Mr. Chair, we made it possible for caregivers, who are a tremendous help to Canadian families, to be reunited as quickly as possible. We are committed to guaranteeing that these caregivers will become permanent residents as quickly as possible.
We are also proud to have processed the backlog of caregiver cases. By the end of 2018, we will have processed all of the outstanding files. We have already made quite a bit of progress. For example, the number of backlogged files fell from 62,000 in 2014 to just 16,000 in February 2018.
We also have a processing time of 12 months for new applications, compared to the previous five to seven years under the Conservatives. We are committed to reuniting caregivers as quickly as possible. We also eliminated the $1,000 processing fee for the labour market impact assessment. We did this for spouses, caregivers, and other categories of citizens, to reunite these families as quickly as possible.
I think Canadians can clearly see that this is a priority for this government. These families will be reunited as quickly as possible, as long as we are in government.