Thank you very much, Mr. Chair, for the question.
I think I spoke to my overall background, in terms of my legal background, my extensive executive leadership background, coupled with my more recent immigration and border security background that gives me the necessary understanding of the operating context.
In terms of backlogs per se, I have had experience working with backlogs in a number of different areas of responsibility. When I left the Department of Justice to take on the job as the first director general of the aquaculture division at Fisheries and Oceans, it was to establish an office in Ottawa as well as the regional offices; none had previously existed.
Aquaculture was a policy priority for the government of the day. There were significant backlogs, in terms of licensees seeking to get licence in the various ocean spaces, competing with other users of the ocean space. Significant backlogs existed there.
The problem there was different than the problem here. The problem there was a question of understanding the rules of the game. There was a lack of clarity, and so files didn't get processed. My job at that point was to bring clarity to the rules of the game by clarifying a policy framework, introducing the first-ever policy framework, clarifying the regulatory framework, and developing programming for the industry that allowed us to invest appropriately and eventually manage that backlog down. That was the diagnostic then.
When I was the leader of the habitat management program, which at the time was Canada's largest environmental regulatory program, we also faced, as a regulatory body, significant backlogs. That program was responsible for managing projects in and around waterways, high-risk projects, such as oil sands and diamond mines, and low-risk projects, such as docks. Again, there was a significant backlog within that regulatory program. The issue there was also in part clarifying the rules of the game.
At Immigration, for example, we also had backlogs across different business lines, as this committee is very well aware. The issue there was different. It wasn't an issue of clarity of the rules of the game, but it was a question of level space—which I don't need to explain to this committee; you understand it well—and capacity, in terms of HR capacity to process the various applications.
I guess what I'm saying is, number one, I do have experience with backlogs. Unfortunately, they're not uncommon. Number two, the key is to diagnose the problem appropriately before jumping ahead and trying to solve it. In my experience, spending time on the proper diagnoses will result in an appropriate solution set to move forward with. I intend to do that with the IRB.
I would note one last thing, Mr. Chair. The IRB has faced backlogs before. It faced backlogs in 2002. It faced backlogs in 2009. In both of those circumstances, over its 30 years, it has successfully addressed those backlogs.
This is not new to the IRB. It is more significant than in previous examples. That said, backlogs at those times were fairly significant, and the IRB was able to, with the appropriate conditions for success, bring down those backlogs.