Thank you very much, Madam Chair. I'll answer Ms. Martinez Ferrada. I also thank you for the invitation.
We've experienced the changes along with you. I welcome the modernization effort, that is, the digital shift, that's been made by both parties. It has helped us facilitate procedures and processes, which are very complex in many cases. In some instances, Quebec has made it a twofold effort because the Quebec government exercises some immigration powers. I'll come back to that in a moment in response to the second part of your question.
Institutional modernization is a good thing. We at ALPA have also experienced a digital shift. We've been working with immigrants remotely since March, and that has revealed inequalities and a digital divide, which I think has occurred in two areas.
The first area is access to bandwidth. That's extremely important, but not everyone can afford a home connection that's fast enough. These services cost money. Everything's being done remotely and by video. That's the first point.
The second area is digital literacy. You can acquire the tools, but you still have to know how to use them. When you modernize and go digital, you use PDF documents, for example. However, if you don't have access to a computer, it's extremely difficult to use those documents. Most people we help have an Internet connection, but with their smart phones, which have small screens. In many instances, forms aren't adapted to those screens. We have to assist people with the procedures, and our work, in a way, is done in twofold manner. We take the PDFs and complete them remotely.
We can't criticize all this modernization—you can't be opposed to virtue—but it does have the effect of doubling or tripling the time we spend working with every person we assist.