Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
I understand that you're emphasizing your position and your comments with respect to the international issue, but in doing that, you must have looked at local sponsorship programs. I'd like to ask you a question with respect to the wait times of the approval of sponsorship groups, and secondly, refugee funding.
As I understand it, sponsorship groups can apply to something called blended visa office referral, which I don't know much about. Hopefully you can tell us. They do all the pre-screening. They prepare to have the refugee confirmation ready. Ultimately, the sponsors have to be approved, and then that's it. The refugee gets assigned to them and is on their way.
I've heard of files, with respect to this process, taking one to four months, or even six to 12 weeks—I'd like to hear your thoughts on that—as opposed to the current of one plus a year wait times that sponsorship groups are experiencing.
As I understand it, the government is committed to taking 1,500 claims per year and is currently 500 short, as they need more sponsors. The government looks after the first six months of refugee funding, and then, I understand there is some Jewish organization that is committed to looking after the second six months of expenses. The sponsorship group, if that's the case, would therefore not have to worry about the costs for the first year.
I don't know how familiar you are with this blended visa office referral, but if you can enlighten us, I'd appreciate it.