Yes. Perhaps I can just pick up on what the Auditor General has said.
The number of new applications that we have received under the ministerial instructions is somewhat higher than we expected. Of course, as I said, many people are looking to come to Canada, so they look for ways to fit their applications into whatever categories we propose. That's just the reality of the immigration business.
We will be looking in the future, with a second set of instructions late this spring, to how we can further moderate that supply. That's the discussion we're having now with the provinces and territories and others, because it really needs to be tied to labour market demand.
The first set of instructions was issued just before the recession in 2008. The work that had been done was during 2008, and of course now the economic situation is quite different. We're emerging from that recession. So to what extent are those occupations still in demand? We've been working with HRSDC, using what's called the Canadian occupational projection system—COPS, for short—that looks at all of these different occupations and over a five-year period which ones we're expected to be in need of over that period of time.
So we're doing that kind of analysis, which we think is a reasonably robust kind of analysis, as much as it can be. This kind of work is never perfect. There are many variables and factors out there. Trying to predict specific occupations is challenging. There are many different factors, but we are basing it on the best analysis that we have available. We have shared that with provinces and territories and are seeking their input into what they see as their specific provincial labour market demand relative to the occupational categories.