Citizenship and Immigration committee  Unquestionably.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  A huge amount of work is done to look at the evidence of who has come to Canada. We have a very robust research and evaluation department that does a great deal of work in this area. They would be able to respond to a lot of those questions, such as how many are seeking social assistance.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  There are a couple of points there. First of all, as we've seen the levels go up, we've certainly seen the numbers for family class go up significantly as well. We're probably at the highest number for family class that we've been at for a very long time. It might also be worth thinking that 55% of those who come in through the economic program are spouses and dependent children.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  It's a very significant portion: 93,000 out of 170,000 were spouses and dependent children, but counted under the economic category.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Mr. Chair, I think we could get back to you certainly with some data which might be helpful to you and an overview of some of the material that we do collect.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I know our IT people are very much looking into it. I do not know what the situation is, so I can't give you any further information. However, I assure you when there's any situation like that, we take it very seriously and act as quickly as we can.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  For sure. Mr. Chair, there will be advisories on the website as well about what is available. If there are issues, we let people know, and take that into consideration when we're considering applications.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Certainly we make every effort to try to avoid that situation. It's a very complicated, very large website. Clearly, if there is an issue we need to address on that particular point, we will. If that is the issue, I don't think we are going to be penalizing any applicants because of our mistake, and that would very much be taken into consideration.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Thank you.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Largely this goes back to how we assign levels for the given year, and therefore as the minister presents the levels for the coming year, the global number each fall. Within that there are also numbers for the various categories, and so it's always a balancing act, quite frankly, among the various categories to try to get the right number.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I think that in many ways it's an appropriate idea. In fact, we are moving in that direction to try to get a single identifier that can follow people right through the entire continuum. It's a slow process, or slower than we would like sometimes, to get everything online, but we're certainly moving strongly in that direction.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  That would be completed.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  That's correct.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  It varies, and sometimes it varies because of what we are requiring. Sometimes, for instance, if we're asking for police certificates, in certain countries it's a very slow process to get a police certificate, which can slow things down for the applicant. Sometimes it's very quick, and they can get it in rapidly.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Perhaps I could turn to Mr. Armstrong.