Official Languages Committee on May 6th, 2010

[The Chair, Conservative, Steven Blaney]

Thank you very much, Mr. Nadeau.

[Richard Nadeau, Bloc, Gatineau, QC]

You target French-speaking people in Europe and Africa who would like to come and settle in Canada, but why don't you do it at all the embassies? I'd like you to answer me later.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

[The Chair, Conservative, Steven Blaney]

Thank you, Mr. Nadeau. You'll have the opportunity to come back to this.

Mr. Gravelle.

[Claude Gravelle, NDP, Nickel Belt, ON]

Good morning, Mr. Chairman.

Mr. Godin left me a list of questions to ask because I wasn't here last week.

At the last meeting, on Tuesday, the communities talked about the importance of pre-departure orientation and preparation sessions in immigrants' countries of origin. The goal is to facilitate their economic integration once they are in Canada. The FCFA emphasized that these kinds of sessions were offered in China, the Philippines and India—and soon in London—to immigrants coming to settle in Canada. However, there aren't any in the francophone countries, except at the Canadian embassy in Paris, which is responsible for those sessions at Canadian embassies abroad.

Why is that the case? Don't you agree that this is very important and that we should start offering these sessions in francophone countries?

[Les Linklater]

Thank you.

Mr. Chairman, I'm first going to provide you with an overview of the Foreign Credentials Referral Office.

The office was established through Advantage Canada. It is located in the offices of Citizenship and Immigration Canada. We always develop programs and policies designed to support people who want to start a settlement process before leaving their country of origin. We started with a pilot project together with Human Resources and Skills Development Canada, involving foreign partners and targeted at certain missions, as you mentioned. This is a roll-out process, if I may use the term, which works in stages.

As funding becomes available, we improve our services. We started with China, the Philippines and India because the missions in New Delhi, Beijing and Manilla are the busiest ones. That's where the volumes are the highest. In the coming months, a fourth office will open in London to cover the United Kingdom, Scandinavia and the Gulf countries. We will then have to start planning the next stages for the establishment of other offices.

[Claude Gravelle, NDP, Nickel Belt, ON]

We spoke with the people from the communities and the people who welcomed immigrants in the field. For immigrants, employability is a crucial factor concerning the place where they choose to settle. Credential recognition is therefore very important. The FCFA emphasized the major deficiency in this area. It emphasized the lack of interdepartmental and intergovernmental cooperation. It said that Human Resources and Skills Development Canada and the economic departments of the provinces and territories clearly had a role to play in this regard, as did Citizenship and Immigration Canada, with regard to coordination.

What efforts are currently being made regarding the recognition of immigrants' credentials? What is the process?

[Les Linklater]

Thank you for the question. A number of actions are currently being taken to improve the process of recognizing immigrants' credentials. Human Resources and Skills Development Canada is working very closely with the Foreign Credentials Referral Office and with Health Canada at the federal level to coordinate efforts with the provinces and territories.

I should mention that, after a lot of work between the provinces and territories and the federal government, the premiers announced the Pan-Canadian Framework for the Assessment and Recognition of Foreign Qualifications in the fall of 2009. Following extensive work, the governments identified 10 occupations that should constitute a path to recognition determined by all governments and regulatory groups responsible in the provinces and territories by December.

There will consequently be another round until 2012 concerning another 10 occupations. We've determined key occupations based on the volume of immigrants already settled here who possess certain credentials or training, in order to determine what occupations persons interested in coming to Canada carry on. Of all occupations, we have identified 10 for the first round and another 10 for the next round.

[The Chair, Conservative, Steven Blaney]

Thank you, Mr. Gravelle.

We'll continue with Ms. Glover.

[Shelly Glover, Conservative, Saint Boniface, MB]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Welcome to all our witnesses. It's nice to see you here again.

I am going to just take a moment to help jog my colleague's memory. Monsieur Bélanger asked some questions that I'm a little surprised he doesn't know the answers to already.

In 2003 there was a study done here in this committee, and Monsieur Bélanger was the chair at the time. The study was called “Immigration as a Tool for the Development of Official Language Minority Communities”. He refers to a recommendation, number 14, with regard to the QCGN or the anglophone minority community in Quebec wanting a committee. I'll read the recommendation that was made under that report that Monsieur Bélanger referred to:

The Committee recommends that CIC, within the framework of the Canada-Quebec Agreement currently in effect, consult the representative bodies of Quebec's anglophone community to determine whether they should be interested in setting up a steering committee similar to that for the francophone minority communities.

The response of the Liberal government of the time, in October 2008, was:

Under the Canada-Quebec Agreement, Quebec has rights and responsibilities with respect to the number of immigrants destined to Quebec and the selection, reception and integration of those immigrants. Quebec administers programs related to immigrant selection and integration, and is therefore responsible for consulting its population.

So Mr. Bélanger should know the response: the government in power at the time, the Liberal government, referred this recommendation to the Government of Quebec. In addition, QCGN tells us that it has approached the Government of Quebec and this is working very well. It isn't true that QCGN or the anglophone community in Quebec want an equivalent committee because they were just consulted this week and asked how things were going. They said they were going very well.

I don't know why this question comes up again. It's clear.

I have a question concerning what we heard two days ago. The Société franco-manitobaine was here, and Mr. Diallo said:

[...] if we look at what is going on at the Collège universitaire de Saint-Boniface alone, we see that approximately 20% of the students were born outside Canada—I think that's the highest percentage in Canada. Thirty per cent of students come from immersion schools, which is a lot. Lastly, the Collège universitaire is a microcosm of what could be happening on the outside. So the face of this francophone community we were talking about is changing as well, through education.

Can you tell us, in figures, what these foreign students represent for the economy and the vitality of the francophone minority communities?

[Jean-Philippe Tachdjian, Deputy Director and Trade Commissioner, Edu-Canada, International Education Promotion, Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade]

Thank you for the question. It's a bit difficult to answer without knowing the exact number of foreign or international students enrolled at the Collège universitaire de Saint-Boniface. You're talking about 20%, but of what?

One study that we recently conducted indicates that every foreign student registered at a university or community college in Canada contributes an average of $30,860 to the Canadian economy. So if we have thousands of them, that can definitely be very good in terms of economic impact for the communities, and more for the institutions in small urban centres. In Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver, this will of course have a smaller impact, whereas it can have a much bigger impact in a small community.

We know that Manitoba is very active in this field in general. We're working in close cooperation with the Government of Manitoba and with Manitoba's International Education Branch. In addition, with Manitoba, we're also organizing a tour of Brazil for the fall. A few months ago, we visited Thailand and Vietnam, where we funded a portion of the promotional work. We paid the travelling expenses of a Thai journalist, who came to Manitoba. The province handled the rest.

[Shelly Glover, Conservative, Saint Boniface, MB]

I'd like to make a correction to the Liberal government's response to the committee's recommendation. In fact, it was given in October 2003, not October 2008.

[The Chair, Conservative, Steven Blaney]

We have noted that, Ms. Glover.

Thank you very much.

We'll begin our second round with Mr. D'Amours.

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

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

We have to believe that the answer is valid for the following years.

First, I'm going to speak to the representatives of the Department of Foreign Affairs. My question will be simple.

Mr. Greenshields, would it be possible to meet with you to discuss what you mentioned at the start of your presentation in a little greater detail? May I telephone you so that we can discuss it, so I can have some clarification, in order to better understand what you're trying to say?

[Chris Greenshields]

Yes.

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

So there's no problem trying to reach you directly.

[Chris Greenshields]

We receive requests for information from time to time, normally through our branch responsible for parliamentary relations. We also have opportunities to meet with MPs to discuss our programs.

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

Does this kind of meeting have to be conducted in the presence of a representative of the minister's office?

[Chris Greenshields]

We respond to our clients, but parliamentarians aren't clients. However, from time to time, we explain our programs to parliamentarians—

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

Mr. Greenshields, if I understand correctly, you haven't received any instructions from the minister's office of the kind that may have been given by the minister responsible for immigration.

[Chris Greenshields]

I haven't received any instructions on how to offer our services to the public, no.

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

Mr. Linklater, coming back to what you said at the start of your presentation, would it be because you received an instruction from the minister's office that you can't speak to us directly, without us making a request to the minister's office?

[Les Linklater]

No. I would like to clarify my earlier remarks.

As is the case with Foreign Affairs, when requests come from parliamentarians through our parliamentary affairs bureau, the minister's office is made aware of those requests, and as a result, officials are then asked to respond through parliamentary affairs. If a meeting is requested by a parliamentarian to follow up on a specific issue, yes, we will normally meet with the parliamentarian to respond to their request.

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

So I don't have to go through the minister's office to talk to you.

[Les Linklater]

No, it would be through parliamentary affairs. My apologies for the oversight.

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

I'm going to move on to my questions.

Mr. Linklater, you talked about a lot of projects in urban areas. You mentioned the ACOA project in New Brunswick. Apart from all the projects in Canada's major cities that you mentioned, how is your department involved with the rural communities in attracting francophone immigrants to the country's rural communities? People have told us that immigrants initially didn't even go into the rural communities around the major cities, but that they went directly to the major cities. You mentioned projects linked to the major cities and very few to the rural communities. One would say your actions run contrary to needs. There are needs in the rural communities, since francophone immigrants are already in the urban areas and you're focusing almost all your efforts on the urban communities. I'd like to understand. They say that immigrants should also go to other regions, but one would say you all target the same place.