Citizenship and Immigration committee  Well, that's not done. I'm not aware of that request. But we publish on our website who the candidates are. If you want to look at the election procedures.... They're in the procedures; they're right there. In fact, the documentation for this election is available. Everything is pre-published, and it has to be between 90 and 120 days in advance.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  No, Mr. St-Cyr, we are a professional organization and we, as members, equally shoulder the costs of running the regulator. The cost of producing, preparing for, and putting that conference on was borne equally by each and every member. That is a philosophy at the core of our mission and vision values, and it's one that, if you are a professional member of our order, you have a responsibility to.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  It's just at the back of the binder. There's one page, the last page. The source for these figures, ladies and gentlemen, is the Federation of Law Societies and CSIC. It's a comparison across Canada of fees that are paid by authorized representatives, irrespective of the body. If you look just quickly at the last column, CSIC's fees, you'll see we have 1,350 members as of the date of these fees; $2,145 was our membership, including insurance.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Mr. St-Cyr, as you know, if you do not have a quorum of members at an annual general meeting, you cannot entertain the business of the day. In fact, if the members had properly.... I don't think they're misleading the committee; I just don't think they've given you complete information.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Under our bylaws quorum is defined as 20% of the membership.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Thank you for your question. I think you've hit the nail on the head. I think there are things we can do to address the exact problem you're talking about. We have written CIC, and we've had a number of meetings with Citizenship and Immigration Canada about this. Simple consistency of messaging on the international websites--the DFAIT websites and the CIC websites--is an example.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  To be honest with you, I was on the minister's advisory committee as one of the participants, as was my colleague Rivka Augenfeld, who co-chaired that committee. Initially we estimated the number to be in the neighbourhood of 6,000. However, when we took a second look at it, after the committee--we did our own studies at CSIC--we lowered that to approximately 3,000 in terms of those practising inside Canada.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Mr. Chair, with the amendments to the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, in 2004, CSIC became one of the regulatory bodies whose members are recognized as authorized representatives by CBSA, CIC, and the IRB. “Authorized representative” became a defined term under section 2 of the IRPA regulations, and section 13.1 was added, which states in part: “no person who is not an authorized representative may, for a fee, represent, advise or consult with a person who is the subject of a proceeding or application before the Minister, an officer or the Board.”

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair; and good morning, everyone. Bonjour tout le monde. My name is John Ryan. I'm here this morning to address the committee in my capacity as chairman of the board and the acting chief executive officer of the Canadian Society of Immigration Consultants. I am here with my fellow CSIC board members, Imran Qayyum, who is the vice-chair of the society; and Rivka Augenfeld, who is a public interest director from Quebec and the secretary of the corporation.