You're very kind, all of you. Thank you.
I would like to address some of the issues regarding your chapter on the issuing of visas. It has not gone unnoticed by many of us that Parliament itself has been seized with providing the executive with new legislative tools to be able to manage Canada's immigration system for some pretty high-profile circumstances, particularly that of human smuggling.
It seems interesting to many of us that we have some serious issues, which you've pointed out, with the issuing of visas, which is a fairly standard practice. Your audit notes that of the 1.4 million visas that Canada processes, including the 317,000 visas for permanent resident status, you've identified some serious issues regarding quality and controls. From a security point of view that seems to be a very significant issue, and yet it's a circumstance that has been around for quite some time.
Mr. Wiersema, would you be able to elaborate for the committee some of the concerns you had about controls of visas and also about the quality assurance that Canadians should have that we're being properly protected?