Finance committee  Let's separate this out. I'll answer by sections. First of all, let's be clear: unless you put an amendment into the act, which you could easily do--you could put something in saying nothing in this provision allows the minister to issue an instruction with respect to an individual applicant--the wording of the legislation does allow the minister to make a decision with respect to an individual applicant.

Finance committee  With respect to individuals, she could make a decision, and as long as it didn't result in sending someone back to torture it wouldn't be inconsistent with the charter, but it would allow her to make a decision with respect to an individual applicant. With respect to classes or categories of applicant, it's interesting that you invoke the charter, because a lot of these applicants are outside of Canada.

Finance committee  Well, the minister, when she issues an instruction--

Finance committee  Well, if the minister issues an instruction with respect to applications outside of Canada, the applicants outside of Canada can't invoke the charter to challenge the minister with respect to those applications. That's the point. The long and the short of it is, if you talk about the objectives of the act....

Finance committee  Well, the problem with--

Finance committee  I'd love to, but I'm not an expert. I just find it very interesting. Again, it highlights my concern that there are so many complex issues being put into one bill.

Finance committee  Thank you. Having listened to my predecessors, I am convinced once again that it's extremely unfortunate that the government has chosen to put so many diverse issues into one bill. I found the presentation by the actuaries association extremely interesting, and I think it would be extremely important to take heed of what he said.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Excuse me if I speak English, but my French is not very good. There is no limitation on the instructions. They don't exempt provincial agreements. They don't exempt provincial nominees. There's nothing in the wording of this legislation that would preclude the minister from issuing an instruction to say, at some point in the future, if she got into a dispute with the Quebec immigration minister, not to process Quebec applications.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I'll go first, if that's okay. It strikes me that the government must have been aware that there's a big problem. Clearly, we've been saying it, all of us. The practitioners, for years, have been complaining about the ever-increasing backlog. So I believe the government was made aware that there is a problem, and then, I suppose, they asked the officials to provide a solution.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I want to apologize in advance. Before I was invited to this committee, I was invited to another committee at 4:30, so I have to leave here a few minutes early.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  The first issue is to deal with some of the claims about what this legislation is and what it will do. This is something I will try to clarify. We've heard this legislation is about the backlog. I hope that by now it's perfectly clear that this legislation has absolutely nothing to do with the backlog.