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I didn't exactly understand what I was voting on. I inappropriately voted yes, and I should have voted no, so I would like to change my vote to no, if that's possible.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you to all of the witnesses for being here today.

Regarding the minimum necessary income, some critics have suggested that we should look at it on a regional basis. The costs are different in different parts of Canada, and it's unfair for somebody living in the Prairies to have to have the same income as somebody living in Toronto or Vancouver.

Can all of the witnesses give their comments on whether that should be a consideration when that is looked into?

In regard to that, other critics have said that it should be totally removed altogether and that there shouldn't be any minimum requirement.

What are your thoughts on that, and what would the negative impact of that be?

I found it interesting that you and Mr. Langford both suggested that the five-year period was probably not going to be a good idea and that we don't really need that either. I was wondering if it's just a case of our not explaining to the applicants and the visa holders how.... Is it a question of just educating them better on how the current system works, that you could be here up to nine years right now? That was what Mr. Langford said earlier. It already works, so do we just need to educate people about it better?

Yes.

Thank you very much.

Thank you, Chair.

With regard to the health insurance, an earlier witness today said his study showed that there were 30 companies providing insurance. Thirty companies is an extremely low number of companies. I think we need to have well over 100, 200 or 300 companies that can provide health insurance, so that we have a very competitive market. This would help reduce the prices.

Would you agree that we need to increase the number of companies that are providing health insurance?

But, nonetheless—

Nonetheless, the witness earlier was saying that it would be up to $5,000 a year for a person to pay for insurance that they might not even use, which is extremely expensive. We need to find ways to make that market more competitive and to lower these prices, to make it more affordable for everybody.

The other thing I'd like to mention is that we have—

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Seeback, for being here today. Congratulations on bringing forward this great bill, your first private member's bill.

Just in general, can you elaborate a bit more on why you brought forward this bill? Why did you pick this as your first private member's bill?

One of the big factors in your bill is to lower the income cut-off point. We know in Canada that, if you live in Toronto, it's very expensive compared to, say, living in Saskatoon. Should we look at the regional disparities in terms of the cost of living and how we can adjust that to make it more fair for where people are living and the costs they're facing?

Since you introduced this bill, what response have you been getting from Canadians? What have you been hearing back? What are their thoughts on this bill? Are Canadians in general for this?

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you, Minister.

Thank you to all the witnesses who are here today.

I have two quick things, Minister.

You said in the first hour that we're still basically a paper-based department. If we're going to get these backlogs reduced and increase our processing times, we really need to get into a more highly digital, highly virtual environment. You said that you had a plan. My first question is, simply, can you give us that plan? Can you provide it to us in writing—what your timeline is, what your costs are and the benchmarks and how it will work—so that we can see how this will improve in the future?

The second part is a quick question. I have some constituents who are applying for their TRVs and waiting for what I think is an excessive amount of time for their security checks. They're waiting seven, eight, nine and 10 months to get their security checks back. I understand that we're outsourcing those, and that may be part of the problem. Can we do these ourselves or be part of that process?

Even if we're outsourcing them, can we reduce that and have a timeline that says we need to get these things back in 90 days or in something that is much shorter than almost a year?

Okay. Can you provide us with your outline?

Can you provide us your plan? Can you send us—