I'd like to make two points. First of all, there are many legal contracts in Canada, specifically employment contracts, where individuals must make a statement on the contract that they have had the opportunity to seek and obtain independent legal advice before they enter into the contract. We believe that for an individual who's making an application for refugee status, a similar statement should be built in. Whether that's explained to them after eight days or 30 days is irrelevant.
Secondly, we also believe that with the current system, when someone comes in and says they want to claim refugee status, they're locked into the system. Now all of a sudden the only choice is to withdraw the claim, in which case the person is removed. So it's like buying a lottery ticket. Even if the chance of winning is one in 38 million, like Lotto Max, they're going to stay with that chance until the draw is made.
What we think should happen is individuals who come and say they want to make a refugee claim should be given 30 days to consider whether they are really serious about it. If they say after 30 days that they have now sought and obtained professional advice on that issue, they should not be considered refugee claimants. They should actually be considered temporary residents. And if they remove or withdraw their claim, they're given possibly another 30 days to leave the country and they are not prohibited from returning. There's no black mark on their file. They might even find a job as a skilled worker when they're here, because they need one. They may even qualify for another immigration program.
We think we should put that time before the hearing to more efficient use, because that would eliminate a large number of claims that currently end up in the system because people have no other choice. I see this in my client base all the time. They ask, what chance do I have? If I tell them they have a 5% chance, they all believe that's better than nothing.