Madam Speaker, I much appreciate the member's logical and far-reaching question. He will perhaps share my point of view when I remind him that the human rights commissioner appeared before our committee this morning. As you know, the Canadian Human Rights Commission has a budget of close to $14 million. We learned that the backlog to which my hon. colleague is referring represents almost 600 cases.
Of course, the ideal situation for any such organization would be no backlog at all. I agree with my colleague. From what I understand of the workings of the Canadian Human Rights Commission, a body whose work I follow rather closely, it is fairly diligent, and the backlog is, in my opinion, in the acceptable range, not ideal, but acceptable.
Our colleague is right to remind us that, as parliamentarians, we must never accept a situation where the Canadian Human Rights Commission simply processes applications; it must also play a proactive role in developing policy. And it is my understanding that Commissioner Yalden reiterated this morning that that was also part of the commission's action plan.