Thank you. I'm going to pause here because time is of the essence. It's not just semantics; it is the law. The law actually states that when people come to Canada for the purposes of immigration, under IRPA, when they cross over to Canada through an irregular point of entry, they are not committing an offence. That is the law. It's not just semantics. It's very important to actually get the language right and correct. I am going to make every effort to get the Minister of Immigration to admit that he was wrong so that we can set the record straight once and for all and stop casting aspersions against asylum seekers by calling them illegal.
I'm going to move to another question here with respect to a plan. We've been talking about a plan. One issue, of course, is the need to admit that the safe third country agreement is causing people to cross over irregularly in substantial numbers. I think that's created disorder, if you will, particularly for border communities. The plan would need to incorporate an action with respect to that, and that would be to suspend the safe third country agreement.
Now, the immigration levels plan actually has a stream for protected persons. The target for 2018 is 16,000. That number has already been exceeded, of course. My question to you, Mr. Fortin, is this. For the purposes of planning for CBSA staff, for IRB staff, for RCMP staff, and so on, doing the work your members do each and every day, would it not be better for the government to establish a plan by adjusting the immigration levels number to more accurately reflect the reality we are faced with today? We knew, I think, since January 2017, since the Trump administration formed office, that these numbers were going to increase significantly. We're seeing that. We knew it then. We know it now.
Would you support the call for the government to adjust the immigration levels plan for the protected persons stream, to increase the number or double the number, to more accurately reflect the reality that we're faced with today?