Mr. Speaker, in point of fact, this government took a dramatic departure from the kind of patronage system that the Liberals had for appointments to the IRB. We gave to the IRB the responsibility for pre-screening candidates through an exhaustive process of exams and interviews before recommending them to the government. Consequently, appointments slowed down for a certain period of time, but I am pleased to announce to the House we are now operating at nearly 95% occupancy on the IRB.
There are other reasons for the backlog, including the one-third increase in refugee claims last year. We need to address that as well.