Official Languages Committee on May 6th, 2010

[Yves Saint-Germain]

It's important to understand that the purpose of the settlement program is to enable the communities to become welcoming. In rural areas, it's important for the communities to be able to attract these immigrants. We know that 60% to 70% of immigrants wind up in Montreal, Toronto or Vancouver. At the department, we're developing tools to promote and receive immigrants in rural areas. We've developed a tool kit enabling the communities and small municipalities to know how to do their marketing.

[Jean-Claude D'Amours, Liberal, Madawaska—Restigouche, NB]

Mr. Saint-Germain, have you distributed it to those communities, in towns back home? Have they received the kit in my constituency in northern New Brunswick or do we have to guess that it exists and call 1-800 O-Canada to find out what is being done for these small communities?

[Yves Saint-Germain]

The kit exists, they're discussing it in various research forums, at the Metropolis conference. All those working in immigration and immigrant integration are usually quite familiar with the kit.

[Jean-Claude D'Amours, Liberal, Madawaska—Restigouche, NB]

What do the small rural communities that don't have it do to find out that it exists?

[Les Linklater]

We're working with the provincial governments as well, and New Brunswick sits on our steering committee.

[The Chair, Conservative, Steven Blaney]

Thank you very much.

Thank you, Mr. D'Amours.

We'll continue with Mr. Nadeau.

[Richard Nadeau, Bloc, Gatineau, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Mr. Greenshields, a little earlier I talked to you about French-language services. You can check in Uganda; it would be worthwhile to do a little visit there and to make a phone call in French to see what they think of it. A certain Sheila Fraser, who is the Auditor General of Canada, told us, in June 2009—which isn't that long ago—that some embassies don't speak a word of French. We've dealt with Kampala, in Uganda, and I can attest to that. Others have a lot of difficulty, in London and Bogota, in particular. We dealt more with Colombia at one point. You get an idea of the problem. It's a monumental farce! We bring 54 people together to welcome and invite francophone or people who speak French to come to Canada, whereas Canada's embassies abroad are places where we disregard the French fact.

I went to Egypt last summer. I swear it was difficult to get services in French, particularly since I was negotiating to enter Gaza. You see, and I'm a member of Parliament! We ultimately obtained some, but it wasn't easy. This is something that I think is fundamental. Studies have been done; the Commissioner of Official Languages has said some things on the subject. You should go and see what French Imperative has done with regard to the embassies. We're talking, in particular, about foreign embassies. You'll tell me that isn't your responsibility, but I'm nevertheless talking about it because you're not setting an example overseas. On some websites of foreign embassies in Canada, there's only information in English and in the language of their country; French is absent. This projects a certain image of Canada's duality. It's a duality that disregards French. I find it absolutely appalling.

We're going to talk about another subject. Earlier you were talking about education—

[Jean-Philippe Tachdjian]

May I respond?

[Richard Nadeau, Bloc, Gatineau, QC]

Go ahead.

[Jean-Philippe Tachdjian]

I handle education and recruitment of foreign students. Without spending too much time on details about consular services, which is not my responsibility, I can nevertheless tell you that all our documents on promotion and student recruitment are available in both languages.

[Richard Nadeau, Bloc, Gatineau, QC]

I'll stop you here, sir. I only have five minutes.

This happens at the level of the citizen, and I want you to understand that. The criticisms don't just come from me, but from Sheila Fraser as well. You can discuss this question or the risks I mentioned earlier with Mr. Greenshields. You'll see for yourself, since you have the tools to do so.

As regards education, are you talking about the primary, secondary and university levels or just about the post-secondary level?

[Jean-Philippe Tachdjian]

We promote education at all levels, in particular primary and secondary. It's mainly secondary, but that depends on the market. In some markets, there's no point in promoting secondary education, and we don't do any for the primary level. With regard to secondary education, it's very important to do promotion in certain markets. In other markets—

[Richard Nadeau, Bloc, Gatineau, QC]

All right. I'll stop you there.

The recognition of credentials, diplomas, is a provincial jurisdiction and concerns the universities in particular. Do you do any work in that area? This is a complaint that doesn't just come from me, but also from other people who are here. We often talk about the taxi driver who's a doctor by training and holds a doctorate recognized in his country, whether it be France of elsewhere, but not here. Where do we stand on that situation?

[Chris Greenshields]

Let's take the example of Europe and the Bologna Process, which is a comprehensive approach to developing or redeveloping diplomas and the education system. We're working with Canadian organizations so that they study the Bologna Process and how it can be adapted to our system. In the context of the Bologna Process, a three-year Bachelor's degree will be developed in Europe. It will be a change for Canadian institutions because we normally require a four-year undergraduate degree in order to register for a master's degree. This involves dialogue between institutions. Of course, as you know, this is a provincial jurisdiction.

[Richard Nadeau, Bloc, Gatineau, QC]

All right.

I'd nevertheless like you to send us the document because citizens are asking me for an answer today. From what I understand, there are negotiations. Could you send us a report on the Bologna negotiations so that we can have an idea of the situation and can say that things are being done? It's not moving forward quickly, but at least things are being done.

[Chris Greenshields]

Absolutely.

However, these aren't negotiations. The idea is to determine how we can be in a position to react to this change. Of course there are certain reports on the subject, and we can send them to the committee.

[The Chair, Conservative, Steven Blaney]

Thank you very much.

Thank you, Mr. Nadeau.

We'll now go to Ms. Boucher.

[Sylvie Boucher, Conservative, Beauport—Limoilou, QC]

Good morning, everyone.

This is very interesting. A number of questions come to mind.

We've heard a lot about EduCanada. We've discussed the means governments could use to increase promotion of the French fact in Canada. We talked about that with the FCFA people last week. The Destination Canada program concerns the recruitment of francophone immigrants. On Tuesday, Ms. Bossé from the FCFA told us that there was no francophone office assigned to preparing immigrants for departure and arrival in Canada, except at the Canadian embassy in Paris. There isn't any for the francophone countries. I think that would be a good starting point. The Department of Foreign Affairs could definitely be more active. Some Canadian embassies took part in the last round of Destination Canada. We now hope that will produce results. We're working very closely with the Canadian embassy in Paris. Destination Canada is a good practice. However, we have to move it forward.

Could you describe that program's operation and impact? Can you give us some details on what the Paris embassy is doing and tell us what other Canadian embassies are doing—or what is planned—in order to reproduce that practice at other Canadian embassies overseas?

[Yves Saint-Germain]

With regard to the promotion and recruitment activities that take place in francophone countries, it is true that our mission in Paris has a key role in coordinating all efforts. However, our efforts aren't focused solely on Paris and Brussels. They're coordinated from Paris and Brussels by our chef de mission in Paris. The work we are doing on promotion and recruitment extends to our offices in Abidjan, Bucharest, Damascus, Cairo and Rabat. All those offices play a role in that they establish promotion and recruitment activities and information sessions for students and workers. Various activities take place during the year.

The high point is the Destination Canada mission, which takes place in Paris and Brussels in November. Coordination is done with those offices. The work therefore concerns Romania, Bulgaria, Moldavia, Ivory Coast, Mali and Senegal as well as Cameroon. Together we reach the francophone countries through our promotion and recruitment activities.

[Sylvie Boucher, Conservative, Beauport—Limoilou, QC]

Does anyone want to add anything?

[Les Linklater]

I would say that not only is Destination Canada a best practice, it is also natural for us to focus our efforts on that mission, as Mr. Saint-Germain mentioned, in view of the fact that our office responsible for the Maghreb and the francophone countries of western Europe is in Paris. In that way, we will be able to effectively coordinate all our promotion efforts in that francophone area.

[Sylvie Boucher, Conservative, Beauport—Limoilou, QC]

That's good.

I have a number of questions. I'm originally from the Quebec City area. The Université Laval is located there and has a lot of foreign students.

What percentage of foreign students stay in minority communities after completing their education, or simply stay here? How can they become permanent residents? Do you have any agreements with the various provinces and territories to try to achieve some retention in those communities?

[Yves Saint-Germain]

New Brunswick is doing a very good job of retaining students in francophone minority communities. The Université de Moncton has introduced a program designed specifically to try to retain students.

As you know, we have a program entitled the Canadian Experience Class. The purpose of that program is to enable foreign students to qualify for permanent residence from the time they have acquired a total of one year's work experience in Canada or after their studies.

This programs seems to be working well at the Université de Moncton, but other universities are taking part in it as well.

[Sylvie Boucher, Conservative, Beauport—Limoilou, QC]

Are there any agreements with the various provinces? We know that every province is different. In Quebec, we have an immigration agreement. Do you have any agreements or a collaborative relationship with the various provinces in order to establish initiatives designed to retain immigrants?

[Les Linklater]

As you know, we have agreements with the provinces to promote the Provincial Nominee Program, under which the provinces can establish their own immigration priorities.

I imagine you have heard or will hear from Manitoban representatives about Manitoba's nominee program. The purpose of that program is to attract 7% of francophone immigrants.