Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen.
My name is Roukya Abdi. I am the administrator responsible for national cooperation at the Réseau de développement économique et d'employabilité Canada. Thank you for receiving us today.
I will begin my presentation like everyone else, by giving you a brief overview of our network.
Created in 1997, our network works for the economic development of francophone communities. RDEE Canada includes 12 members that provide advocacy, sharing of good practices, consistent action and leadership to help communities fully contribute to Canada's economic prosperity.
In terms of immigration, I will not tell you anything new by saying that a 4.4% target was set in 2003 when the strategic framework to foster immigration to francophone minority communities was adopted. In 2012, francophone immigration was at about 1.8%. A decade later, the success rate was therefore very low. Also in 2012, Canada's immigration system was completely updated. The update was based on four principles or pillars: the economy, efficiency, certification and safety.
This system, which really took off in January 2015 when the express entry program was introduced, seeks to directly connect the labour needs of Canadian employers with the selection of skilled immigrants, be they permanent residents or temporary workers. Our Réseau de développement économique et d'employabilité is particularly involved in that, since access to labour is part of our mandate.
The network has been working on immigration matters for a few years and is facing a number of challenges in terms of the recruitment and employability of immigrants. Those challenges include the needs of a rapidly changing labour market requiring specific and up-to-date knowledge in our case. We have to build our knowledge as we go along, while ensuring a presence across the country. Skills assessment is also a challenge that we quite often have to face.
Furthermore, we need to connect immigrants with employers who are looking for skilled candidates. Sometimes we tell the employer that we are able to find the ideal candidate, but when we start the process, we realize that the candidate, although skilled, has not yet had his or her credentials recognized. That is a major challenge for us.
Making employers and businesses aware of the potential and value of economic immigration is also part of the challenge. It is not easy to convince Canadian employers, especially anglophones, to recruit workers from the pool created by the countries of the Francophonie. They are not used to doing that. They generally choose the Philippines because they are familiar with that country and are very comfortable going back there.
In terms of the need to support small and medium-sized businesses, you know that 98% of Canadian businesses are very small businesses. As a result, they don't have human resource services and therefore do not post job vacancies.
In addition, some employers are excessively cautious regarding international recruitment, either because they find the steps time-consuming or because they have a poor understanding of how the system works. They are also afraid of abuse and backlash.
The RDEE and its members have developed a two-pronged approached. For us, immigration makes it possible, first and foremost, to address the need of Canadian employers to access labour. That is how we see things and that is the approach we take with immigration.
We need to have a good grasp of the market to: provide targeted support to employers; identify their needs; determine which employers will be facing labour shortages; work with those needing to recruit workers internationally; engage employers and make them aware of the hiring of francophone immigrants who have settled in Canada or are being recruited abroad; and provide services tailored to employers' needs.
Express entry may be an opportunity for us. However, we need to be proactive to be successful. I would like to present a few solutions, after which I will give the floor to Daniel Sigouin, the representative from RDEE Ontario, which is a member of RDEE Canada. Both networks have work plans on the ground. Mr. Sigouin will tell you more about what is happening on the ground in terms of economic immigration.
I will now present some short-term solutions whose results could be felt immediately. The first objective is to connect employers with francophone candidates. To address the needs for access to labour, it is important to set up a targeted support system for employers to help them recruit immigrants and integrate them into jobs.
We have a few tools right know, such as the Skills International website, which makes it possible to have virtual forums, online interviews and job offers matched with the candidates' profiles.
We also recommend introducing incentives to assist employers interested in international recruitment. Incentives include waiving the labour market impact assessment fee or relaxing the rules of the assessment. We need to ensure that immigrants come from all categories of immigrants and connect with countries that are sources of francophone immigration.
As I said earlier, if an employer wants a skilled candidate, we need to be able to look for that candidate in all the countries of the Francophonie, where skilled candidates are, not just in France or Belgium.
It is also important to have pre-departure services to ensure that immigrants are prepared before they arrive.
Lastly, we would like to tackle the entrepreneurial challenges through francophone immigration. Immigration might address the problem of the next generation of entrepreneurs, which is a problem for the francophonie.
I now invite my colleague Daniel to continue.