It's fair to say that virtually anyone who has looked at the integrity of our immigration system has identified the absence of exit information as perhaps the single biggest gap we have, as the Auditor General has noted in previous reports. I think she estimated a few years ago that there were in the range of 40,000 foreign nationals on removal orders whose whereabouts are unknown to the Government of Canada.
Some of them may have gone back to their countries. Some of them, frankly, may have crossed the land border illicitly. Many of them are likely living underground without status in Canada. If we were to adopt some kind of exit information system so that we would know when people have left the country, then we would know who is in the country, making it much easier for us to identify and remove foreign nationals who are inadmissible or who are here illegally.
This is also a central commitment to the Beyond the Border continental security action plan.