Thank you, Chair, and I would like to thank the Auditor General and his officials for joining us today.
I'll be focusing my question on report 2, regarding detecting and preventing fraud in the citizenship program.
For me and for all of us, I think, Canadian citizenship is something that is valued and sought after by people all over the world. We have an obligation to protect its integrity. If Bill C-6, which is currently before this Parliament, becomes law, then fraud or misrepresentation will be the only grounds under which we would revoke anyone's citizenship. This speaks to how seriously we take this as a country.
I was disturbed to read that you found the department was not able to adequately detect fraud in the citizenship program. Based on the samples you evaluated for this report, are you able to estimate the scope of the problem? Can you quantify it? What percentage of approved applications may be fraudulent or suspect?