Citizenship and Immigration committee  Well, I, like you, believe if the inventory continues to grow, it's going to cost us as Canadian taxpayers a fortune to manage. That has to stop. And the sooner it happens, the better for all of us. We oughtn't to let it grow and get out of control like it is now. I want to see

Citizenship and Immigration committee  There will be a political price for issuing instructions that are unpopular and possibly illegal.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I like your question. This is my answer. I've been doing this for 22 years. That's as long as the lifers have been in the bureaucracy. The immigration officers are there for their careers, and they move up through the ranks and become directors, directors general, assistant depu

Citizenship and Immigration committee  And they corrupt the ministers into developing the system that they want.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  They're way ahead of the minister on the learning curve.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Sorry.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I read the legislation, as you did, on the day it was released. In the fullness of time, I've had the advantage, as has every member of this committee, to contemplate what kind of impact it will have and--

Citizenship and Immigration committee  It was an urgent thing. The media called me and wanted a statement from me, as they often do. They wanted a sound bite for that night's television broadcast.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I made that statement at the time, yes, the same day it was released.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  We don't have a principle in our legal system called “reasonable expectation”. It's not something that the courts have ever protected. It's been argued many times in court.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  What I meant was that the system we're trying to develop has to have some element of certainty in it. People go on the website, and they do a self-evaluation. They want to know whether they qualify. If they file an application and it gets received and they pay the fee, this cre

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Exactly. It's not one protected by law. They cannot be guaranteed a visa just because they expect to have one. They have to go through the procedure of having their application processed.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Yes.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I meant that I want to see the backlog reduced, which this won't do. What I meant more so was that I don't want to see a new backlog climb. I want to see processing times reduced from five years, or four years, or even three, down to two years. The minister was suggesting one yea

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I have it.