Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you to the committee for inviting me and officials from my department here.
I appreciate your keen interest in the role of and the importance of strengthening official languages within our immigration system.
Our government believes—and it is a deep, long-standing, and great Canadian tradition to believe—that our linguistic duality is a source of immeasurable economic and social benefit for all Canadians. It is a big part of who we are.
First of all, I'd like solemnly to affirm before all of you that we are committed to applying all of the reforms we've made to our immigration programs to strengthen both of our official languages in terms of quality, presence, skills, and proficiency by means of our immigration system. We have a lot to show for these efforts in recent years. That commitment to excellence in Canada's official languages is there for all to see over these last nine years of reforms.
If you look at that record, you will find that language plays a very important, even central, role in these reforms. There is no doubt that immigration helps us ensure that the bilingual personality of our country is preserved and represented faithfully all across the country. We know that linguistic capability in French, in English, and preferably in both is essential to economic success in this country. We see it in the workers who come here. We see it in the students who come here. We see it obviously in the immigrants we are so proud to welcome in record numbers every year.
We operate with the conviction that francophone immigration is not simply a priority just within Quebec. We want to strengthen and preserve Canada's bilingual personality, and we also want to expand linguistic duality all across the country, because the francophone presence is a national reality in all provinces and territories.
For these and other reasons, I was proud to help launch Canada's second annual Francophone Immigration Week. I also participated in the first edition. This was an initiative of the Fédération des communautés francophones et acadienne du Canada and the francophone immigration networks, with more than 100 community activities organized from coast to coast. It was made possible through financial support from my department, and the participation of many partners.
We joined with francophones across the country, particularly francophone immigrants, in celebrating their unique culture, which continues to flourish and to define Canada's national identity. lt was also an opportunity to officially recognize the important contribution that immigration and newcomers make to Canada's linguistic duality.
More recently, earlier this month, I addressed participants of the Journée de réflexion sur l'immigration francophone, which was also organized by the FCFA with support from CIC. This event, held annually since 2007, is a unique opportunity for stakeholders to discuss the current state of immigration but also to think about how we can innovate, improve our programs, attract more francophones and strengthen our francophone immigration networks. Without this opportunity for refection, we would not have made as much progress as we have, especially since 2007.
We are strongly dedicated to sustaining the vitality and diversity of our francophone communities outside of Quebec through our immigration program, particularly in the context of the roadmap for official languages, in which francophone migration and immigration play a key role.
As you all know, immigration has always been central to the history of Canada, from the days of New France, and even in the history of our first nations, who have their own stories of migration to and within this continent.
Migration and immigration continue to play a decisive role in fostering the development of our official language minority communities. According to Statistics Canada, there are more than one million people in Canadian communities outside Quebec reporting French as their mother tongue.
In 2013 we welcomed a total of 3,358 francophone immigrants outside Quebec through our immigration program. We believe it's critical that this number continue to grow.
Let us be clear about the outlook for francophone immigration. I just received the exact figures from the department. From 1980 to 2005, one year before our government took office, there was only one year in which more than 2,500 francophone immigrants settled outside Quebec. In fact, that number was often below 1,000. Unfortunately, that is how things were when the Liberals were in power and during Conservative Prime Minister Mulroney's time in office.
However, since 2005, and particularly since 2006, the number of francophone immigrants has never fallen below 2,500. In 2013, we reached the number that I just mentioned: 3,358. That is why our government has set the goal of increasing the number of francophone immigrants who settle outside Quebec to more than 4% of all economic immigrants by 2018. We recognize that increased immigration from French-speaking countries is essential to achieve this goal.
In 2013, we unveiled a new roadmap for official languages, which identified immigration as one of three pillars to ensure the future vitality of Canada's official languages. Under the roadmap, the government will invest nearly $150 million in official language initiatives related to immigration over the next five years. One important focus is promoting the benefits of fluency in Canada's official languages and investing in language training for newcomers settling in official language minority communities.
Newcomers with limited language abilities are more likely to earn less, be unemployed or live in poverty. I must also admit, ladies and gentlemen, that we are not satisfied with our immigration system's capacity to determine the French-language skills of newcomers who complete their applications in English. Bilingual people do not always report their language abilities. We invite them and encourage them to do so, but not all of them do it.
The number of francophones arriving in Canada could be higher than we realize. We are going to do what it takes to find out the proficiency of all of our newcomers in both official languages so that we know where we stand in terms of reaching our goal of 4% for French-speaking economic immigrants by 2018.
Most of the funds under the roadmap—$120 million—are being invested to help economic class newcomers develop the language skills they need to integrate into Canadian society. I have to say that, in general, strengthening the language proficiency criteria for all of our immigration programs has improved the language proficiency of all our immigrants. We hope that this trend will continue in Quebec and the other provinces and territories of Canada. That being said, we are prepared to help those whose language skills are not as strong when they arrive to improve.
Our government is also working to help French-speaking immigrants settle into their minority communities outside Quebec.
We fund 13 francophone immigration networks that work with many partners across the country. They are already receiving enough funding to welcome up to 5,000 French-speaking immigrants across the country. That is much more than two, three or even four years ago.
The new express entry system, which was launched on January 1 and which supports our economic plan, will make it possible to manage applications for permanent residence in Canada's key economic immigration programs. It has great potential to contribute to the economic vitality of francophone minority communities outside Quebec.
We just extended new invitations to our candidates for immigration. A total of 2.5% of them are francophone, which is much higher than in the past. We are hopeful that this number will gradually improve, but we also need your help in promoting francophone immigration to areas of Canada outside Quebec. We need to remind people throughout the world that it is possible to live and grow in French in all of our provinces and territories.
Not everyone in France or even Canada knows that 30% of Yukon residents are francophone. People also do not necessarily know how many francophones work in French, even in Vancouver. They are probably even less familiar with the history of Saint-Boniface and Moncton and the strength of our francophone minority communities. In fact, French speakers form the majority in certain areas outside Quebec, whether it is in eastern or northern Ontario or the Ottawa region.
Destination Canada, a program that gives us an opportunity to promote the strength of our labour market and our immigration programs, has been a phenomenal success. The program is not limited exclusively to Paris any more. It is also being delivered in Belgium and Tunisia, and we have also broadened our participation in order to offer similar job fairs in Dakar, Senegal.
It is worth noting that young Belgian, French and Swiss citizens can apply to travel and work in Canada under the International Experience Canada, or IEC, youth-mobility initiative. Canada's IEC agreement with France is, in fact, the largest of our 32 youth-mobility agreements. I would like to reiterate that an increasing number of young French nationals who participate in this program want to stay in Canada permanently to go to school and work.
A total of 13,850 visas were available last year for French citizens hoping to come to Canada under the working holiday, young professionals, and international co-op streams of the IEC.
In a spirit of reciprocity, we truly hope that a similar number of Canadians will participate in this program in France.
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I would like to thank you once again for inviting me to appear before you. I am ready to answer the committee members' questions.
