Citizenship and Immigration committee  None whatsoever. I have to be careful. What I'm saying is that you have candidates who will not report any affiliation in their CV. We take the CV for granted. It doesn't matter really, as long as they meet the competencies. So it has nothing to do—There were people who actually were members of Parliament.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Okay. In the previous government there were reappointments in waiting, and vacancies.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Yes. I can't recall precisely how many, but I had made recommendations of renewal, and we had vacancies because people had reached their 10th year.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Yes, it happens in every transition, and it's normal.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Yes.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I'll say yes and qualify it. If you didn't have the panel, you'd have to do it. The test would have to be the screening device.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I have no opinion on that. All I'm saying is that when I left it had been a very difficult year in terms of appointments and reappointments, and I think that's what I testified to the last committee. I gave you the impact of the vacancies and what it meant. Last year, in a very approximate number I had done just to satisfy myself, we lost 300 years of experience in one year.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I'm just giving you a number. It is very tough work. By the time our members who have ten years leave, we feel it. And it's very tough work. I've said that before. It's very demanding, very rewarding, and it takes time—Although people can hear cases and be fair with the people in front of them after six, seven or eight months, you see a difference with people who have three or five years, of course, who know more about the international situation.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Oh, I think so. Yes. What we're faced with is a new backlog that is developing with the tribunal. That's the unfortunate part. What we were left with—and I'm going to say again, as of March 16—is that the time for decisions to be rendered was climbing and the number of cases that weren't heard because there were not enough appointments was increasing.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Yes. I was expecting that question. It has to do with selection of people. All we're trying to do when we select people is to increase our probability of success. So you try to use as many tools as you can, without delaying the process too much. What happened was that we devised—The design was that you looked at the total candidate.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  When I left my position—this is an approximate figure—within roughly five persons, the minister had a list of 80 candidates.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I'm going to try to provide some clear answers to two of your questions. First, I'll address the reason why the names are submitted to the minister in alphabetical order, not on the basis of the individual merit of each of the candidates. I believe in the way things are operating now.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Yes, I forgot to answer that question. Yes, there was a two-year period in the program, as there was under the regime preceding my arrival. Why two years? Because, to a certain degree, people want to know whether they have a chance of being selected. We also changed the test every two years to ensure that, if people took it again, they wouldn't take the same test.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I have no idea about that.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I have no idea about that, because I'm not there.