Mr. Chair, I do believe, as I mentioned in my opening remarks, that my experience at IRCC and the Canada Border Services Agency will help me position the IRB for success, with my leadership team and staff.
I say that because, in particular, but not exclusively, the asylum determination system is very complex. We all have vertical accountabilities, but it's a continuum and it's quite horizontal. Without getting into too many details, the reality is that from intake to first-level decision-making, to recourse, to pre-removal and removal, there are a lot of hand-offs between CBSA, IRCC, IRB and then back to IRCC and then over to CBSA. That's exactly how it works.
The experience of having worked in those other organizations gives me a broader perspective. It does us no good if the IRB is able to secure funds and move down a backlog if, at the end of the day, either IRCC or CBSA isn't also well positioned for success, because the asylum determination system is informed by all three federal players. I believe that my relationships and my understanding of their operational contexts will help position me and the board to be able to work more effectively with those organizations in the context of the broader management of the system, while not doing anything to undermine the independence of the IRB in the context of discharging our adjudicative responsibilities.