Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Welcome, Minister. This is the first time we've met. I'll be pleased to work with you.
I'd like to talk about three points. The first two are quite brief. The first concerns security. I agree with you that the department has excellent relations with the groups that ensure the country's security, particularly with regard to the review of files of people who want to immigrate to Canada. What I think poses a major problem is the period of time. It takes an enormous amount of time for the security forces to give their opinion on immigrant files. Moreover, on Monday, I intend to introduce a motion requesting that this committee be able to examine this question. I simply wanted to inform you of that.
Second, a little earlier, my colleague Mr. Wilson asked you a question about the cost of language training for new immigrants across Canada. Your answer, if I correctly understood, was that it now takes more time than it used to take to teach English and French because a lot of immigrants now come from countries where their linguistic roots do not resemble the Latin roots of our languages.
Did I correctly understand what you said?
Allow me to tell you, as a former linguist, that that has nothing to do with anything. Regardless of the roots of a language, Indo-European or whatever, it is just as easy for an individual to learn one language as another. The proof of that is that, a number of years ago in Quebec, when we took in the first Vietnamese immigrants, who were regularly called boat people, the first French classes in Quebec's French-language schools were inevitably full of the children of Vietnamese and Chinese immigrants who had come here without a word of English or French. It seems to me that's indisputable proof.
I'd like to get to my real question. It concerns another immigration problem. We've talked a lot about demographics. Now I'd like to talk about the demographics of one group in particular, the official language minority francophone communities across the country, in Manitoba, Alberta, British Columbia, the Maritimes and so on.
Could you clarify for us what is happening with the agreement reached between the Department of Citizenship and Immigration and the Action Plan for Official Languages? What is happening with the settlement and immigration of official language minority immigrants? Will your government be complying with that agreement? If not, how do you intend to continue helping these people? I put a lot of emphasis on this agreement because we need immigrants across the country, even in communities that live outside the major cities, particularly the official language minority communities. These groups really need to add to their demographic and economic strength in order to survive in this country.
I'd like to have some answers, please.