I am pleased to appear before the committee to discuss the link between the Government of Canada's immigration measures and official languages.
[English]
I have some brief opening remarks, and I'll be happy to take questions after that.
As the committee members likely know, in late 2017 our government announced a plan to pursue the most ambitious immigration levels in Canadian history because we know that immigration positively contributes to both the Canadian economy and our society. We have a plan to steadily increase our immigration levels.
[Translation]
This plan includes efforts geared specifically at francophone immigration, which plays an important role in Canada's future.
To that end, the federal government plans to support and help francophone communities outside Quebec by contributing to francophone immigration and adopting measures in support of such immigration.
[English]
Mr. Chair, we continue working toward achieving the target of 4.4% francophone migration by 2023.
[Translation]
To fulfill that commitment, IRCC has already made changes to its programs for French-speaking immigrants.
[English]
In 2016, IRCC adjusted the express entry system to make it easier for all temporary foreign workers and international students to become permanent residents. We expect French-speaking immigrants to benefit from these changes. In 2017, to increase the proportion of French-speaking immigrants coming to Canada through economic programs, we awarded additional points under the express entry system to immigration applicants with strong proficiency in French.
We are already seeing positive trends resulting from these changes, even though it's been a very short period of time since these changes have been implemented. The number of French speakers, therefore, invited to apply to come to Canada under the express entry system has now doubled. That is a huge achievement as a result of the change to express entry.
In 2016 we also introduced the mobilité francophone system, which helps employers outside of Quebec hire French-speaking workers from abroad to undertake skilled work, and in exchange for taking a chance on that worker they get a break on the labour market impact assessment. In 2017 we adjusted this stream to facilitate the recruitment of even more French-speaking temporary workers.
[Translation]
We also continued our promotion and recruitment efforts to sell Canada as a destination of choice for French-speaking immigrants. This includes taking part in targeted initiatives such as Destination Canada fairs, which are very effective in Europe, and other similar events in Europe and Africa.
[English]
On March 28 of this year, the introduced our government's overall action plan for official languages for 2018 to 2023. As part of this plan, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada is committed to supporting the vitality of francophone minority communities.
I'm pleased to also highlight that budget 2018 allocated $40.8 million in new funding over five years to IRCC.
[Translation]
IRCC plans to consolidate what we refer to as the francophone integration pathway to official language minority communities, and to enhance collaboration and accountability within the department.
[English]
Our work with the francophone integration pathway will entail the following: strengthening connections between French-speaking immigrants, improving the provision of francophone settlement services, and building the capacity of the francophone settlement services sector. This initiative will help French-speaking newcomers to obtain the information they need regarding francophone communities and services from francophone settlement organizations.
To accomplish this, it will cover the entire integration spectrum, from pre-arrival all the way to citizenship.
[Translation]
I am pleased to note that part of this francophone integration pathway includes adding more francophone service providers at some international airports in Canada. We are starting with the LB Pearson International Airport, a major point of interest for immigrants to Canada.
[English]
The francophone integration pathway will also work to increase the availability and accessibility of French-language training that is adapted to the needs of French-speaking immigrants. For example, it will expand online learning tools so that French-speaking newcomers can access the learning opportunities they need to achieve their unique settlement goals.
[Translation]
We are also improving the availability of professional development in French for francophone settlement service providers, including for service delivery coordination networks, the Francophone immigration networks. We have 13 such networks from coast to coast, in every province and territory except for Quebec and Nunavut.
[English]
Another part of the francophone integration pathway announced in the federal action plan is a new initiative called “welcoming francophone communities”. This will help targeted communities to improve their capacity to help French-speaking newcomers integrate and remain in these communities via enhanced services and programs. We're also aiming to increase the availability of French-language tests at a lower cost. Currently, we're working with independent language-testing organizations to provide these services to potential economic immigrants.
Finally, we plan to improve the coordination of francophone immigration services at IRCC itself, with increased horizontal policy engagement and the creation of a francophone immigration policy hub within IRCC. This hub will reinforce the capacity of the department to review and revise activities in relation to francophone immigration.
[Translation]
IRCC is also working with a number of partners, including the provinces, territories, and francophone communities on developing a new comprehensive francophone immigration strategy to improve the coherence of the activities meant to support French-speaking newcomers and contribute to achieving the targets set for francophone immigration outside Quebec.
These measures will also be a complement to our plan for enhancing our accountability, reporting, and performance measures, as well as our ability to evaluate the impact of the department's measures when it comes to official languages.
[English]
Over much of this year, I met with provincial and territorial ministers responsible for immigration. I also met with the Canadian francophonie in Toronto at the second forum on francophone immigration. This was an opportunity to discuss initiatives that encourage francophone immigrants to settle in francophone minority communities outside of Quebec in Canada and that help these immigrants to remain in these communities.
Ministers in attendance endorsed the first-ever federal-provincial-territorial action plan for increased francophone immigration outside of Quebec. This plan outlines concrete actions that our different jurisdictions can take. These include promoting awareness of francophone immigration opportunities; the provision of immigration pathways and settlement services to prospective French-speaking immigrants and applicants; increasing employer engagement in French-speaking immigrant recruitment and employment; increasing the availability, awareness, and accessibility of French- language services; and supporting diverse and inclusive francophone communities.
By pursuing these initiatives, this plan will contribute to an increase in the number of French-speaking immigrants settling in Canada outside of Quebec.
The participation rate of French-speaking immigrants in local labour markets is also set to increase. What will also increase is the participation rate of French-speaking immigrants in broader communities and social networks. I should add that, following the FPT forum, a symposium bringing together governments and community organizations was held on March 22 this year in Calgary. This event laid the foundation for potential collaboration between governments and communities to strengthen francophone immigration to Canada, including the FPT action plan.
Before closing, Mr. Chair, I should note that recently I joined the Honourable Laura Albanese, Ontario Minister of Citizenship and Immigration, to sign three new annexes to the Canada-Ontario Immigration Agreement. One of these annexes was the French-speaking immigrant annex, which will help Canada and Ontario identify opportunities to increase the number of French-speaking immigrants coming to Canada and Ontario. I had previously signed a similar annex with my counterpart in New Brunswick.
This is just one of the ways in which the federal and provincial governments are working together to maximize the economic, social, and cultural benefits of immigration. To this end, our priority on increasing francophone immigration outside of Quebec will help address these challenges and support the vitality of our francophone communities.
Our government recognizes that the bilingual nature of Canada reinforces both our society and our economy. While we have work to do to reach this goal, we'll continue to make significant progress that supports French-speaking immigrants.
[Translation]
Under the new measures in the Action Plan for Official Languages, we are allocating funds directly to francophone minority communities and improving their ability to integrate and retain French-speaking immigrants.
We want every community in Canada to benefit from immigration and we want to encourage French-speaking immigrants to settle and get established in every community in our country.
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
We will now be pleased to take your questions.
:
Minister, I was part of that government from 2009 to 2011. The decisions we had to make at the time, both within the department that you currently manage and the government machinery as a whole, were not taken out of a lack of compassion, but out of necessity.
I have to say that I sincerely felt very insulted this afternoon, as did all my colleagues, when you said that we lacked compassion because we made budgetary cuts, or, more specifically, we reduced the amount of money that was allocated to certain places. I must say that this is unacceptable.
That being said, I read your eight-page plan on francophone immigration in Canada and I have questions for you on the large number of illegal immigrants crossing the border, immigrants who are primarily of Nigerian origin.
You were in Montreal this morning. I heard on the radio, just after your interview, that the vast majority of these immigrants were anglophones. In fact, roughly 95% speak English and 5% speak French.
What do you plan to do with these asylum seekers who have been illegally crossing our border for the past year? Last year, more than 20,000 people illegally crossed the border. This year, we expect that number to be even higher.
Many of these people are inevitably going to stay in Canada and will have to decide where to live. Since the majority of them speak English, this is not going to help improve the percentage of francophones who could settle in the other provinces.
Minister, I too would like to commend your tireless efforts to speak French as much as possible. Your French is improving every day and I tip my hat to you.
Roughly a year ago, we received people from Citizenship and Immigration. It was at that time that we learned how hard it is to recruit francophone immigrants. I think that every member of this committee from all parties were extremely troubled to hear that the target for francophone immigration outside Quebec was set at 4.4% and we managed to reach barely 2%. In fact, I'm not even sure if we'll reach 2%. We may not be congratulating ourselves, but we do seem to just accept this fact. You have no idea how much that pains a French-Canadian, an Acadian like me, whose family has been settled in Canada for 12 generations. It is very painful to hear that we have a hard time achieving 2%, let alone the 4.4% target.
According to the testimonies, the machine is difficult to operate. I am talking about funding, immigration, investments in cultural communities. In your presentation, you just provided the answer and I commend you for that. The Department of Finance has invested $40.8 million. Add to that the contribution from your department and that of . These concerted efforts address our concerns. I am sure that this will bear fruit, or at least I hope so.
Page 31 of the famous Official Languages Action Plan 2018-2023 mentions strengthening coordination at Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada through the creation of a francophone immigration public policy centre.
What form will this centre take? Are we talking about a sort of sub-department or a parallel department where experts focus only on francophone immigration?
:
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
Minister, I really enjoyed your presentation. I want to thank your colleagues as well, of course.
Last year, there were many places in Canada where francophone immigration targets were far from being reached, as my colleagues have pointed out. Today, I feel very good because you presented a multilateral approach that I like very much for addressing the problems on the ground.
First there was that meeting between the federal, provincial, and territorial ministers responsible for immigration regarding francophone immigration. That is a major step forward that needs to be acknowledged. Then agreements started to be concluded with the provinces. Ontario and New Brunswick signed an agreement. Let's hope that the other provinces also make progress in that regard. I know that Nova Scotia is also very interested. We are talking about problems and solutions that are unique to each province in question. The provinces know that the federal government is truly focusing on increasing francophone immigration. That is a big deal.
The second problem we raised last year was the need to have a centre devoted to francophone immigration. My colleague asked a question about that and I will take it a bit further.
Thirdly, I would like to talk about the immigration reception centres. I know that you are in Toronto, where we have the Centre francophone de Toronto, but do the other provinces offer a similar service? I am thinking about the Canadian Museum of Immigration at Pier 21, in Nova Scotia, and initiatives in other provinces. What are the other provinces doing to welcome francophone immigrants? Reception is a critical aspect.
Mr. Manicom said that there are people in place in several countries to work on this. Were those same people there two years ago? If so, I would point out that the 4.4% target was not reached. What will be done differently this time to achieve that objective?
:
I went to Alberta to conduct ministerial round tables on immigration. I had one in Calgary and another in Edmonton. First of all, on the representation, we made sure there were advocates in the room from the francophone settlement community organizations, and francophone employers and so on, and we spoke about what more we could do.
Well, one of the ideas that were brought forward was to open a second refugee welcoming centre in Canada. There's only one in Winnipeg. As you know, many refugees who come to Canada are coming from French-speaking countries, so part of our approach is to make sure that we also have a strategy for those people.
The second one, which is really important not just for Atlantic Canada but for all of Canada, is international students. I was really disheartened recently when I had a meeting with about 26 leaders of the Canadian Arab community, and only one of them had heard of Mobilité francophone.
They were all employers, so I pushed them hard. I said, look, you have a great program called Mobilité francophone. You come from countries, some of which are French-speaking. Could you please use this program? They were very encouraged, but they hadn't heard enough about it.
I speak often about these programs. I speak about the extra points in express entry. I speak about the Mobilité francophone. I speak about the Atlantic immigration pilot program. I speak about the study and stay program.
[Translation]
I am talking about the action plan.
[English]
I speak about the extra investments.
[Translation]
I am talking about projects undertaken by and for francophones.
[English]
I speak about all of those things, but I think you are also ambassadors for this, and you should also speak about these opportunities, because that's what they are. They are opportunities. I can tell you that one of the investments that were made in Alberta was by a company precisely because they identified a bilingual community there.
We have our work to do, and we will continue to work toward those targets. We've done a lot already, but that doesn't necessarily mean that people on the ground are aware of that progress.
Thank you for your presentation and the information you provided.
I would first like to commend you, and it isn't every day that I congratulate someone for the work they do for minorities. At least you paid attention to the situation last year. As you know, members of this committee are very frustrated with the unacceptable lack of success we have been seeing over the years. Major changes were needed. We see that such changes are being made and that is good.
I want to come back to my friend Mr. Choquette's question about the lottery. I will tell you a quick story and then I will share with you the solution that I would like you to incorporate into your strategy.
Thirty years ago, when I began teaching, I was teaching in an anglophone community. Four of my students were Acadians who did not know how to speak French. Since they were learning French with me, I encouraged them to apply for a scholarship to take French classes over the summer. All four submitted an application, but none of them were chosen. Since Nova Scotia's population is 96% anglophone and only 4% francophone, the probability of an anglophone being chosen was huge. These assimilated francophones did not receive a scholarship to learn French, but anglophones were given the resources to do so. We therefore established two programs.
I am not saying that you should do the same. However, we have a francophone immigration target of 4.4%. I would suggest that, once 80% of the names are drawn at random, you stop the process and determine how many francophones have been chosen at that point. If it is 2.4%, then there is still 2% missing. In that case, the next names that are drawn could be drawn only from the pool of francophones in order to fill that missing 2% or until a minimum of 4.4% is reached. Then the process could resume as usual and the remaining 8,% 10% or 12% of names could be drawn at random. That way, you would still be holding a lottery but it would be in keeping with the francophone immigration target of 4.4%. That is my suggestion, and I hope it will be implemented as of tomorrow morning.
There is another important issue that I talked about with the minister earlier today and over the past few days. The government has invested funds in order to bring francophone immigrants to minority communities. It is done for and by one group in the province. It varies from one province to another. Some provinces are doing better than others. Things are going fairly well in Nova Scotia, even though the success rate is not the greatest. Investments are being made in welcoming immigrants and helping them to integrate, but funding for employment is not getting to the right organizations. At least that is what is happening in Nova Scotia. I can't speak for the other provinces. I am talking here about the Conseil de développement économique de la Nouvelle-Écosse, or CDENE, in my province and the Réseau de développement économique et d'employabilité, or RDEE, in francophone communities in other provinces. Since these organizations specialize in employability, they are the ones that should be receiving the funding for employment. I agree with the choice of organizations for other aspects of integration, but these are the organizations that should be given funding to help immigrants find jobs. They have asked for money to create such a position, but they have not yet managed to secure it. We would like them to be given funding for that.
My last question has to do with annex agreements, which I love. You have already met with departmental representatives from across Canada. Annex agreements were developed for New Brunswick and Ontario. Do you intend to talk to the ministers in the other provinces to develop annex agreements?
Thank you.
:
I do not have much time left. In any case, we have covered a lot, I think, but I would like to go back to what Mr. Généreux just said.
As I have said from the outset, I am interested in the federal-provincial action plan to increase francophone immigration outside Quebec as a way of supporting official language minority communities. We asked for this the first time the minister appeared, and we have now obtained it. It is a step in the right direction. It is a first draft, however, and we can see that there is still a lot of work to be done.
You talked about the development of indicators, Mr. Denis. We would also like to know what those indicators are and what your objectives will be for next year and for 2020. This will allow us to follow the progress in you work.
There is just one think that concerns me, and it pertains to the creation of this public policy hub for francophone immigration. As Mr. Arseneault also pointed out, we would have liked to see more than a hub. We would have liked a whole section of the department entirely devoted to francophone immigration to official language minority communities. I think the hub answers just part of that request.
Just consider that the level of francophone immigration will be about 2% next year, while a minimum of 4.4% is needed to maintain our demographic weight. Otherwise, the demographic weight of francophones will continue to decline, which will unfortunately weaken those communities.
As you can see, Mr. Chair, I do not really have a question.