Citizenship and Immigration committee  Of course. I'm not sure what the difficulty was in scheduling some time, but you and I have had an opportunity to speak previously on other matters. If we can find a mutually convenient time, I'd be happy to meet with you.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Frankly, I believe that's an absurdity. One only has to read a newspaper to see what's going on in the world and to see how other countries that are like Canada in being welcoming, compassionate and safe places, where people from all over the world have sought refuge.... There a

Citizenship and Immigration committee  No. To your second question, I would respectfully submit that no, it's not. The processes through the IRB—all of the subsequent reviews and appeals and the judicial review—take a fairly significant amount of time. The pre-removal risk assessment, notwithstanding a hearing with le

Citizenship and Immigration committee  We believe the budget we have submitted is the appropriate budget to adequately resource IRCC, IRB, CBSA, the RCMP and other federal agencies that have a responsibility for this.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  To manage this properly, Mr. Maguire, we're doing two things. We're making a significant effort to decrease the number of people who are crossing irregularly, and we've achieved, as I've already indicated to this committee, a significant level of success in that regard. We are al

Citizenship and Immigration committee  We did.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  You may not recall, but in budget 2018 we added $74 million, for example, to significantly increase the capacity of the IRB to conduct hearings. That was, as I recall, discussed at this committee. I'm not sure whether or not you recall that—

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Ms. Zahid, I think your question is important. I think that maintaining public Canadians' confidence in their refugee protection system is critical. We have worked very hard to make sure that it's adequately resourced to deal with the volumes that Canada and other countries in t

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Mr. Ayoub, in the early part of this discussion about the large number of people who were presenting themselves and crossing our borders irregularly seeking asylum, there were a lot of suggestions that this was a security or safety risk. I can assure you that it is not. Our offic

Citizenship and Immigration committee  For those who had made a previous claim in the United States, my understanding is that the number is somewhere between 3,000 and 3,500. Is that correct, Paul?

Citizenship and Immigration committee  That's for that particular provision for those who previously had made a claim.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I remain confident that it will, in fact, meet that challenge. That's the advice we've received from Justice, but again, I wouldn't presume to speak for them. If we have an opportunity to table that opinion with the committee, we'll certainly endeavour to do so.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  In my experience, almost every area of law is subject to litigation. That's the nature of any new law, so it's certainly possible that someone may seek—

Citizenship and Immigration committee  —to challenge it, but I remain confident in its constitutionality.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  There is nothing in budget 2019 that we presented that specifically speaks to that. We don't anticipate that we would require extraordinary resources to deal with such a challenge.