Citizenship and Immigration committee  I have no idea, Mr. Chairman. I would assume not, since the objective was to provide the same information.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I'm not sure I understand the last part of your question.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Mr. Chairman, first I should say that we have not dotted every “i” and crossed every “t”. Parliament hasn't passed this legislation yet, so I'm giving you a preliminary indication. First of all, we want to get, at a national level, the views of the Bank of Canada and HRSD on the national labour market.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  The intention, as I was saying in reply to an earlier question, is that once the instructions come into force, the existing backlog is going to be frozen. The bill provides that we have to deal with people who are in the existing backlog under the existing rules, so by and large, we're going to go “first in, first out”, and our current thinking is that we will allocate something like 70% of our operational resources to eating away at the backlog.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  In terms of whether it is doable, I would say that with the consent of those we consult, yes, it is. In respect of consultations with the provinces, their consultations with the federal government are usually confidential. It would require their specific consent to make those consultations public.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  No, I don't think so, Mr. Chairman. Our first task will be to go through the existing backlog and code them against the national occupational code so that we do in fact know who is in the backlog. For those who have expressed a preferred province of destination, it would be our intention to make that known to the provinces so they can take advantage of those who are in the backlog in an immediate way.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Thank you, Mr. Chairman. First, every decision of the department is subject to the charter, and I would point out that IRPA actually says that in section 3. It says that every decision taken under the authority of the act is subject to the non-discriminatory provisions in the charter.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Mr. Chairman, the basic system has us treating every file we receive, and fundamentally treating it in the order we receive it. There is no direct connection on the economic side with any labour market demand in Canada. One of the things the instructions will allow the minister to do is tell the department, after consultation with the provinces, the private sector, and civil society, that there are a variety of occupational groups who deserve priority treatment.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  My understanding is that CIC has not.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I think what we did, Mr. Chairman, was ask all of the elements of the department to reduce their ongoing expenditures by an amount that made up $2.6 million. I think every department of government has slight excesses in their budgets. We didn't cut a program. We didn't significantly reduce one program.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I'll do what I can, but I doubt if I can do it down to the last dollar.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  We'll make an effort.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I think it's a broadening of the communication effort that has gone on already. The intention, I think, is to use a large part of it in mainstream media.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Explaining this bill.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Yes, Mr. Chairman.