Good morning. This is meeting number 8 of the Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration, on Thursday, November 3, 2011. This meeting is televised. Pursuant to Standing Order 108(2), we are studying immigration application backlogs in light of the action plan for faster immigration.
I'm terribly sorry for all the confusion this morning, but there were votes. The place is rather chaotic right now with votes, as we have to stop the meeting if there are votes. We have been put on notice that there will be votes, in which case we'll have to adjourn.
I'm going to introduce the witnesses, but I'm just telling you that out of the blue we may have to adjourn the meeting until after the votes. Then we'll all come back and try again.
We're trying to combine the four of you until one o'clock, and that's because of the confusion that's going on in the House right now. I hope you'll understand, and I'm sorry if we've inconvenienced you. On behalf of the committee, I apologize for that.
I would like to introduce our witnesses, who are going to make some comments on the backlog of immigration in this country. We have with us, from the Canadian Migration Institute, Nigel Thomson, who's a member of the board of directors of that organization. We have Marc Audet, from Desjardins Trust Inc., who is the vice-chair of the immigrant investor program.
Good morning to you.
We have Daniel Perron from the HSBC Trust Company, who is the director and head of global investor immigration services.
Finally, we have Christine Morrissey, the co-founder of LEGIT Vancouver.
Welcome to Ottawa.
Normally we give our witnesses eight minutes to speak,
Mr. Thomson, I'm going to have you go first. I may have to interrupt you partway, and I apologize for that, but you have up to eight minutes to speak.