Immigration measures have to be tailored to Canada's francophone community. The government introduced express entry, but as I discussed in my opening remarks, the government must do better than that. Action is desperately needed.
We appreciate being given the opportunity to speak with the committee and elected representatives, but what would be even better would be not having to call on Canada's parliamentarians, time and time again, to take action to meet the targets. What we would much rather is the introduction of measures to meet the targets so that Canada's francophone identity was protected and communities' needs were met, no matter who was elected to Parliament or which government was in power.
Our situation is critical, and the survival of our communities is under threat. Actions have to be taken, and those actions need to be genuine, robust and supportive in order to meet communities' needs. As you pointed out, 1.9% of those admitted through express entry are French-speaking. That's very little, and we expect more. The target has been 4.4%, but as Mr. Dupuis said, we are looking for a target of 12% starting next year, if possible. A significant increase like that would go a long way towards slowing the decline.