Every country around the world, and not just countries of the Francophonie, are looking for qualified employees, period.
You can be francophone and speak other languages. I'm francophone, but I can also work in other languages, including Arabic. I could immigrate to an Arabic-speaking country were I offered a job. I would do it, but I'm francophone. I would be drawn to a quality of life. It's true that Canada is competing with francophone countries looking for great minds, but the same is true of other countries looking for qualified candidates. Canada is in general competition.
What do the other countries do better than us? They give themselves the means to attract these candidates. What's happening today is that we are not giving ourselves the means to attract these francophone candidates. We aren't giving ourselves the means to compete with these countries.
People don't just go to France and Belgium. That's all well and good, but there are other countries within the francophonie. There are plenty of candidates in other countries of the francophonie who would be qualified for a position here. I was recently told that there were 28,000 positions to fill in British Columbia. Why couldn't francophone candidates from various Francophonie countries fill those positions? We shouldn't be closing any doors, but opening them to all opportunities. There are people in every country of the francophonie who speak French and who have the skills to fill these positions. We need to be able to go and find people where they are, and give ourselves the resources to go to those countries.
Daniel was just telling me that Quebec is everywhere in France these days. Quebec doesn't go only to Paris; it goes to all the job fairs in France. It goes to other countries, as well. But where does Destination Canada go? To Paris and Brussels once a year. In the meantime, we aren't building any other relationships, and we aren't going to any other fairs. Nothing is being done. We don't have the resources to do this enormous amount of work. We need to have the resources to attract them. I am convinced that there are francophone candidates in every Francophonie country who could fill vacant positions in Canada, but we need to want to do it.