Thank you for your question.
We are aware that francophone immigration is a priority for francophone communities in New Brunswick. Several factors have contributed to this delay. The first was the initial delay in allocating funds. As you know, the funds actually became available in May 2009. That delayed things considerably for New Brunswick and for us.
The second factor we have to keep in mind is that we are talking about what are new initiatives for a whole group of communities in New Brunswick. So it took time to set up the advisory committees and resource centres, and to attract people to those centres.
We are also very concerned about the delay. Officials at ACOA have contacted the Government of New Brunswick, in person and by letter, to explain our concerns. The Government of New Brunswick assures us that new measures are going to be taken to speed up the project. At present, we want to see quarterly reports showing more convincing results.
As well, we have obtained permission from the Treasury Board Secretariat for an extension of this particular project so it can conclude at the end of March 2014. We think the work is so important and the results we have seen to date are so worthwhile that we have received permission to extend it to March 2014.