Citizenship and Immigration committee  Biometrics, which is essentially the collection of fingerprint data and digital photographs, often using facial recognition software, is a very powerful identifier of identity, and it's very difficult to fool a biometric system. You may have seen some of the cases in the media from time to time, the most recent example being the fellow from China who used a silicone mask--very creative on his part.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Generally, yes. We need to take a number of categories into consideration. We look at all of the categories we have--provincial nominees, Quebec selected, federally selected, skilled workers, family class, and so on--and we make an assessment both in terms of our historical experience in terms of countries around the world and then in terms of what the levels plan is giving us with regard to the target ranges for each one of those categories.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  It's actually very complicated, how we do that, Chair, because we're trying to weigh all of these different factors. Madame Deschênes, in operations, basically works with all of the missions abroad to try to come up with a plan on how we're going to manage this each year. Claudette.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Chair, I would say that the system doesn't work as eloquently as is described. Basically we're dealing with a lot of variables that we're trying to juggle. The denominator, really, for all of that is processing time. In an ideal world, arguably, we would have equitable processing times across all the missions, all categories, around the world.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Chair, essentially they end up in the same place, whether determined by the IRB here in Canada or by the UN and brought in as a government-assisted or a privately sponsored refugee.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  In essence, that's right.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Chair, unfortunately, there are elements of all of those in our system. We have the people we would call pre-C-50, so pre-ministerial instructions. That is the big backlog I referenced. There are no occupational restrictions on that. They were all processed according to the points system, and they still will be.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  We would have to get you that number, but we certainly can. You mean in terms of language training here in Canada?

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Thank you. Chair, as members will know, we did do a very major revision of the citizenship guide called “Discover Canada”. It is I think a much more comprehensive document than the previous version, and we redeveloped the citizenship test to match the new guide. It remains a multiple-choice test, but it is more difficult than the previous test.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Yes, we are very pleased with the Canadian experience class, Chair. The huge strength of the program is that it works off Canadian credentials and Canadian work experience. As committee members will know, one of the key issues for immigrants to Canada is foreign credential recognition.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Language.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  C'est tout. Merci.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Chair, I think the short answer, as the member suggested, is that we actually don't know, in terms of numbers, because by definition, people are underground. However, we are well aware, as is the Immigration and Refugee Board, that there is a backlog of cases at the IRB, and we're working hard with them now to try to work our way through that backlog.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Yes, they're claimants.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Certainly, Chair. Maybe I will start, and then ADM Linklater can carry on. As members know, the bill received royal assent in early July, so we've now been working hard with our partners at CSIS, the RCMP, the Department of Justice, and the Department of Public Safety to implement the new regime.