Mr. Chair, in response to the question about applicants in the economic category in New Zealand and Australia, there is almost no delay because of the processing system they have. In the case of New Zealand, there is a kind of
“expression of interest”
which is a pool from which they choose the applications that meet the needs of the labour market. This model will shortly be adopted by Australia, as of next July 1, with the creation of a pool of applications from which Australians can look for those that most meet their needs.
In the family class, especially for parents and grandparents, Australia does have a backlog; wait times are about 10 years.