Thank you, Mr. Blaney.
Good morning, mesdames et messieurs.
Thank you again for this opportunity to talk about the immigration dossier. It is, of course, important to us.
You're probably sitting there wondering what I'm doing here again on immigration. It seems like, as Mr. Blaney has suggested, we have a special subscription to this committee, but this is an important issue for us.
I will be rather brief, and then, with your permission, Mr. Blaney, I will ask Michelle to address the committee.
It is clear that Quebec needs immigrants. The continued vitality of our province and, within that, of the English-speaking community, greatly depends on immigration. However, under the assumption that English-speaking Quebec has already largely benefited from immigration, little attention has been paid to the needs of the English-speaking official language minority community in Quebec.
Yet renewal is of critical importance to the development and vitality of our community. The goal of the QCGN is to encourage politicians and policy-makers to consider this fundamental issue as the Standing Committee on Official Languages undertakes this new study on immigration in official language minority communities.
I read with great interest the blues reports from last week's meetings. I was very pleased to see that Mr. Jack Jedwab was talking about, obviously, the English-speaking minority in Quebec, the other official minority community.
Cultural diversity is a fact in Canadian society. This trend will only increase in the future. During the Bouchard-Taylor commission's “reasonable accommodations” hearings in 2007 and 2008, the QCGN stated that the debate on the cohabitation of different communities was essential and that it should focus on the equilibrium between the rights of the majority and the rights of the minority.
We believe it is vital that we understand who makes up our minority communities and that we understand their values and their needs. During the commission, the QCGN also highlighted ways in which immigration has positively affected society and reminded the commission that our English-speaking community is recognized as being progressive in the way it has dealt with our changing community.
In 2006, immigrants to Quebec for whom English was the only official Canadian language knew upon arrival that they represented approximately 20% of the total provincial immigration. That was up from under 16% in 2002. This proportion actually exceeds the share of Quebec's English mother-tongue population, which stands at just under 10%.
Considering the important percentage of immigrants who are English speakers, we see that it's inevitable that English-language institutions will be involved in the process of integrating newcomers and managing diversity.
We are happy to note that a significant portion of Quebec's intelligentsia do not support the alarmist views of sovereigntists like Pierre Curzi, the PQ cultural critic who recently argued that too many new immigrants were integrating into the English-speaking community. André Pratte, the chief editor of La Presse, has remarked that while French is threatened by English, the threat would remain even if all English speakers left the province. In other words, Pratte recognizes that the threat is not coming from Quebec's English-speaking community, but rather from the dominance of the English language in a global world.
Ideally, the QCGN believes that the English-speaking community could be seen as a bridge to help newcomers who speak English to learn French and integrate into Quebec society. It is important to note that language and community are distinct issues. Indeed, the English-speaking communities of Quebec are excellent role models for new immigrants because, despite facing similar challenges, they have successfully learned to speak French and have respectfully integrated into Quebec society.
Mr. Chairman, with your permission, I will introduce Michelle Dupuis, who has been working for us for about five years on a full-time basis in our Montreal office.
Michelle is responsible for two major dossiers. One is the promotion of community development and vitality in our English communities across Quebec. Secondly, she has been very active in the diversity and development of GMCDI, the Montreal community development initiative.