government does indeed make 2,000 decisions per year. That is somewhat comical. In other words, with the federal program's annual goal of 2,000, the higher the inventory, the longer the delays, the more individuals withdraw and the more CIC meets its objectives. So, if this same type and level of objective were to be maintained based on the current inventory—as mentioned, over 11,000 federally and 3,000 in Quebec—our millionaires have to wait more than five years to be told that we are interested in their application and their $400,000 investment.
I am referring to the third block for those of you who have it. It shows the number of investments, individuals who have invested $400,000 over the last few years. Every year, that amounts to 3,000 cases, at the Quebec and federal levels combined, that Canada receives. That amounts to $1.2 billion a year currently coming into Canada.
However, under Quebec's three-year plan for investor immigrants, in the coming years, Quebec alone should achieve 3,000 investments. Currently, there are 3,000 investments combined, and Quebec has a three-year plan to be more effective in the coming years. We encourage the federal government to do the same, given the number of cases and the delays, as it would mean an additional $2 billion in our economy.
There is one interesting point to note on the last line of my table. Even if CIC were to adopt an enhanced investor policy that made it possible to double the number of cases processed, for example, the relative weight of investors among other categories would remain negligible, going from 4% to 6%. So, you double the number of investments without doubling the relative weight of investors in comparison with the other classes, which are equally important.
There are currently 14,000 investors online waiting to be granted permanent residence in Canada when you combine Quebec and federal numbers. They want to invest $400,000 in the provinces and settle there. In concrete terms, that means they would purchase property and other durable goods, often at rates that would be higher than average, given their financial wealth. We are conscious of the fact that CIC has hundreds of thousands of cases in its inventory—perhaps even one million—all classes combined, that resources are limited and that choices must be made.
Considering the current economic situation, experienced economists, especially in Quebec, have shown that the program provides an economic benefit, that a high percentage of waiting investors have other options, contrary to other immigrant classes, and their situation can change quickly, that 90% of investors apply to immigrate to Canada mainly so that their children can have a high-quality university education, that they will put down roots here, that they will transfer their family assets here and that the impact in terms of the number of visas issued is negligible in comparison with other classes. It represents 3.7 visas.
Case selection in Quebec has already been done. Only the medical and security checks are left. For these already selected cases, matters could be expedited. Recently, Bill C-50 gave the minister complete flexibility in setting priorities. Canada should therefore pay special attention to this category.
In closing, if we do not take action and establish a policy, both for Quebec and Canada, that would allow this type of case to be processed within a maximum of 24 months—we believe that to be the longest period our investors are willing to tolerate—we run the risk that the most sophisticated and affluent investors will go elsewhere, and Canada will only choose second-tier investors, without meaning to be derogatory. Those investors would not be Canada's best ambassadors to their business communities abroad.
Also, CIC will run the risk of difficult inventory management when it implements, in the near future, its proposal to increase the mandatory $400,000 investment. So we will be asking these investors to make a larger investment, and telling them to wait five years. If CIC is unable to meet such objectives, other avenues need to be quickly explored in order for our schools to be able to take in the children of those immigrating investors, until those kids are old enough to attend university. Thank you.