Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
I have two questions, and then Mr. Saroya will have some questions.
The common thread throughout—these are the transcripts of our hearings, and you see I have nice little tabs attached to them—is that almost all of the witnesses said, with respect to levels, that we're not dealing with parents and grandparents. We're not letting enough in. They said we should increase it to 10,000, 20,000, 30,000, or 50,000. They said to raise the cap.
I'm going to read only one, because I'm sure the chairman won't let me read any more. Ms. Zena Al Hamdan said:
Of the 310,000, only 10,000 being dedicated to parents and grandparents is really not sufficient for the numbers of, specifically, skilled workers who are admitted to Canada. If you count that each one of them will be bringing.... The cap should be at least doubled, because a lot of them will need to go back to the labour market with the help of their parents, to assist with the family unit.
Someone else said that the amount should be 30,000. Throughout the transcripts, as I said, it was 10,000, 20,000, lift the cap. That was the information we sought.
Mr. Orr did respond somewhat, and I have two responses. I don't know what the dates are that I received them. I'll just read the first paragraph:
With regards to the numbers of incremental resources it would take to process an additional 10,000 cases, the Department is estimating that 28 additional employees, based both overseas and in Canada, will be required. This will also result in additional travel and non-salary costs estimated at $9,250,000.
The question is, what are the salary costs? What are the total costs?
I'm leaving things out because we're obviously pressed for time.
There was another response, as follows:
In order to reduce the current inventory of parents and grandparents applications, it's estimated an additional 10,000 admissions over the course of a year would significantly reduce the processing inventory, which stands at over 40,000 persons. Doing so would allow for an inventory of approximately 17,000 to 20,000 persons, or one year's work of intake.
At the end, the figure of $43,600,000 was given, but that's just part of the cost.
For us to adequately prepare a report, Ms. Morgan, Mr. Orr, or whoever feels up to it, the purpose of the question was that I don't want to hear partial costs. I want to know the total cost.
You've explained in the past that it may be difficult, and I understand that. In particular, estimating the cost of lifting the cap may be really difficult, but surely to goodness you can give us an estimate as to what the costs were for these different levels so that we can properly comment in our report in response to these people who have asked for the different levels to be increased.