Citizenship and Immigration committee  I would love to. I have hundreds of them to give you. Without naming names, a client from the U.K. migrated to the program, still very young, and just invested $5 million in essentially some manufacturing equipment out of Germany that was involved with the building wraps in relation to the Olympics.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  It's a great idea. I know that in principle it might be harder to implement than business people like me could appreciate. I think it exists within government already that you can get a passport in four weeks or you can get it in two weeks. If you want it in two days or four days, you'll pay more for it.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  It's an evolving matter. I think as time progresses, and we get more and more globalized and these linkages grow.... I know for myself, 15 years in the business, my rolodex is growing. So I'm doing much better at being able to make these connections than I was ten years ago. A lot of these organizations are sprouting up and trying to make these linkages, whether it's for specific industries, engineers, whether it's for certain trades, and they're building and plowing ahead with this, but it's by no means an easy task.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  As far as I'm concerned, it's not what preoccupies the clients we're dealing with. So it's not something I come across very often, in terms of accreditation. We're aware this is an issue, but investors are very self-sustaining and find their way around.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I know Marc is probably going to want to add to this, but that's one of the main recommendations I've been making for the last six or seven years, not necessarily just to have more staff. I will be honest: it relates to this very narrow area called “investor” category. I'm not talking about general immigration.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  If I may, I will add something. I agree with Mr. Audet: nonetheless there is the reality behind all this that there are officers who cause some delays. In my view, there is a little duplication. Perhaps we would cut a few months off if the analysis, examination and work done by Quebec were shared with the federal government.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I could comment on that, given that our organization meets face to face with many of these applicants. We don't deal solely with third parties. We leverage off our network around the world, and my team and I meet with some of these clients. So we get to be very close to these needs and understand them.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I'd love to take that one on, if that's okay. Speaking as a banker and part of the business community, that would be marvellous. These are people of means, with networks and business savvy, and that's one of the key conditions or criteria of this program. It's not just money; you need to have experience managing and operating a business.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I understand. So if you raised the overall levels, the business community would not only receive more investors, skilled workers, and other categories. There's some absorption room in this country of ours to accommodate them. Would the business community in general be in favour of that?

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I think it was left behind here, but we'll circulate it.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Yes, it's helpful. As it circulates, shall I maybe summarize it?

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Okay.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Thank you. This chart has attempted to outline some of the main nations that compete with the Canadian immigrant investor program. It tries to encapsulate some of the key characteristics that these programs have in terms of average process timelines, what you get when you apply and when you extend, what happens at the maturity of the investment, how much the investment is, and what the equivalencies are when you convert those dollars into Canadian dollars and factor in average exchange rates.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  No problem.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  That's correct.