Mr. Speaker, I cannot thank my colleague enough. I have so much respect for her. Her passion clearly shows. She is an exemplary parliamentarian. She works incredibly hard on the file that she has. She has brought an education to us this evening on what we are actually talking about and in terms of what we are doing here, serving as MPs. This work should have been done at the committee level. This is what the committee structure is for. The amendments that the member brought forward, as she said, would have already passed through.
As a new parliamentarian, I have come to learn how important immigration is to all of our ridings, and how many immigration cases are heard in every single one of our ridings across this country. The member spoke numerous times, certainly to our New Democrat caucus, about the need for an overhaul of the refugee system. The Liberals promised an overhaul of the entire refugee system. The promise has been postponed indefinitely. Currently, due to a significant number of vacancies and chronic underfunding, the Immigration and Refugee Board has a backlog of 24,000 cases. This is growing by 1,000 per month.
Unless the Liberal government puts some serious funding and some serious change and reform into the way these cases are brought forward, we will never get ahead of this curve. We will never be able to serve people who are coming to our country. The designated country of origin system remains in place, despite the Liberal promises to change this.
Could the member for Vancouver East elaborate on this serious problem that affects all of our ridings?