Mr. Chair and members of the committee, thank you for the opportunity to speak to you today.
I won't spend a lot of time explaining who the Fédération des communautés francophones et acadienne du Canada, or FCFA, is. Given how many times we've appeared before the committee, I think you're beginning to get a sense of who we are and what we do.
Today, the FCFA is here wearing two different hats. We are the main organization representing 2.6 million French-speaking citizens living in nine provinces and three territories. Furthermore, for the last 15 years, we have also been the national coordinator for programs related to immigration into francophone and Acadian communities.
This is the third time in five years that a parliamentary committee on official languages has studied the question of francophone immigration. I have brought with me today our address to this committee during its last study on the subject in 2010, the report on that study, our address and our brief to the Senate committee on official languages regarding its study on the subject in 2014, as well as that committee's report. I would request that these documents be formally tabled so that they may be taken into consideration during your study. They are here and they are translated in both official languages. The information they contain, especially the FCFA's previous testimony, remains relevant.
I could talk to you about the numerous challenges related to francophone immigration. I could talk about the utter lack of a strategy to promote our communities abroad to potential immigrants. I could talk about targets set jointly by governments and communities that are still not met. I could talk about glaring gaps that remain in terms of French-language settlement services. I could talk about the fact that Express Entry currently has no way of establishing whether an immigrant is a francophone or not, after close to three years of having that system sold to us as the answer to all the problems in terms of francophone immigration. But I really want to avoid sounding like a broken record, so if you will allow me to change the tune, I will deliver a more fundamental message.
While, year after year, study after study is prepared on the challenges facing francophone immigration, more than 98% of the immigrants that Canada welcomes outside Quebec are anglophones, compared with francophone immigration rates of less than 2%. What that means is that, of the 250,000 immigrants coming to Canada every year, 3,358 francophone immigrants joined our communities in 2013. At least, that is according to the figures released by Citizenship and Immigration Canada. In spite of the targets, in spite of the commitments, in spite of the multiple recommendations made by parliamentary committees, these figures have remained stable for the last 20 years. Some 98% of immigrants are anglophone and only 2% are francophone. That's very little, and we learned that, in 2014, between the months of January and March, if I'm not mistaken, that percentage had dropped to 1.35%. We're not talking about just under 2%, we're talking about 1.35%. This is scandalous.
Canada's francophone population may have increased in absolute numbers, but with 3,358 immigrants in 2013, our communities didn't grow all that much. With the share of immigrants we receive, our relative demographic weight continues to decline. In many places, it is only a matter of time before our communities fall below the minimum threshold for receiving services and communications from federal agencies in French. As you know, the threshold is 5% in order to receive French-language services from federal institutions. At that rate, it won't be long before they drop below the threshold. And when our relative weight falls even more, what will be put on the table then? Our francophone schools?
More than 98% versus less than 2%, figures that have remained constant for years. If the goal were to kill off Canada's francophone and Acadian communities bit by bit, to make them disappear through attrition, it would be difficult to come up with a better strategy. For years, there have been calls for the realities and specific needs of francophone and Acadian communities to be taken into account by government when it develops policies and programs related to immigration.
In light of the obligations imposed not only by the Official Languages Act, but also by the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, regarding the support and development of our communities, one might expect that to be normal procedure. Yet the complete opposite has happened. Anything that might have made a real difference to French-language immigration into our communities has been eliminated. Now, we're being asked to rely on the Express Entry program, even though it does not offer even the smallest incentive for employers to recruit francophone candidates or promote our communities.
For years now, we have not received our fair share of the country's annual immigration, and this has caused major damage to our communities. The time has come for repairs. Something major needs to be done. The government must develop a coherent plan for recruiting francophone immigrants outside Quebec. This plan must include robust measures and detailed timelines for achieving our common targets for francophone immigration. This plan must be released immediately, not in 10 years. In terms of francophone immigration, time was already running out last fall when the francophone significant benefit program was cancelled. And now that time has essentially run out, nothing has changed. That is the only recommendation we will make to your committee regarding this study on francophone immigration. And, in our opinion, it is the only one of any importance.
Mr. Chair and members of the committee, this will no doubt be the last time I appear before you representing the FCFA. After six years as president, my term will come to an end in June. So I'd like to take a moment, if I may, to address you as the francophone citizen that I am, will soon be again and have always been.
Over the past 15 years, I've had numerous opportunities to appear before the committee in some capacity. Yours is only one of two parliamentary committees whose existence is mandated by the Official Languages Act. And yet, whenever I have appeared before you during those 15 years, I have gotten the impression that the committee is more about partisan wrangling and political agendas than a shared commitment to ensure respect for the Official Languages Act and the language rights of all Canadians.
The Official Languages Act is meant to safeguard the French language in Canada. But it is the most poorly enforced legislation in the country and has been for 45 years. What's more, when violations are committed under the act—and they are listed in the report of the official languages commissioner every year—no consequences follow. As a French-speaking Canadian, I take that as a lack of respect, when all I am asking is not to be treated like a second-class citizen.
Mr. Chair and members of the committee, I'm an idealist and, I hope, an optimist as well. As a Canadian, I am calling on parliamentarians of all stripes to champion my rights, to stand up for the Official Languages Act and the language rights of Canadians, once and for all. Our future and our ability to live in French also depend on you.
Since we are here today to discuss francophone immigration, I would ask you to take decisive action so that, at the end of the day, we can stop telling ourselves, year after year, that we still have not met our targets and that our communities are slowly dying as a result. What is at stake is the vitality of French in Canada, our survival and Canada's linguistic duality.
Thank you for your time and attention.