Mr. Chair, first let me compliment the member on being able to reflect his constituency in the effective way that he has indicated. As he said, with 75% of that population falling into the category of immigrant community, just think for a moment about what it means. It means that we have a wonderful democratic institution where constituents can go to their member and express to him or her not only the issues of a larger Canadian environment or vision but those that relate to them most directly with their families and loved ones.
He also raised the issue of the refugee determination system. We have already said that we are looking at the process, looking at access and looking at consequences. We want to see that those who have a right to claim asylum get access to the system as quickly as possible.
We have taken other measures, as I indicated earlier. We have looked at a safe third country agreement. We look at other measures that deal with visas so that we prevent those who are not genuine asylum seekers at the front end, but we deal with those who are genuine in a process time that is efficient and effective.
We have made investments in the IRB. The chief commissioner of the IRB has put forward an action plan that we are accepting and implementing. Already we have seen an elimination of a backlog. It went from 52,000 to about 25,000 in this last year. What do we do about consequences? We are working on a situation that would see greater finality and immediacy to a decision so that those who are genuine can get on with their lives and those who are deemed to be something else are removed so that they can get on with their lives elsewhere.