Official Languages Committee on May 13th, 2010

[Lise Zarac, Liberal, LaSalle—Émard, QC]

That's what you need. It's to meet needs. I wonder whether it's realistic or not. The percentage of immigrants that go to your provinces is nevertheless very low. So I was wondering if that was realistic.

You say 5,000 persons. As one-third of the population of your province is francophone, how do you plan to have francophones to maintain that balance and proportion of francophones in your province? What percentage of those 5,000 individuals will be francophone immigrants and what action are you taking in that regard?

[Monique Drapeau-Miles]

First, I'm going to let Mr. Boisvert talk about the increased efforts on recruitment and promotion. Then I'll talk about the measures we've taken to improve intake. When I talk about intake and settlement, I'm not just talking about socio-cultural integration, but also about economic integration.

[Lise Zarac, Liberal, LaSalle—Émard, QC]

I'd really like you to understand my question. I'm emphasizing the percentage of francophones because our study concerns that issue. In your actions, how are you going to maintain the balance with regard to the 33% francophone population?

[Mario Boisvert, Immigration Program Officer, Population Growth Secretariat, Government of New Brunswick]

Good morning.

As regards the percentage of francophones, I'm going to go back a little to talk about our efforts in francophone countries. The province began making its efforts when our programs came under the immigration division of the department responsible for businesses in New Brunswick. Two francophones were hired and assigned to the francophone countries. At that time, we were told to go and find people interested in coming to New Brunswick.

As we knew more or less where to turn, we checked with other provinces regarding activities that were going on around the world in the francophone countries. So we found a few countries. Now we are regularly in France, Belgium, Romania, Tunisia and Morocco. We're exploring new destinations. We made exploratory visits to Egypt and Cameroon in 2004. The Canadian embassy in Paris is very much involved. We are optimistic about achieving our goals or at least we'll be very close to achieving them.

[Lise Zarac, Liberal, LaSalle—Émard, QC]

What are those objectives?

[Mario Boisvert]

Roughly one-third.

[Lise Zarac, Liberal, LaSalle—Émard, QC]

Those are your objectives. All right.

[Mario Boisvert]

First, since 2002, New Brunswick has had to make itself known in Canada as a bilingual province where people can speak French. So there has been a lot of awareness in that regard. Francophones are afraid of going out into a world they don't know. So this is taking time to start up. The first figures we had in 2002 were negligible. Now, from year to year, we see the figures and applications constantly doubling.

[The Chair, Conservative, Steven Blaney]

Thank you.

Thank you very much, Ms. Zarac.

We'll now go to Mr. Nadeau.

[Richard Nadeau, Bloc, Gatineau, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Political will is needed. You're talking about things that have been implemented or discussed in the past 10 years or less. I'm painting a general picture, depending on the places or provinces.

Have specific budgets been allocated to foreign francophone immigration for francophones to settle in the various provinces, or are we talking here about a large provincial general envelope? Is there a political will and is there funding to implement it?

[Guy Jourdain]

I entirely agree with you with regard to political will. This is quite a new issue. Efforts have been made since 2002-2003. We've nevertheless seen significant progress over a period of seven or eight years.

As for budget envelopes, I don't know the details of the situation in every province or territory, but I would say it varies. I'm going to cite the example of Manitoba because it's the situation I know best. The francophone target there is 7%, and funding is directly allocated to that. I suspect, however, that this isn't the case everywhere else in the country.

[Richard Nadeau, Bloc, Gatineau, QC]

Can Mr. Cayen tell us about the situation in Ontario?

[Daniel Cayen]

I'm not really mandated to speak on behalf of the Ministry of Civic Affairs and Immigration. However, I could find that information. As far as I know, no funding is set aside at the ministry for francophone immigration.

[Richard Nadeau, Bloc, Gatineau, QC]

All right.

And in New Brunswick?

[Monique Drapeau-Miles]

Naturally, a large portion of ACOA funding is currently being allocated to francophone affairs. We previously allocated resources specifically for recruitment and francophone immigration promotion, in particular. However, I can't give you any exact figures in that regard.

[Richard Nadeau, Bloc, Gatineau, QC]

Is it an envelope specifically reserved for the French fact in New Brunswick?

[Monique Drapeau-Miles]

It's a bilingual province. So we offer services in both official languages. To isolate an amount—

[Richard Nadeau, Bloc, Gatineau, QC]

I understand that. It's a simple question, but if you don't know the answer, that's not a problem. You can tell us whether political will is combined with a budget envelope?

[Monique Drapeau-Miles]

That's part of the overall budget of the Population Growth Secretariat.

[Richard Nadeau, Bloc, Gatineau, QC]

Thank you.

The Citizenship and Immigration Canada steering committee met with members of the francophone minority communities on May 10, three days ago. Did you attend that meeting, Mr. Jourdain.

[Guy Jourdain]

A member of our network took part, René Boudreau from Saskatchewan. We're represented on the steering committee.

[Richard Nadeau, Bloc, Gatineau, QC]

If I understand correctly, every province is invited. There are also people from the federal government and the communities. It isn't necessarily in that order, but the fact remains that all these people meet. I read that it's a total of 54 persons when everyone attends.

You say someone from Saskatchewan represented Manitoba?

[Guy Jourdain]

I'll try to clarify that.

The Ministerial Conference on the Canadian Francophonie consists of ministers and elected members. In addition, a network of government officials across the country supports the ministerial conference. It's called the Intergovernmental Network on Canadian Francophonie. Mr. Cayen and I belong to it. Our counterpart from Saskatchewan, René Boudreau, represented the network as a whole at the steering committee on May 10.

[Richard Nadeau, Bloc, Gatineau, QC]

What emerged from that meeting? Is there anything the committee should know today in that regard to support the report it will soon be issuing?

[Guy Jourdain]

I've heard very positive comments on that meeting.