Official Languages committee  It's a plan from 2006 that is ongoing.

Official Languages committee  There is a strategic plan to promote francophone immigration to our communities. The plan was developed jointly by Citizenship and Immigration Canada and the francophone communities. The FCFA coordinated the process. Through highs and lows, in very small steps, the plan was created.

Official Languages committee  Are you really talking about our organization?

Official Languages committee  The FCFA is supposed to have received $25 million for youth?

Official Languages committee  The FCFA coordinates the activities and actions of organizations working for the overall development of communities. The federation does not develop programs exclusively and specifically for young people, because a youth federation does that. I would have to find out the specific investments for the youth program.

Official Languages committee  I will be brief. I think it is very clear. Linguistic duality, the fact of having two official languages, offers very clear potential. The government has recognized its importance to Canadian identity in various speeches from the Throne, when it talked about the two official languages.

Official Languages committee  I don't know who received $25 million...

Official Languages committee  The vast majority of provincial and territorial governments have not set targets. If they had one, they would need a strategy to attain that objective. Ontario set its target at 5%. That was announced in 2012. However, we are still waiting for the strategy. New Brunswick is suppose to announce its strategy, we hope soon, on the demographic growth linked to francophone immigration.

Official Languages committee  Thank you for your question. In fact, since the government completely eliminated the promotion budgets for Destination Canada in Budget 2012, the resources that allow us to do the promotion of our communities as host communities have been very curtailed. There is no support from the federal government.

Official Languages committee  We certainly would recommend an increase in financial support to increase capacity. There are 13 francophone immigration networks whose responsibility is to find partners and mobilize employers. If we cannot promote the communities in foreign countries, we have to be able to work a great deal with the employers to make them aware of the opportunity being able to hire francophone and bilingual immigrants represents.

Official Languages committee  Good morning Mr. Chair and members of the committee. My name is Suzanne Bossé. I am the Executive Director of the FCFA. I am delighted to be accompanied today by Marjie Brown, who is the manager of the immigration file at the federation and is responsible for overseeing, among other things, the support we provide to the francophone immigration network.

Official Languages committee  Thank you. I briefly referred to the importance of including language issues in the investigations conducted by Statistics Canada and Employment and Social Development Canada on the workforce and other topics. The databases need to be brought together so that we have access to information.

Official Languages committee  There is the integrated plan of action from the Forum pancanadien sur le développement économique en francophonie canadienne. As Ms. Kenny said earlier, this plan relies on six priority areas for implementation. Now it is a matter of having the right players around the committee table to follow up on this action plan.

Official Languages committee  About the Canada job grant?

Official Languages committee  We are very happy that the federal government has used the Canada job grant to give more flexibility to provincial and territorial governments. It is very important. The grant will be fully in effect on July 1st, and the participation of the provincial and territorial governments will go up.