Many provinces are much better equipped in terms of newcomer selection. In Ontario, we have very few tools in that regard, but we have to start somewhere. That is why we recommended that the Ontario government establish a group of experts that includes community representatives and CIC officials. We came up with that recommendation in cooperation with the Ontario government, so it comes as no surprise to the province. The group would bring together representatives from CIC and provincial ministries, francophone immigration stakeholders—Peter Hominuk talked about that earlier—university and college administrators or professionals, school board administrators or professionals, business and chamber of commerce leaders and municipal representatives.
The group of experts would do three things: develop a holistic strategy for promoting, recruiting, welcoming, training, integrating and retaining francophone immigrants; develop a government-wide strategic plan, with a specific timetable, for achieving the 5% target; and, of course, establish annual evaluation and accountability mechanisms that are transparent and accessible to the public. That's a very important element. In many cases, there is little understanding around what the accountability mechanisms are.
Earlier, your colleague Ms. Day mentioned a motion. It looks a bit like one of the recommendations we, the commissioners, put forward. Our fifth recommendation was that the federal government
report, by April 30, 2015, on the actual or anticipated impact of the changes to Canada's immigration system, including Express Entry, on immigration to francophone communities.
Basically, accountability is hugely important.
Obviously, as the provincial and federal commissioners—and I'm speaking on behalf of my federal counterpart since we did write the report together—we have a responsibility to make sure that obligations are met and that measures are implemented by the prescribed deadlines. Given that we are dealing with accountability, the process has to be transparent, and that means involving the communities. It's perfectly normal for governments to make the decisions. We just want to understand them. It's important to know the explanation and justification behind those decisions, which need to be rooted in achieving the objectives of both the federal Official Languages Act and the province's French-Language Services Act.