I appreciate that.
The appropriateness of imposing a quota system for family reunification is something that I and our members believe needs to be studied further. It seems to be inconsistent with the desire to increase humanitarian immigration and economic immigration. We have to have available streams for those individuals to reunite with their family members.
Applicants who meet all of the eligibility requirements may be denied the ability to reunite with their family members because the quota has been met. It would be reasonable to examine alternatives to the quota system that determine cases based on eligibility criteria alone.
This is really just to hammer home the point made by this question: why would some people versus others be able to reunite with their loved ones by the simple virtue that they got their applications in on time? Both groups meet the criteria for our system. Essentially, that's the second point I wanted to make.
To circle back to the New Brunswick-specific, the Atlantic-specific context, our region has a much smaller population. We have smaller centres. We're more rural in nature. So there are much smaller existing immigrant communities. If we're trying to increase retention in the Atlantic provinces, we have to look at family-class immigration as a mechanism to enhance those families who have chosen our region. The retention rates, as I said, are 25% higher for family-class immigrants in the Atlantic provinces, or in New Brunswick specifically, as compared with those of economic immigration streams.
Thanks.