Mr. Speaker, I thank the hon. member for his question.
The refugee board is indeed experiencing a lot of problems. These problems have existed for a very long time. Earlier, we referred to political appointments. Now, we can also talk about people who are not appointed, and perhaps this is also for political reasons. Some may argue that the refugee appeal division should not be established, because there would be too many cases to hear and this would slow down the whole process. But there are no excuses. An individual who used to sit on the board explained to us the importance of this appeal division and told us that the department had already taken action, that everything was in place, and that the only thing left to do is to implement this process. According to this person, if the refugee appeal division is not already established, it is for reasons of bad faith and lack of political will.
Yes, we have to appoint more members to the board. We must ensure that these individuals are competent, that they have a clear understanding of the issues and that they can solve them. We must also ensure that we have a refugee appeal division, in case a mistake is made or something is misunderstood. A second level must be in place to hear refugee claims.