Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the comments from the member for Edmonton--Leduc. He has brought up a problem in his own area. It is certainly a legitimate one.
I want to give him some background and hopefully some faith that very soon this problem will be resolved, because I know it is a concern for him. I know he has brought it up many times in this House, very legitimately, and I certainly hope that we will be able to resolve this very soon.
We know, as the member said, that the backlog was quite large at one time. In fact, it was at about 4,000. Now, according to the member, it is down to about 2,000, which is certainly a move in the right direction. Is it perfect? No, it is not, but there are a couple of issues I would like to bring up that might shed some light on the reasons why this was taking place.
We know, interestingly enough, that the numbers of applications for citizenship and immigration have increased quite dramatically over the last few years. In fact, over a period of one year there was an increase of 40%, which put an excessive demand on the supply of the resources in the department. In January of this year, the minister went to Treasury Board and in fact secured an increase to the amount of resources of the department.
In order to try to resolve this, we have also taken some action. As I said, we have reduced the backlog by half. Part of the reason for that reduction is that we have brought in other citizenship judges from afar in order to process these people, who quite rightly have to be processed in short order. We have also started a merit process to try to get somebody to replace the previous judge. I hope that will happen in the very near future.
We are trying to get the backlog down. We have succeeded at doing that quite substantially in the recent past.
On the specific issue of getting a citizenship judge to replace the previous judge, the merit process is taking place and the assessments are taking place right now. I certainly hope, for the member and in particular for the people in Edmonton who deserve and must have a citizenship judge, that we will be able to get one very quickly.
I know the minister is very committed to doing this. I know the minister wants to get process done properly, quickly, fairly and transparently so we can get a citizenship judge in there in very short order and the people of Edmonton who are new citizens and who want to become new citizens will be able to have access in short order.
We all respect and appreciate the commitment and the contribution that immigrants have made to Canada. We welcome new immigrants to this country and recognize that historically, and for today and tomorrow, immigrants and immigration have played and will play a substantial role in the future of our country in a very positive way. For that, I think all of us here in the House are very thankful and grateful.