Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Seven minutes is not a great amount of time, so I am going to talk very quickly. My apologies for that in advance.
My name is Anne Hébert. I am the Director General of the Conseil économique du Nouveau-Brunswick, an organization founded in 1979 to be the voice of the province's francophone business community. We represent almost 1,000 companies of all sizes, from all sectors, and from all regions of the province. We also have the mandate to manage the RDEE New Brunswick.
Let me give you a little background.
For us, access to qualified labour has been the greatest concern for francophone entrepreneurs for more than 10 years. Our population is also decreasing, especially in rural areas, where most francophones are located.
When francophone companies find access to qualified labour difficult, they become less productive and less competitive. There is a danger that we will have fewer francophone entrepreneurs and fewer opportunities for the next generation of entrepreneurs. This means that we are going to lose a large number of francophone businesses.
The demographic challenges are greater in rural areas where our primary and secondary sectors are located. Forestry, agriculture, fishing and transportation are already experiencing major labour problems.
New Brunswick's francophone population represents about 33% of the total population of the province. Between 2006 and 2011, only 12% of newcomers had French as their official language. If the birth rate does not go up and if our population growth comes from immigration only, we are going to lose ground quickly. Even if we succeeded in increasing the birth rate to maintain our demographic weight, we would lose all the economic and social advantages stemming from the diversity that immigration provides.
Francophone immigration is more difficult and needs more effort than anglophone immigration. In a province in which it is difficult to live in French only, it is doubly difficult. We have French-language immigrants who choose anglophone communities to live in and who send their children to anglophone schools because they see how necessary it is to speak English. In terms of immigration, therefore, we do not start on an equal footing with anglophone communities. Our position is that special steps must be taken to facilitate, encourage and stimulate francophone immigration.
The Francophone Significant Benefit program was an example. Unfortunately, it no longer exists. The new program, Express Entry, focuses on businesses and their needs, and that is good. But we do not know the importance that will be attributed to language inside the program.
Businessmen have positions to fill. When they are looking for workers, they are not concerned with the relative weight of their linguistic communities. They are looking for the skills they need. How are we to convince companies and employers to recruit francophones? They have to be given the tools.
Those tools can take several forms. For example, incentives could be offered for companies that recruit francophones. Our organization's expertise is not in immigration. Do not ask us to dissect programs and analyze how they work. But we know business very well. If their costs are reduced, if processes are streamlined, if steps are eliminated, if the road to francophone immigration is made easier, that is the road businessmen will take.
Having francophone immigrants come to our country can be streamlined in the same way, by reducing costs, streamlining the process and eliminating steps. The bigger the pool of potential francophone immigrants, the more likely businesspeople are to have access to francophone immigrants.
Another way of doing so would be to provide support to businesses in the sectors where we know the need is most urgent, with a view to encouraging them to choose francophone immigrants with the skills they are looking for.
We must increase awareness among the immigrants that want to come our way. We must explain to them the reality of the linguistic duality, the climate, the bilingual labour market, the opportunities for employment and entrepreneurship. We must also make them aware of their right to services in French, because otherwise they will look for those services in English, increasing the likelihood that they will become part of anglophone linguistic communities.
The system as it currently operates does not encourage regional organizations to direct francophone immigrants towards French-language services, because their survival depends on the number of cases they handle. So they do not want to refer those clients elsewhere, with the result that potential francophone immigrants are steered towards English-language communities.
In conclusion, minority francophone communities are facing major challenges in immigration, but they also have major needs for immigration. This must be recognized and measures must be put in place to mitigate these additional challenges that majority language communities do not face.
Thank you.