I must admit that's more a political than an operational question. When the act was amended in 2001, we essentially followed what had been done under the previous act. At that time, all the applications had to be filed outside Canada, except those from refugees. The exceptions Mr. Thornton referred to were created over the years. In the spousal cases Mr. Thornton referred to, people have a choice, but they very often prefer to file their applications in Buffalo. That's a change that was made after the fact. As for the reason for this state of affairs, I'm not necessarily the person who can answer that question.
On March 8th, 2011. See this statement in context.