Mr. Chair, it is very difficult to concentrate during such interruptions at such high octave levels. We are used to it from that particular member, but in this kind of context, one would think it would be kept in check, even by him.
Our team is capable of prioritizing applications as needed. They are capable of continuing to work on the huge workload we have from Manila every year. They have been reinforced by some additional resources that came before the DART to try to organize our entire response, including consular resources to look after Canadians, some of whom are still missing, and we will continue to redeploy resources as required to make sure we are giving the best possible response in this case.
What we will not do is let ourselves be diverted by side issues. It was the member for Markham—Unionville who spent a large part of his speech talking about waiting times for family reunification and the general immigration program. That really is not relevant to the needs of people in the Philippines. Question period is there for that. The member for Markham—Unionville usually gets his facts wrong, so we will correct him next time, but let us not eat up time in a precious debate like this. The Filipino Canadian community is watching and worrying about our ability to focus on their urgent needs while members try to score partisan points, and really fail to do so, just as the member for Markham—Unionville has failed to do several times tonight.