Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I wanted to get back to a couple of questions around the VACs and VFS Global. The deputy minister mentioned that this type of program is being used in the United Kingdom, but you also know that in 2007 VFS was involved in a security breach of personal information in the U.K. that prompted an independent investigation.
Given its current involvement with visas and biometrics as seen in these estimates, we need to know what level of accountability is built into this deal that has been made between the government and this private company to deal with personal information. This is in the context of an increasing awareness of the difficulty across government programs to secure private information.
So now we're talking about farming this stuff out to a private company that is potentially subcontracting to smaller companies, which is another question I want to get to, and there's no sense here that we have proper transparency, accountability, and the security built into this so that Canadians and families, immigrants, and their loved ones who are making these applications can know that their information is secure. Can you give us some assurance? Tell us what measures the government has taken to ensure the privacy of these individuals.