This problem has been on my conscience for a while. My mother passed away last year. She was one of the people who wanted to come to Canada and she couldn't, because it was going to take years. So there is a personal story here.
But I think what has happened is.... I'm going to take Minister Kenney's analogy of the plane and the number of seats. The fact is we are selling more seats than we have. What's happening is that the people who are coming to the airport are not the 100 who can get on the plane but the 800 who have applied. So the airport is going to have what we have: a logjam.
I think Minister Kenney's recommendation is to be lauded: number one, to increase the numbers so that we can start tearing down the backlog. Number two, I think the super visa is frankly a silver bullet. I have spoken to a lot of immigrants. A lot of parents don't want to come to Canada, because they have their own networks back home. My mother-in-law lives with us. Her whole day is spent watching TV. That's a terrible life. She doesn't speak to anyone except when she goes to church.
I think this would allow parents to come and go, back and forth. The only reason many of them actually apply for the family-class visa is that there's a problem getting visitor visas. I believe that the super visa will alleviate a lot of problems. Will it solve the problem in its entirety? I don't think so. But I think there is going to be a Canada-wide discussion, which is important in the spirit of democracy, so I actually support this.
Thank you.