Thank you, Mr. Chair.
It's interesting. I did write a letter to the Minister—if he actually read the letter and I assume he did—regarding the temporary worker program. You have an individual who comes to you and says, “Look, I'm establishing a business here. We want to bring in some machinery from overseas, and he wants to come in and set up that machinery." So he's looking for someone to come over to help him set up the machinery and then ultimately go back to China.
The Minister uses that as an example. I have news for you: it's called being a member of Parliament. You represent the interests of your constituents. You're supposed to be doing that. Having said that, I should also remind the minister that the program is a Liberal initiative. The difference between a Liberal government and a Conservative government is that we know how to manage the program whereas this government has abused the program. That's the difference, Mr. Chairperson. Canada does not need 338,000 temporary foreign workers, no matter which way you want to cut it, Mr. Minister.
The issue of the global case management system is, again, something that was initiated under Mr. Chrétien's term, and I appreciate the minister raising how effective that particular program has been, and we would expect that as technology is brought forward. We should pay compliments to our civil service who do an outstanding job, whether it's within Immigration, Revenue Canada, or OAS. All of these technological developments allow us to provide improved services in many different ways.
Then there is a responsibility of the minister, on the other hand, to ensure that there are feet on the ground. Trying to get immigration services or talk to someone live can be a challenge. We have a 1-800 phone number that is very difficult. The last time I tried it, I was literally waiting 45 minutes, depending on the day of the week. They recommend you call on a Thursday or Friday because then you don't have to wait the hour or however long it might be.
There's an issue of providing service to people who really need the service. The government's response to that has been cutting services. You've cut many offices all over the country from individuals who do need these services. I would be interested at some point, maybe not today, to get a response to that particular question.
I raise the issue of citizenship. I asked and emphasized how important it is that the minister deal with the issue of the processing times with Citizenship. It is, today, completely unacceptable. I'd like to give the minister a question, and hopefully he'll actually stay focused and try to answer this specific question. Are you prepared to commit to a minimum target of processing citizenship applications to within 12 months?
I recognize that we're not talking about 100% of all applications. We're talking maybe a minimum of 80%, but will the minister, at the very least, make that commitment today? Will he say to Canadians that he's going to take the issue of citizenship seriously, because he has been negligent, and will he make that commitment today?