Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thanks to the witnesses for being with us today.
I've been a member for 16 years. In my early years, 2006 and 2007, we had to handle 50 to 60 immigration cases in the riding every year. Today there are between 500 and 700. That's more than 10 to 12 cases a week. People deal with problems every day. Members' offices have become service points of the Department of Citizenship and Immigration, but we don't have the staff we need. Helping you takes up 60% to 80% of my employees' time. It's very frustrating. My employees are exhausted.
What do you intend to do to help us? People try to reach your department by telephone to see where their cases stand, but they never get an answer. So they go through their MPs' offices. However, we're very limited in what we can do. We try to follow up their files and locate bottlenecks in the process. Then we call your department. We used to have direct lines and could get an answer in 24 hours. Now it can take up to two weeks in some cases. We aren't allowed to inquire about more than seven cases at a time. These days it takes two months to provide people on the waiting list with the information they've requested. It makes no sense.
What measures can you take to help us?