Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you for being here.
I would just like to say that, in terms of immigration, I think everyone here, those around the table and everyone else, would recognize the major role that demographics and the economy play. In my opinion, that's not a matter for debate.
For example, I would quote what the Minister of Immigration said last week to stress the importance immigration has for Canada. He pointed out that we are competing with other countries for immigrants.
At one point, you said that quantity is certainly not key to our plans and our immigration choices. We have to look at quality too. Quality considerations come into play and are just as important in dealing with the backlog. As a result, the immigration process may well become more selective, as is already happening elsewhere. The plan for qualified immigrants includes precise targeting of the manpower the country finds useful.
With those qualitative aspects, shouldn't we expect that the delay in processing applications open up? In other words, don't we have to put qualitative steps in place in order to reduce the delay n processing applications?