Citizenship and Immigration committee  Perhaps, Mr. Chair, I would just add to the minister's comments that, in fact, as a result of the increased intake we've had over the last couple of years and the increased intake in 2016, we've actually reduced our inventory by 34% as of December 31, 2015. That's just been withi

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Thank you.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Perhaps, Mr. Chair, I'll just open by saying that increased funding was provided two budgets ago, in particular a higher level of time-limited money for citizenship processing, so we've been able to actually put that into processing, certainly, the backlog and the inventory. At

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Quickly, Mr. Chair, I'll just say that we had received time-limited funding in the 2013 budget to actually help us address processing. We've had volume increases in terms of the temporary resident visa application process, and I think what you see in the decrease reflects the ra

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Mr. Chair, we consult very closely with our colleagues in New Zealand, and not just New Zealand but certainly Australia also. We learned many lessons from Australia's launch of the express entry system there. As I say, we have an ongoing dialogue through what we call the Five Co

Citizenship and Immigration committee  My apologies, Mr. Chair. I'll be very brief. Of course the cap was at 5,000 and it filled within the first few days in terms of the number of applications received.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  They come in as they come in, in terms of first come, and we have to make sure the applications are complete. Those are the ones that we count, those that have all the documents necessary. Mr. Orr, you may want to add to that.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  We try to forecast as best we can. Certainly, as I think the minister noted, in the last couple of years the number of applications that have come in certainly has been more than what we have in our levels space, in our annual immigration levels plan. The numbers are higher.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  We can only assume that the number, as I say, may increase, but we do have an inventory now that we have to work through. We're trying to find space within our levels plan in terms of how we can put more effort into spousal applications.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Perhaps I can open, Mr. Chair, by saying certainly we appreciate the concerns of the member, but we have welcomed more than 70,000 parents and grandparents just in the last three years. I think that's reflected in the level space that has been allocated for parents and grandparen

Citizenship and Immigration committee  In terms of the timeline, perhaps I can indicate, Mr. Chair, that the intention is there will be what we call a voluntary enrolment period that will begin this August. The mandatory requirements for eTA will actually come into play only in mid-March 2016. This sort of voluntary p

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Mr. Chair, I'll turn to my colleague, Mr. Orr, but first I'll say that the inventory of federal skilled worker program has been reduced by over 93% since 2008. What we have now is a working inventory that we're working through and it's the transition.... As we've introduced the n

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I'll turn the floor over to Mr. Orr, my colleague, but I'll just say that the passport program operates on a self-sustaining revolving fund, so the revenues, the fees that people pay, go into the revolving fund. There is a business plan that operates over a 10-year period that

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Perhaps I'll start with opening comments, Mr. Chair, and then turn to my colleagues on that. Under the federal skilled worker program—and our estimates reflect this—the original estimate was that we would be returning about 98,000 applications, with an amount of $130 million to

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Mr. Chair, if I may say, there's been no reduction in the level of funding we have allocated in our budget for processing of the family class or spouses. In fact, on a regular basis as part of managing our department, we do make sure we can look at how we can manage resources acr