The francophone immigration target of 4.4% was established in 2003. That was equivalent or close to the demographic weight of the francophone community in the 2001 census.
It was a mistake to set the target at 4.4%. Last fall's report from the Commissioner of Official Languages demonstrates that to keep the demographic weight at 4.4%, we would have needed a much higher target simply to maintain the francophone population outside of Quebec.
In my opinion, this demonstrates how important it is that this target be raised. A catch-up target will need to be set. As the Commissioner said, not reaching the target in 2008, which was the primary objective, resulted in a shortage of 76,000 individuals in our communities. That's the entire francophone population of British Columbia right now. It's [Technical difficulty] French, which is very vibrant, that we have been unable to welcome over the past 20 years.
Clearly, these objectives must also be applied to international students. That's the situation we are denouncing today. It's as if francophone immigration targets are being ignored when we look at visa applications. The factor that often contributes to refusal is that the applicant must prove that they will return to their country. However, we would like these new graduates to stay in Canada, contribute to the vitality of our communities and find employment in fields experiencing a labour shortage.
We'd like to see policies related to visa processing aligned with our francophone immigration targets. Let's hope that comes to be. The recommendation in that respect is that IRCC conduct a formal review of the admission criteria and determine whether to change the requirement for applicants to return home. It's not at all consistent with Canada's official language objectives.