I think language proficiency is important, but testing language proficiency at this stage where it's a citizenship application.... It should have been done when the person immigrated here.
All the concerns are about, is this person going to be employable, can this person integrate, and will this person be able to fit into society? If they have been here already for three years and they can't speak English or French in a way that they can do any of those things, why did we let them in here in the first place?
If we let them in here because we have a good reason, such as refugees and protected persons where we aren't going to put a language test on them, then why are we going to penalize them later on and say, “You didn't learn English fast enough, so we're not going to allow you to be a citizen?”
Where the value is on the English and the French language testing is that we've already stated our value at the immigration point of entry. If we have not put a language requirement there, why are we putting a language requirement on later? We're not correcting employability issues three years after they have come here, or four years.