Citizenship and Immigration committee  —is basically a tool that we are using for enhancing security, because this is what is used by many countries—

Citizenship and Immigration committee  We have gone back to our own procedures. I mentioned earlier this is a very popular program. Quite a few people were intending to sponsor their parents and grandparents. We provided all the instructions many days before the opening on January 28 at 12 o'clock. It was on a first-c

Citizenship and Immigration committee  For the parents and grandparents, I would say this is a little bit of a story where we have had a big backlog, which we reduced to very minimal—fewer than 30,000 this year. Plus, we have reduced the wait time that was over 72 months to now 39 months. Going forward, if you apply t

Citizenship and Immigration committee  To answer your question, we actually did use the electronic system for the PGP. We had done extensive analysis that this would fit into the scheme of making sure we were getting “first in”. We tested the system so that it could get the volumes. From previous historical levels, ov

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Mr. Chair, the popularity of the program and the people who actually want to get their near and dear ones into Canada.... This is a very popular program, and certainly we expected a lot of people would be coming in and trying to apply for that. To make it very clear, we posted a

Citizenship and Immigration committee  We cannot control the kind of input that comes in, and as I mentioned earlier, there were more than 100,000 applicants last year who were intending to sponsor. There's a huge interest in getting the parents and grandparents here, and it was on a first-come, first-served basis. As

Citizenship and Immigration committee  We will have to look into it to make sure we have the requisite number so that we can get to the 20,000, which is the expected PGP level for 2018. If there is a gap—if we need more—then we will...but right now, it looks as if we've calculated it in such a way that we will stick w

Citizenship and Immigration committee  No, not at this time.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I'll ask my colleague Mr. Mills to answer the financial question. The 2019 level is 20,000, while we're increasing in 2020 to 21,000, as in 2021 also. There's a 1,000-person increase in there. We understand that this is a very popular program and we want to make sure more people

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I'll answer it in this way. Just to make sure we had 20,000, we actually accepted 27,000 this year. We have the delta calculator, and we have all the other things in place—duplication is one, but also botched and incomplete applications would be kicked out in the very beginning.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  It is the case that the person who is receiving the call on the other end is able to go into the global case management system, look at the status of the file, and see if there are particular inquiries, for example, about whether something is missing or how much time.... That is

Citizenship and Immigration committee  The notice to apply just finished on February 2, and we are now sorting out the duplicate applications and the incomplete ones. Then, we will be going out, pretty soon, this week only, for that purpose.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  People will be notified that we are doing a lottery system in which we actually invite those who are selected in two or three portions so that we get to the 10,000 number. For example, the first 5,000 will be invited so that they can put in a full application and go through that

Citizenship and Immigration committee  That is true. We actually got around 15,000-plus people. Out of that, we completed approximately 9,500 applications.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  We actually invited the 10,000, and then we went through the process of making sure the applications were complete. Sometimes when we invite them they do not actually apply.