Okay.
I'm going to put these questions to the minister when he comes on Thursday. Minister Kenney gave an interview just last week, September 28, in Embassy. In answer to the backlogs he said:
When we came to office, we had a total backlog of all immigration categories of about 850,000 with average wait times of seven years. That's because, on average, the previous government was accepting over 400,000 applications per year, with a legal responsibility to process them. But [they] were only admitting, on average, 220,000 over the course of 13 years. So that meant, every year there was a huge surplus of applications, over admissions, that led to this 800,000- to 900,000-person backlog.
And finally he said:
...on the federal skilled worker program, where we have seen the total backlog go from 640,000 three years ago down to about 430,000 now.
So bear with me on the math here, because I'm trying to understand this. Mr. Kenney said the backlog was created under the Liberals because they were admitting an average of 220,000 per year. Over the last five years, we have admitted an average of 253,000 per year. Is that correct?