Official Languages committee  Mr. Chairman, the committee on which the provinces sit has general priorities. There are 12 priorities. I can give you—

Official Languages committee  We work in partnership with the provinces. We requested the suggestions of all the partners before establishing our list. With regard to the priorities of the Government of Saskatchewan, for example—

Official Languages committee  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.

Official Languages committee  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 skill

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

Official Languages committee  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.

Official Languages committee  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 a

Official Languages committee  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 sp

Official Languages committee  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 prot

Official Languages committee  I would say that not only is Destination Canada a best practice, it is also natural for us to focus our efforts on that mission, as Mr. Saint-Germain mentioned, in view of the fact that our office responsible for the Maghreb and the francophone countries of western Europe is in P

Official Languages committee  As you know, we have agreements with the provinces to promote the Provincial Nominee Program, under which the provinces can establish their own immigration priorities. I imagine you have heard or will hear from Manitoban representatives about Manitoba's nominee program. The purp

Official Languages committee  No. I would like to clarify my earlier remarks. As is the case with Foreign Affairs, when requests come from parliamentarians through our parliamentary affairs bureau, the minister's office is made aware of those requests, and as a result, officials are then asked to respond th

Official Languages committee  No, it would be through parliamentary affairs. My apologies for the oversight.

Official Languages committee  We're working with the provincial governments as well, and New Brunswick sits on our steering committee.

Official Languages committee  Thank you for the question. A number of actions are currently being taken to improve the process of recognizing immigrants' credentials. Human Resources and Skills Development Canada is working very closely with the Foreign Credentials Referral Office and with Health Canada at th