Madam Chair, we are very proud of our record with respect to caregivers. We inherited a system in which caregivers were waiting five to seven years to reunite with their family members. We engaged with the community. We promised them that we would work on this issue. We put resources and a tighter team in place to ensure that we reduced processing times from between five and seven years to 12 months. We reduced the backlog in the live-in caregiver program by 63%.
For the remaining cases in the live-in caregiver program, we have committed to the community that we will eliminate the remainder of the cases in that program by the end of 2018. In addition to that, I have committed publicly in the media, as well as to the caregiver community, that as a government we will always maintain pathways to permanent residency for caregivers in Canada.