Good afternoon, minister. Thanks for being here with us today.

The Start-up Visa Program has only had a few more than 300 approved applications since it became permanent in 2018. As of May of this year, it has a 37-month backlog, more than three years. Imagine that you’re an innovative entrepreneur looking to come to invest in Canada and you’re met with a delay of a minimum of three years. How are you supposed to structure your future growth and strategy when the future is so uncertain? Aren’t these people we want to attract, those investing in Canada and creating job opportunities for Canadians?

Besides reducing the numbers to a maximum of 10 applications per designated organization annually — which I was told about in a letter of September 23, following a question I asked in June of this year at the National Finance Committee — what steps are you taking to clear the backlog and ensure this immigration stream is sustainable?

The fundamental question that I have is whether this is something that is sustainable. I think we have to focus on the quality of the applications. This is not a program that has been without integrity challenges. We have to make sure that people who are coming here are, in fact, investing capital and not simply using this as a backdoor entry into Canada.

I’m not questioning the people who are currently in the inventory and their motives, but I do think that when it comes to integrity of our immigration system generally and particular programs, we have to make sure that we get it right. This is why I took the measures to limit, in some cases, the issues to 10 visas because, frankly, there were some areas that I think needed cleaning up and I still think need cleaning up. That’s just the reality of it.

We don’t want to stymie innovation. We want to give everyone the ability to invest in Canada. If that type of visa is good for their business model, then it should work, but it can’t be used for other purposes. I think that’s the ongoing struggle as to the viability of the program we are looking at internally.

Thank you. Over the last year, you have made more than six different announcements for changes to immigration. You’ve reduced the Temporary Foreign Worker Program and study visas and changed rules around post‑graduation work permits. Instead of developing a single, strong approach, I believe this has left post-secondary institutions, businesses and organizations reeling, struggling to adapt every couple of months to new announcements. You have said a lot about strengthening our immigration system. I understand this intent. It’s not what my question is about. My question is this: How can you expect businesses and institutions to adapt and plan for the future when the rules keep changing with this piecemeal approach? What strategy should they take?

First and foremost, those colleges and institutions should realize that the uncapped flow of students — the challenges they currently face in the volumes that we’re seeing — is not something that was sustainable. My predecessor and I were quite vocal that if provinces couldn’t fix it, we would step in and fix it for them. It is the reason we are putting into place the trusted institution model — the announcements I made in January and the additional ones I made just a few weeks ago.

When you look at them, they make sense for the purpose of the international visa program. It is not the trend that it was going in, which is uncapped flows of international students into Canada with all the challenges that poses to communities —