Citizenship and Immigration committee  What I would say is that we're here to discuss undocumented workers. One of the causes of people staying in Canada is that the life here is so much better than that where they came from, wherever they came from and for whatever reasons. So you have to expect there's a demand to be able to stay in Canada.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Absolutely, because the government lost a similar decision four years ago.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I appreciate that. There are just other options that are not involved in taking away something you already get. There are other options. There really are.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  We've been talking to the same ministry officials who proposed these things, for five years. Alli has been doing this for 30 years, talking to the same ministry officials, and this time, I think there's been an accident.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Absolutely not.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  The point system does not address what we'll call--I shudder at the words “human capital”, because that says people with low skills aren't human. What we need is a “capital” model. Frankly, with regard to Bill C-50, we've had extensive consultations on the CEC. We had no consultations on Bill C-50, and I'm talking about the CBA, our association, and AQAADI in Quebec.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  If I may, Mr. Chair, we've recommended that clearly the weaknesses in IRPA are exactly that. They've gone to something called the human capital model. The human capital model says that the better educated the people are who we bring in, the more likely they are to adjust to Canadian life.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Membership in CSIC is mandatory; they're the regulator. The best analogy I can give you is the law society and the bar association. Membership in CAPIC is not mandatory, but we're the lobby group. We like to say that CSIC is our policeman and CAPIC is our family.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Yes, that's correct.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Just to add a little clarity to the situation, the reason you can have less intake and longer processing times is that the government has prioritized the backlog. They've actually done what they're proposing to do, or think they need to do. If you understand the immigration system, when IRPA started, it was first in, first out, and you applied as a skilled worker.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Then they said that individuals who were nominated by provinces had first priority. Then they said the same for the individuals who had arranged employment in Canada. All you have to do is look at the scope of applications in China to realize they have a much harder time accessing the Canadian labour market, as they have a greater proportion of regular skilled workers.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  No. I'm not defending anything. I'm just saying that by processing priorities, by saying that we're going to give everybody first chance ahead of them on the list, and continually moving more and more people in front of them, it just means that processing times get longer and longer.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Yes.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Nine years.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I understand.