Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I would like to thank Mr. Fraser, the Commissioner of Official Languages, for joining us today with his team.
Mr. Fraser, I am going to ask a number of questions, some of which concern me in particular.
You have taken the time to conduct a study about the private sector here, in Ottawa. This study was very important to you and you carried it out. It is over now. Some might say that you have gone beyond your mandate, but you have done the study and you have presented some surprising data. We should actually talk more about some of the results.
However, I am more concerned about something else, which really falls under your mandate. I am going to ask you a question by bringing an issue before you.
I am talking about temporary foreign workers who come here to Canada. If we look at the data from Statistics Canada, we see that the immigration rate has increased. So it is not so much about the fact that the use of English or French has gone down. That is what they are basically saying.
What are our francophones being told? The federal government has made cuts and changes to employment insurance. Yet it is saying that there are a lot of jobs in Canada and that employers are looking to hire people. What are our people told when they want to apply for a job in Alberta, as scaffolders for example, and the test is conducted only in English in Miramichi? There is no test in French. Yet, in Fort McMurray, Alberta, people from other countries are being brought in. They are temporary foreign workers who speak neither French nor English.
I believe that your mandate allows you to investigate that aspect. If you need a complaint, you have found the right person to file it. That is what I mean when I say that this falls under your mandate. Before providing permits to foreign workers who come to work here, the Government of Canada must make sure that there are no Canadians who can fill those positions.
Furthermore, women who would like to be able to work as chambermaids in the camps in Alberta are not allowed to because they do not speak English. That issue falls under your responsibility.
What do you think about that?