Official Languages Committee on May 6th, 2010

[The Chair, Conservative, Steven Blaney]

Thank you very much.

Thank you, Ms. Boucher.

We'll complete our second round with Mr. Gravelle.

[Claude Gravelle, NDP, Nickel Belt, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

The Citizenship and Immigration Canada—Francophone Minority Communities Steering Committee is proposing a new definition of what a francophone immigrant is:

A French-speaking immigrant is an immigrant whose mother tongue is French, or whose first official language is French if the mother tongue is a language other than French or English.

Last week, we spoke with witnesses about the importance of the terms used to identify francophones. In view of this definition, what do you do about individuals who use both official languages equally, those who have a francophone and an anglophone parent? How do you classify them?

[Yves Saint-Germain]

With regard to the definition of a francophone immigrant, research in recent years has shown the steering committee that francophone immigrants most likely to integrate and stay in francophone minority communities are those whose first official language is French. That's why the definition reflects that fact.

When immigrants know both official languages, they usually favour one or the other, English or French.

For the moment, our systems calculate knowledge of French and English. CIC can therefore index the percentage of immigrants who have both French and English, or only French or only English.

It is important to know which language immigrants are most likely to use when they wind up in Canada. This explains why we have a definition based on the first official language spoken. What everyday language will immigrants use?

[The Chair, Conservative, Steven Blaney]

Thank you, Mr. Gravelle.

We're going to begin our third round with Ms. Folco.

Welcome to the committee, Ms. Folco.

[Raymonde Folco, Liberal, Laval—Les Îles, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Blaney.

I must say this is a committee I really care about. And we're talking about immigration, which is my favourite topic.

I'm going to ask Mr. Linklater my first question.

My first question concerns the search effort your department is making in looking for refugees in foreign refugee camps. Is any particular effort being made in this operation to identify francophones or individuals from francophone countries. If so, are you following up by giving them a certain priority, with respect, for example, to francophone minority communities or those in Quebec? If not, why not?

[Les Linklater]

Since we are working with the United Nations to ensure the protection of people who need it in foreign camps, it's very hard to target people based on their linguistic profile. If someone needs Canada's protection, it's obvious what our priority is.

However, we don't have any specific programs to target French-speaking refugees. But if we find a population, a family or individual looking for Canada's protection after being sent to us by the United Nations, we do our best to ensure that those people are directed to a community where settlement services are available in French, where they can, for example, take French courses, work or be directed to institutions where there are French-language services.

[Raymonde Folco, Liberal, Laval—Les Îles, QC]

In fact, you're telling me that the people you see in the refugee camps are people who have already been identified by UNHCR.

[Les Linklater]

That's correct. On the whole, our settlement assistance program is based on UN referrals. Moreover, we still have our settlement program based on private sponsorship parameters: groups in Canada can make referrals to us, and one of our officers conducts the evaluation of the protection claim.

[Raymonde Folco, Liberal, Laval—Les Îles, QC]

Obviously, there's the analysis of the refugee's need; that's the priority; that's obvious. However, in the analysis you conduct, do you also take into account the fact that that person could settle in a francophone community somewhere in the country and increase francophone numbers?

[Les Linklater]

It's yes, with regard to the people who are sent to us by the UN. However, as regards people who are sponsored by a private group, that always depends on the profile of the community that takes them in and of the people to whom they are sent.

[Raymonde Folco, Liberal, Laval—Les Îles, QC]

I understand that.

If I have the time, Mr. Chairman, for a second question—

[The Chair, Conservative, Steven Blaney]

Yes, you have two minutes left, Ms. Folco.

[Raymonde Folco, Liberal, Laval—Les Îles, QC]

Thank you; you are very generous.

It seems quite normal for the vast majority of immigrants who arrive here and who are French-speaking to come from countries like France, Belgium, Switzerland, Haiti and so on.

However, there are far more francophone countries than that. I know something about that: I'm my party's francophone affairs critic.

Do you have any specific programs concerning other francophone countries? I'm talking about the countries that, at first glance, do not superficially appear to be francophone countries and yet are part of the Francophonie for very clear, very specific, very obvious reasons.

Do you have any immigration programs for those countries in order to try to recruit francophone immigrants there?

[Les Linklater]

We don't have any specific programs favouring language as such—like a universal system. However, we can submit an immigration request from any country. And for skilled workers, for example, we conduct an evaluation in accordance with the selection grid based on occupational skills.

[Raymonde Folco, Liberal, Laval—Les Îles, QC]

I'm going to interrupt for a moment, Mr. Linklater; pardon me. As you know, in Quebec, we have a scoring system and so on. We assign a number of points for the French language; everyone is aware of that.

How is it that you, at Immigration Canada, don't have a similar system establishing that, for people who speak French and want to settle in a francophone community somewhere in Canada, more points are assigned for that?

[Les Linklater]

Based on the selection grid, we can assign points for skills in both languages.

[Raymonde Folco, Liberal, Laval—Les Îles, QC]

In both languages or in one of the languages?

[Les Linklater]

Both languages. We conduct our primary evaluation on the candidate's preferred language. If the candidate shows skills in the second official language, we assign additional points to recognize those skills.

[The Chair, Conservative, Steven Blaney]

Thank you very much, Ms. Folco.

We'll now continue with Mrs. O'Neill-Gordon.

[Tilly O'Neill-Gordon, Conservative, Miramichi, NB]

Thank you, Mr. Chair, and welcome, visitors. It's great to have you here today, and we thank you for your time.

It is certainly heartwarming to hear about the work and cooperation that is being done among groups to promote francophone communities across our country. As was mentioned, even though our government certainly promotes this issue and stands behind it 110%, the government alone cannot do it. It needs organizations, communities, and other governments all working together.

Immigration certainly is a very important tool in the development of official language minority communities. In that respect, in 2003, the House of Commons Standing Committee on Official Languages issued a report entitled “Immigration as a Development Tool in Official Language Minority Communities”. In this report, the committee recommended that DFAIT take appropriate steps to ensure that our missions abroad promote Canada's linguistic duality and the existence of anglophone and francophone communities throughout the country.

Has this recommendation been implemented, and if so, what are the steps that enable DFAIT to make OLMCs known abroad?

[Les Linklater]

If I could respond, Mr. Chair, in terms of a global response, the government, through a number of websites, particularly the CIC website, makes available the information regarding the existence of both official language minority communities and mainstream linguistic communities across the country.

[Tilly O'Neill-Gordon, Conservative, Miramichi, NB]

Quebec has immigration offices overseas. Are they under DFAIT's jurisdiction, and in your opinion, is there a disconnect between Quebec's recruitment efforts and those of FMCs?

[Les Linklater]

While Quebec officers overseas are entitled, I believe, to official passports, I would defer to my colleagues from DFAIT. They are not, as such, under the jurisdiction of Foreign Affairs in that they are covered by the Canadian mission presence overseas.

In terms of the coordination of recruitment efforts, Quebec and Canada work very closely in terms of the immigration program. There is a great deal of coordination and harmonization of policy directions, for example, business immigration, where the regulations are quite similar, and the fact that we both use a selection grid for economic immigrants. Some of the factors are very close. Others, as a member has mentioned, provide advantage to those who speak French, in the Quebec case, and in the case of Canada, we assess both official language abilities to ensure a more complete picture of human capital.

[Chris Greenshields]

If you permit, Mr. Chairman, I'd just respond from Foreign Affairs and International Trade to the questions posed.

In terms of the presentation of Canada's linguistic duality, this is a priority for the department. For example, we are engaged throughout the world working with other francophone countries for la Semaine de la francophonie each year, a major event throughout our embassy network. We have other means, for example, through “Understanding Canada: Canadian Studies”, “Comprendre le Canada - Les Études canadiennes”.

We have programs that promote teaching and research about Canada. There's a huge interest among academics and students abroad about Canada's diversity and linguistic duality. We support teaching and research about this. There are also various programs or initiatives that have presented l'Acadie, for example, on a number of occasions. We also work with the International Association of Quebec Studies to bring together the different dimensions of Canada's diversity and linguistic duality.

In terms of the cooperation with Quebec offices abroad, as mentioned by Mr. Linklater, they are often not located in conjunction with Canadian missions. There are some cases of collocation. We work very closely with Quebec and other provincial offices abroad.

[The Chair, Conservative, Steven Blaney]

Thank you very much.

Thank you, Ms. O'Neill-Gordon.

We'll now continue with Mr. Nadeau, if he so wishes.