Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Thank you for joining us here today, Minister.
I would like to ask you a few questions about a very specific issue. I know that my colleague, Mr. Claude Gravelle, has already spoken to you about it. It has to do with the Northern Ontario Francophone Immigration Support Network. It's a program that was coordinated by Sudbury's Contact interculturel francophone. Its funding was recently denied by your department. There is a great deal of concern over the lack of clarity of the assessment criteria and the impact this will have, because the program is temporarily going to be managed from Ottawa.
Given the economic opportunities in northern Ontario nowadays and the strong francophone community there, could you clarify those criteria?
In addition, could you explain to us how you are going to make sure this does not adversely affect northern Ontario?