Mr. Speaker, first of all, let me just reiterate that our thoughts and prayers are with the families affected by this horrible tragedy, I will just call it that, which Typhoon Haiyan imposed on the people of the Philippines.
The member will be pleased to know that recently in the citizenship and immigration committee, of which he was a contributing and valuable member, we listened to testimony from the immigration program manager in Manila, who spoke to us about the additional staffing, hours and resources that were put in place in the Manila office to deal with the families in the region that was directly affected by the typhoon.
As the Minister of Citizenship and Immigration has clearly stated, we are prioritizing those requests on a case-by-case basis.