Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
Thank you to all the witnesses for their comments.
I certainly appreciate and agree with the suggestion that we should get rid of this criterion altogether. If you look at it, you see that it is an issue around picking and choosing, and saying to the world that people who have different abilities are not welcome in Canada, because at the end of the day, that's what we are talking about.
Just to build on this notion, the idea of fixing the issue somehow, somewhat with a patchwork approach.... Mr. Rae, you've expressed very clearly that this would not work. Mr. Waldman, I think we've heard from you as well that, given the context of the small number of people who would fit into that category, it is perhaps not the right approach to take.
I want to touch on this issue, too. We had officials who came forward and advised this committee that in fact they don't evaluate the contributions of individuals and their family units. You could be a family unit with somebody deemed to have “excessive demand” or even an individual with a different ability. They don't evaluate the contributions of those individuals; they look strictly at the cost side.
Mr. Waldman, can you comment on the problem with that kind of evaluation? Not to mention that, as you said in your opening statement, it has been found through various media reports that IRCC's approach to assessing the cost is fraught with problems....