Yes, I do, Mr. Leung.
Here's the problem: a system was created with a legal obligation to receive and process an unlimited number of applications. So we've got a world with almost infinite demand on Canada, a legal obligation to process all the applications that we receive, but obviously a finite number of people that we can accept.
I repeat: that finite number is a big number. Notwithstanding Mr. Davies' quibbling over whether it's 0.72% or 0.8% in any given year, it is the highest per capita level of immigration in the developed world, with, I believe, the sole exception of New Zealand right now. And it is the highest sustained level of overall immigration of any government in Canadian history, at 254,000 in average admissions.
By the way, we expanded the restaurant. We bought a bigger plane. We increased immigration by 14% over the admissions under the previous government. But as I have said, we could expand the restaurant again, buy an even bigger plane, and that would not solve the problem of backlogs and long processing times unless we also use the tool of limiting new applications, which is why Parliament gave the minister the power to do that under Bill C-50 back in 2008. So yes, it's absolutely essential, because I don't think it's fair, to use your analogy, to have our customers—those people who dream about coming here—waiting in a queue for seven or eight years.
You know, one of the reasons we created the action plan for faster immigration on the skilled worker program is that many of the world's best and brightest were able to immigrate to Australia and New Zealand, two of our key competitors for human capital. They were able to immigrate there in about six months, but we were telling them to wait in the back of our skilled worker queue for seven years. So which country do you think they chose to go to?
Thankfully, now under our action plan for faster immigration, at least new applicants in that program are able to get an answer and come to Canada in less than a year. And I can tell you I've met some of these people, and they are happy customers. They applied eight, nine, ten months ago and they're now in Canada. We're talking about very bright people coming in through our skilled worker program. That's where we need to go. When the customers show up outside the restaurant, when they buy a ticket on the plane, we should tell them that if they qualify, if they meet our criteria, we will welcome them within a year. That's where we need to go.