Madam Speaker, I thank the hon. member for Vancouver East for her question about pathways to permanent residence for caregivers. I also heard that she is doing a great job in the committee, and I look forward to working with her in my new role as parliamentary secretary.
The member was absolutely right when she said that live-in caregivers provide very valuable services to Canadians. As she knows, Canada's live-in caregiver program stopped accepting new applications in November 2014.
Because of the existing backlog, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada is still processing applications from live-in caregivers who applied under the previous program and applications from people who were grandfathered. No new applications have been accepted under that program in the past two years.
When the old program closed to new applicants, two new programs were introduced: the caring for children and caring for people with high medical needs classes.
Both of these programs offered pathways to permanent residence to caregivers without the requirement that they live in the home of their employer.
On October 31, the former minister of immigration, refugees and citizenship announced that the 2017 target for admissions of live-in caregivers and their families would be between 17,000 and 20,000 permanent residents. This number includes people who are already part of the live-in caregiver program and who will submit an application for permanent residence when they have two years' experience as temporary foreign workers.
Between 2009 and 2013, admissions of live-in caregivers and members of their families on average totalled only about 11,000 a year.
While this decision by the former Conservative government contributed to the backlog, our government is continuing to work on eliminating it. I am glad to report that we are making progress on that front.
In early 2015, there was a backlog of 57,000 applicants for live-in caregivers and members of their families who were awaiting a decision on their permanent residence application. As of January 24, 2017, this number had dropped to 31,000, which represents a decrease of 46% from early 2015.
Madam Speaker, I would like to again thank the member for her question and thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak to this important subject.