Official Languages Committee on March 31st, 2015

[Chris Alexander, Conservative, Ajax—Pickering, ON]

Yes, it is a good path. It is a faster and more equitable way to getting permanent residency.

How are we going to achieve our objectives? We are going to promote Francophone immigration. We are going to recruit Francophones to join the pool. We are going to establish profiles and we are going to keep selecting candidates.

If we do not have all the tools we need to increase the number of Francophone immigrants, then we will enhance those tools. That is what we have always done. We set an objective and we will achieve it.

[Anne-Marie Day, NDP, Charlesbourg—Haute-Saint-Charles, QC]

I read in Le Devoir that 1,000 French student interns are affected by the changes Ottawa made to issuing visas to foreign students. A $230 fee was added as well.

The Instituts universitaires de technologie, or IUT, is an umbrella organization of 113 educational institutions in France. Those 113 institutions, and I quote,

...note that more than a thousand IUT students are being denied internships just a few weeks before their scheduled departures, thereby jeopardizing their entire school year.

They are complaining about the fact that the paperwork was issued a bit late. The rules were made and they are holding things up.

Will you intervene in order to allow these people to enter the country more quickly?

[Chris Alexander, Conservative, Ajax—Pickering, ON]

Students doing an internship are exempt from paying these fees. The information reported by the media is inaccurate.

The rules introduced as part of our reform of the temporary foreign worker program have been known for months, since last year even. There is really no reason for people working in this field not to be aware of the new rules. The vast majority of the people working in this field have adapted.

Also, we continue to see great interest in International Experience Canada and Destination Canada 2014. There are a number of ways, especially for the French, to come here. We have two or three candidates for every position.

However, we will continue to ensure that Canadians have priority over the temporary foreign worker program. Nonetheless, we will also continue to be generous when it comes to programs to ensure youth exchanges. We will, of course, encourage far more Canadians to go France and other countries. This program still hasn't quite found the right balance.

[Anne-Marie Day, NDP, Charlesbourg—Haute-Saint-Charles, QC]

I have one last question.

Could you tell the committee what measures you have taken within your department to implement the eight recommendations made jointly by the Commissioner of Official Languages of Canada, Graham Fraser, and the French Language Services Commissioner of Ontario, Mr. Boileau, with regard to Francophone immigration?

[Chris Alexander, Conservative, Ajax—Pickering, ON]

Yes.

[Anne-Marie Day, NDP, Charlesbourg—Haute-Saint-Charles, QC]

If you don't have the answer right now—

[Chris Alexander, Conservative, Ajax—Pickering, ON]

We very much appreciated their report. I talked to Mr. Fraser and I met with New Brunswick's official languages commissioner and that province's immigration minister, who is also a Francophone herself. We will write a formal response to their proposals, but the fact remains that we are already in the process of doing a number of things.

As I said earlier, we will take measures to identify people who are bilingual and able to speak French who are not necessarily identified in the current system. We will continue to meet the great challenge of promoting our Francophone minority communities to all our audiences. Immigration from Africa is growing the fastest. We will continue to work together with the employers and municipalities that will be taking in Francophone immigrants. They are our most important partners in this.

[The Chair, Conservative, Michael Chong]

Thank you, Ms. Day. Thank you, Mr. Alexander.

We will pause for a few minutes in order to allow Mr. Alexander to leave the room.

[The Chair, Conservative, Michael Chong]

We will now resume the deliberations of the Standing Committee on Official Languages with three officials from Citizenship and Immigration Canada.

I will now give the floor to Mr. Chisu, for five minutes.

[Corneliu Chisu, Conservative, Pickering—Scarborough East, ON]

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.

Thank you very much for participating in this discussion.

What steps is the CIC taking to promote the official languages minority community to potential immigrants and newcomers?

I'm asking this question because when I immigrated to this great country, when I was in Rome and I was asking for information about Canada, first of all I needed a book on Canada and I went to Switzerland to buy it. When I said that I would like to go to Edmonton, the immigration official told me, “You just go to Toronto, that is better”. Probably if I had been given better advice maybe I would not be here in this House and I would probably have a better job as an engineer.

It is very important because coming from Romania, which is part of the Francophonie, a lot of people go to Quebec because everybody in Quebec speaks French. There are also classes of minority languages that have good jobs and have opportunities, but people don't know about it. For example, in northern Ontario there are the mining areas.

What are you doing to promote these opportunities for immigrants to go not necessarily to Quebec, la belle province, but to go to other provinces and in this way to achieve our goal to promote bilingualism in this country?

[Stefanie Beck, Assistant Deputy Minister, Corporate Services, Department of Citizenship and Immigration]

I would say it's multi-dimensional.

There is work that we can do here in Canada in terms of outreach and communications. We were talking earlier that the minister mentioned our focus in some ways on students and on existing potential immigrants in Canada. There's outreach to those groups of people and abroad through our Canadian embassies, high commissions, and consulates general.

We have, with the last round of information we've sent to missions for express entry, added in a volet “communautés minoritaires”. They have been given packages of information that they can share with potential immigrants.

When we are doing our presentations by webinar, in person, and in meetings, not only the immigration staff, but the other staff of the mission are promoting the possibility of going to the minority communities as well and explaining what the opportunities are in those places. They are explaining a little of what you have said; that not only can they work in French in those places, but their children can go to school in French and they can receive health care in French. They see the environment is conducive to a good life, not only in their own maternal tongue, but in the French language, and of course in English.

My colleague, Mr. Saint-Germain, will add a few words.

[Yves Saint-Germain]

Thank you.

CIC is also engaged in promotional missions abroad. We are working with our provincial and territorial counterparts to go to various countries. Over the past few years, we went to Romania with representatives from New Brunswick to promote immigration and the communities. The provincial representatives can talk about life in Moncton or in Saint-Boniface, and employment opportunities. The provinces also contribute to selecting and promoting their communities.

As my colleague said, we are making efforts internally. We produced a video entitled Living in Francophone communities, which promotes communities from Newfoundland to British Columbia, and people who have successfully immigrated to Canada. On our website, there is a page entitled, “Francophone immigration”, which provides all the details on all the communities. The site includes an interactive map that indicates where the Francophone communities are across the country. The map indicates where there are francophones, where the services, schools, and so forth are located.

Thank you.

[Corneliu Chisu, Conservative, Pickering—Scarborough East, ON]

How are we encouraging these immigrants to stay in communities with minority languages? They probably don't have job opportunities. I'm speaking also in this regard about the provinces. I'm speaking about licences. For example, a professional engineer who would like to work in Ontario would have to be licensed in the province of Ontario, as would a physician. The is a shortage of physicians here in this country and probably in the minority language communities. How can we give an incentive, or how is your department working on this field to attract people with qualifications who can work in their professions?

[The Chair, Conservative, Michael Chong]

Madam Beck.

[Stefanie Beck]

All three of us can answer that question because it is rather detailed.

CIC begins by explaining existing possibilities to immigrants. Obviously, people go by the information we give them on the places where there are jobs and whether members of their family can live there. Those are the factors that help them decide to move to a given location.

People stay in that location because they found work that interests them and pays them enough to have a good life, but also because they started a family. Their children start to get settled in and want to stay there. There are many factors that make an immigrant want to stay in a certain place.

Of course, the labour market can change. There is no guarantee that a person who immigrates to Saint-Boniface, for example, will stay there, but we are doing everything we can to ensure that integration goes smoothly, not just when the person leaves their country of origin, but also when they arrive.

As far as the need for engineers and doctors in the regions is concerned, I can't help but think about the movie La grande séduction. We need these people to stay in the rural communities. We have very targeted programs for that.

Do you want to talk about the credentials?

[Yves Saint-Germain]

As my colleague explained, we provide pre-arrival services abroad, which provide a type of path for each regulated profession. Newcomers who take the orientation sessions provided by Colleges and Institutes Canada through the Classification of Instructional Programs , are told what steps to follow from abroad, in the accreditation and credential recognition process. That is one of the mechanisms available.

As far as retention in the communities is concerned, there is no doubt that the settlement services funded by CIC contribute to retaining immigrants. They are told where various services such as schools or health care services are and they are directed to the community. Canadians need to be able to play a role in welcoming immigrants, making them feel welcome and providing mentorship or sponsorship services to help them find their way in a given profession.

[The Chair, Conservative, Michael Chong]

Thank you.

Mr. Gravelle, you have the floor.

[Claude Gravelle, NDP, Nickel Belt, ON]

Thank you, Chair.

I have a question I would like to ask, but I don't know who can answer it.

With respect to the pool of candidates, when the minister appeared before the committee he said that 22,393 people have applied to come to Canada. There are 200 francophones in the pool. How do you explain the fact that there are only 200 francophones in a pool of 22,000 applicants?

[Maia Welbourne]

Thank you for the question.

There are actually about 22,000 people in the pool. They are the eligible individuals who may be invited to file an application to come to Canada as permanent residents. It is also true that about 270 people provided French-language test results. We are currently working on the definition.

The minister mentioned that the problem was not necessarily that there were no other francophones or bilingual candidates in the pool. The fact remains that, for the time being, the number of francophones represents how many people provided French-language test results. We are trying to find a better way to define “francophone” in order to have a more accurate number.

[Claude Gravelle, NDP, Nickel Belt, ON]

When the witness from New Brunswick appeared last week, he told us that for every job created for francophones, there were two created on the anglophone side. Under these conditions and bearing in mind the very small number of francophone immigrants who apply to come to Canada, what should we do to increase the number of francophones?

[Stefanie Beck]

What they are doing in Moncton is very interesting. We could perhaps learn something from them in that regard and apply it across Canada.

Let's go back to the question you asked earlier about what can be done to ensure that more francophones come forward as candidates from the outset, namely during recruitment.

We stepped up our efforts by focusing on recruitment in francophone countries. We have to ensure that more candidates come forward from the outset. That will allow us to increase the number of people in the pool.

I am unable to say how many jobs are created in relation to the number of francophones in the city, but according to what the witness said, it is an interesting number.

[Claude Gravelle, NDP, Nickel Belt, ON]

In his presentation, the minister said that the government had invested almost $4 million in the Destination Canada program, which consists of a series of annual job fairs that take place in November in francophone countries.

Might that explain why only 270 francophones applied to come to Canada? In fact, $4 million is a very small amount given that we are talking about an investment that concerns every francophone country in the world.

[Yves Saint-Germain]

The department has invested in promotional missions, job fairs and study fairs. We spend more than $4 million. According to the roadmap for 2013-2018, the department intends to spend $30 million for promotional and recruitment activities, including the monies disbursed to New Brunswick. That includes participation in Destination Canada and European employment fairs such as Studyrama, promotional missions in Africa and missions in northeastern Europe. These activities make it possible to bring together all the stakeholders and employers. Those are the services we provide to participants in Destination Canada.

[The Chair, Conservative, Michael Chong]

Thank you.

Mr. Daniel, you have the floor.

[Joe Daniel, Conservative, Don Valley East, ON]

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you, witnesses, for being here.

Being an immigrant myself, I know what it's like coming over here, and the key to all of this is actually having a job. We come here for better lives for our families, etc.

We've heard from many of the minority groups outside of Quebec that they're actually losing people already. The main loss is because of their children going away for education and not returning to the community and people going away for other jobs because there are no good jobs that are sustainable in these communities. The exception, of course, is Moncton, which you've already heard about. We heard from Moncton that they've actually doubled their recruiting for their francophone community. They've gone out deliberately seeking companies to come into that area and then have put people in there.

How do you see the role of the private sector in recruiting and integrating new immigrants? How does CIC work with the private sector and community sectors to attract, welcome, and integrate these new Canadians? Doing those things is really the only way to get them to stay in that location.