Citizenship and Immigration committee  If this House passes this piece of legislation, one section of which says that the minister is granted the power to issue instructions that will fulfill her opinions as minister and support her or his goals to best support the attainment of immigration goals--

Citizenship and Immigration committee  No, it doesn't.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  That's correct. I was just making it gender-neutral in my response.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I'm not a constitutional expert, I'll say that.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  But I'll also say--

Citizenship and Immigration committee  --that even if it does comply with the charter, a lot of damage can be done before someone has the resources to challenge an instruction.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Or rot, yes. She can't expressly issue instructions about those three categories, but it will have an effect if she moves other categories to the front of the line, because they just won't get processed.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  There are three sacred categories that cannot be touched. Number one, refugees outside Canada are not going to be affected by this legislation. Number two, family class will not be affected by this legislation.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Yes. The third category is temporary residence status. Now, by deductive reasoning, those three categories will be affected if the minister moves other categories to the front. We all have limited processing resources, so if those other categories move to the front, the three categories I just described are going to sit on the vine until they ripen.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  A letter would do that, with a 60-day reply limitation period. You could send a letter and say, “If I haven't heard from you within 60 days, I'm going to assume you're no longer interested.” That's a fairness letter. It puts the person on notice. They have a positive obligation to reply to it.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Right.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  My answer is going to be consistent with Lorne Waldman's answer to a similar question, which is that the backlog grew so big and got so out of control and became so expensive to manage that.... The government has for years been criticized by every opposition party, every practitioner, every intending immigrant or family member who wanted to be reunited--industry sectors and so on.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  That's right.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Retroactive to February 27 of this year.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  That's absolutely correct. She can issue instructions that are consistent with her opinion, and they're mandatory. Her officers “shall” comply with the instructions. I'm quoting the legislation when I say this.