Thank you, Mr. Chair, and thank you to our witnesses for being here today.
Thanks for your work. I'm quite aware of your work. I know that you are good advocates and also good supporters of those who are enduring these wait times.
I didn't get to ask this in the last round. I'm trying to understand, and you may be able to shed some light on this, the relationship between inventories--the people who are in the queue waiting--and actual targets for this year.
I notice that in Buffalo, for instance, in the inventory in October, 300 people were waiting under family class: parents and grandparents. Yet the target for this year is 415. There were 300 people in the queue in October, and the target for 2011 is 415, whereas in New Delhi there are 5,229 in the queue, and the target is half of that, less than half of that, at 2,300. In Beijing there are 3,767 in the queue, and the target this year is 2,500. In Singapore, 1,019 are in the queue, and 795 is the target.
It seems to me that you have a very good chance of getting in if you're applying in Buffalo, because the queue is actually shorter than the target. In Singapore, the numbers are almost equal. In Beijing, it's two-thirds, and in New Delhi, it's half. I don't see any relationship between the queues--the people who are actually applying--and the targets.
I'm wondering if you have some insight into how you think those targets are actually set, whether they have anything to do with the number of people who actually apply, and whether you're having to help people in different offices or shift them around to other offices.