Mr. Chair, in 2008 CIC put in place the “Canadian experience” class, which effectively allows foreign students and temporary foreign workers, who are able to work for at least a year in the case of foreign students, to transition to being permanent residents. Given the preponderance of francophone institutions outside of Quebec, we feel this is an excellent tool to help official language minority communities attract and retain permanent residents, as was mentioned.
Essentially, we have undertaken some marketing campaigns with all post-secondary institutions, francophone and anglophone, to raise awareness of the availability of this program. Beyond that, from consultation with the provinces and territories, we understand that under their own provincial nominee programs most have an international student stream, which allows them as well to nominate international students who are at their institutions. This is for provinces such as New Brunswick and Nova Scotia with substantial francophone populations, and Manitoba as well. Again, this is a pathway to permanent residency that international students can avail themselves of to remain in Canada permanently.
