Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I welcome to the committee the various members and groups you represent. A lot of your statements have certainly been insightful. I think, as Mr. Wiebe mentioned, there are certainly challenges in the program. When we look at the underpinnings, there's no doubt this could be a win-win situation for both sides, so to speak, and for the refugees as well—and there's no shortage of refugees, that's for sure.
I appreciate the fact Mr. Wiebe mentioned, that he has 600 rural congregations and quite an infrastructure that could perhaps be utilized better. It would seem that when you have that kind of facility, we would certainly want to cooperate and work with you to use the efficiency that's already there. I want you to know that I personally appreciate what you're doing and agree with you that this is one class or category that can be improved significantly. I realize the backlog in itself is a problem, because it's pretty hard to measure up to something that occurred three years ago. Most people would like to react within the year or within months, as it would make it much easier. So we understand that. But I also appreciate that you have been discussing these matters with the immigration department of Canada and that they are looking at some ways to tackle this. I guess one way is by putting more resources into that.
The other issue, I guess, is the refusal rate. I suppose a refusal rate of anything approaching 50% is obviously very high, and I gather you're going to do something in terms of education and trying to make sure the understanding is there so that the rate will be lower. But of course a lot of these applications are in the pool.
Coming down to my question, the program obviously has some positive aspects to it and it could work, but there are some strains happening that may put the program in jeopardy, and you need to turn it around. Part of the refusal issue perhaps relates to the family reunification case, and I know you say you've accepted 50% as referrals of refugees from the government side, which wouldn't necessarily pose you any problems.
But there is, I gather, a desire in the community to bring in family members who are in the refugee class. Is that perhaps causing a bit of a problem in the system, or has it caused some of the problem with the three-year backlog and the refusal rate? And does the policy perhaps need to change somewhat to accommodate the desire of your community to bring in members of the family class who are in the refugee class? Flowing from that, sometimes it's perhaps not that easy to find who is or isn't a refugee when you're proceeding from that angle.
Does anybody want to comment on that? Perhaps Mr. Wiebe.