Official Languages Committee on March 31st, 2015

[John Williamson, Conservative, New Brunswick Southwest, NB]

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Minister, it is good to see you and your officials here today. Thank you for coming.

Over the course of this study, we've heard a fair bit about the provincial nominee program, which is now playing an important and increasing role in selecting immigrants in partnership with the provinces. Could you tell us how you see this program developing over time? How can this program contribute to recruiting and welcoming more francophones outside of Quebec?

We had an interesting witness, Mr. Jacques Dubé, from Moncton, a municipality in New Brunswick where the unemployment rate is below the rate in Ontario. It is an activity of economic growth. They would like to substantially increase their number of francophone immigrants—immigrants in general, but this committee is focused on francophone immigrants, so we will focus on that. How do you think this program could work for them as well?

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

The first point is that all provinces are welcome to deliver their provincial nominee programs through express entry. It will go faster and give them a better result if they do so. We have said to all the provinces repeatedly that if they want to grow their provincial nominee program, they should put it through express entry. They will still have control. They will still be able to put the provincial nominations, but they will hit higher standards in every respect, including higher standards of fast processing. That invitation is there. We know that several provinces, including New Brunswick, are thinking seriously about this. It is up to them to tell us when they are ready.

Second, it is exciting to see that not just we, but three provinces have made serious commitments to francophone immigration. Ontario has set a target of 5%. Manitoba has set a target of 7% and your home, New Brunswick, our one officially bilingual province, 33%. We are committed to working very collaboratively with all three to that end. I think these provinces see the road map for official languages, which has this significant immigration component, as an important tool to that end. They strongly welcome the money we have invested in the francophone immigration networks.

[John Williamson, Conservative, New Brunswick Southwest, NB]

Thank you.

Could you tell us, what province do you think will be receiving the largest number of francophone immigrants over the next 10 years, obviously, outside of Quebec?

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

Interesting question.

Probably Ontario. I think if we did a proper inventory of skills, British Columbia would rank very high. There are a lot of francophones in Vancouver. I wonder why they want to live there.

[John Williamson, Conservative, New Brunswick Southwest, NB]

It could be the weather. And the taxes, increasingly.

We regularly hear testimony in this committee regarding the challenges that many rural official language communities face. What does CIC, your department, do to try to incentivize immigrants to settle outside of Canada's largest cities?

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

The best things we've done there are through publicity. The quality of life in our smaller towns and cities,

such as Shawinigan, Regina, or smaller towns in BC's interior, is excellent.

We get high ratings for the quality of life in our cities, rightly so. But when people look a bit further, whether it's New Brunswick or the rest of Atlantic Canada, there is a lot there.

Our best strategy for increasing that settlement is to reinforce the roles of municipalities, towns, villages, small cities in this recruitment process, bring them to Destination Canada if they want to come, have them help us recruit people to build a profile and get into the pool of qualified candidates for entrée express, and also have them engage with employers.

We have a francophone employers' network that reaches all across Canada. They are not just employers who have a head office that operates in French; they want their workforce to operate in French everywhere they are in Canada.

I was in Thunder Bay recently. Municipal services there are provided in French to some extent. Bombardier is established in Thunder Bay. I met a French engineer, who, a year ago, did not even know that Thunder Bay existed. He was transferred there by Bombardier. That engineer now describes himself as a great champion of Francophone immigration.

Bombardier often conducts its operations in French, in Quebec of course, but elsewhere as well. With its presence in Thunder Bay, I predict that there may be a small wave of highly-skilled, Francophone immigration. Employers have a primary role to play in this.

[John Williamson, Conservative, New Brunswick Southwest, NB]

Very good.

Could I ask you what percentage of immigrants move to a new location within Canada in the first two years of arriving? Do you have that information?

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

Interesting question.

I think we would have to get back to you on that. I think we all have our anecdotal evidence. I'm guessing that it's a little bit less now than it was 10 years ago. We are trying to link immigrants more closely with their employers, with their job opportunities, before they come, to let them know where they'll be able to work in their professions. We can come back to you with that.

Another way of showing the way forward for francophone immigrants is of course by sharing the experience of people who have succeeded, like the engineer in Thunder Bay I mentioned. We have put more videos, more links, than ever before on our website, including links that are completely in French, where people just tell their story.

Someone might mention that he was originally from Rwanda, that he was a refugee in Kenya and spent seven years at a camp. He was selected to come to Winnipeg, for example, and started a new career thanks to this or that support mechanism. There are all kinds of stories like that.

[The Chair, Conservative, Michael Chong]

Mr. Leung.

[Chungsen Leung, Conservative, Willowdale, ON]

Thank you, Chair.

Canada is a trading country, and of course we need people, not just francophones and anglophones, but also allophones. I've had the experience of working for both those two companies you mentioned, Bombardier and SNC-Lavalin, in the past. How could the public sector and private sector and CIC work together in this area to select the best immigrants as well as to integrate them into the total international trading network for Canada?

I point to how express entry is able to pick out those immigrants who have more than our basic bilingual language, as well as being allophones.

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

Obviously, French and English are our national and official languages. We're very proud of that, but we're also proud of the fact that we have so many Canadians—both those who are newcomers and those who were born here—who continue to learn and to master third, fourth, and fifth languages. Chinese is our third most spoken language in Canada, and we have linguistic capacity across the board, which is a huge asset for Canada in this global trading environment.

You're right. It should be a priority for Canadians to master the languages of our closest trading partners, of the countries with which we're doing free trade deals. We are thinking along those lines with our international education strategy and so forth. But how do we get employers involved? How do we engage with them?

We have more stakeholder engagement than ever before, round tables on francophone immigration but also on immigration issues generally. What occupations are required? We do this across the country on a continuous basis.

The Réseau de développement économique et d'employabilité is a major interlocutor and stakeholder for us when it comes to Francophone immigration outside Quebec, but we are also encouraging employers to get involved in this new Express Entry initiative.

Keep in mind that, when you make a profile and enter the pool for express entry, you have to fill in a profile on Canada Job Bank as well, which we're all realizing and we've heard, probably from young people, is a very important tool for finding a job in your field.

As an economic immigrant, you have to be in Canada Job Bank. Starting this spring, employers across the country will see you once you're in the pool and once you've started on your pathway toward immigration. And they will be able to make you a job offer even if they don't have a labour market impact assessment. The rates of success, the rates of employment, the match between immigrants and employers' needs is going to go up. And that's also direct feedback to us because you don't just build your profile on Canada Job Bank. Employers post their jobs there: which jobs are required in Canada and which jobs are not being filled in sufficient numbers by Canadian-trained people.

We're not going to have enough software designers and software engineers any time soon, and so in recent years and in the foreseeable future, it's a priority for our economic immigration.

[Chungsen Leung, Conservative, Willowdale, ON]

In my experience, I certainly see this as being a positive for Canada, because we need to leverage the capability of Canada's bilingualism and the third language capability—

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

Yes, Mr. Leung, you know this as well as any of us around the table. We have the most qualified workforce we've ever had in Canada, the most educated. We even beat the rest of the world by many measures, but that means—when you have people with university degrees and a huge number who have at least completed high school—people can and have learned other languages and there is a hunger to learn both our official languages and then to learn third and fourth languages.

That's why the discussion about official languages in this country is more positive than ever before. People see second, third, and fourth languages as assets, as never before.

We also do presentations to employers emphasizing the benefits of bilingual and francophone employees. We have lots of data that shows how those with both official languages tend to do better in the labour market. They have more employment opportunities. They can be rewarded.

It's not the same everywhere, but generally the data shows that it's good to have these two languages. I think newcomers understand this very well, including those from India and China, who are sending their kids to immersion, who are sending their kids into the French system, even in the greater Toronto area.

[The Chair, Conservative, Michael Chong]

Okay, thank you very much.

Go ahead, Madame Day.

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

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Alexander, for being here with us today. It is an honour to have you here.

I have a number of questions. Last week I gave you a copy of the motion I moved in this chamber.

I apologize. My voice is not so great today. You will have to listen closely.

I have a series of short questions. How many people have come to Canada through the Express Entry program since it came into effect? Do you have the number?

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

Are you talking about the people who have come to Canada? A few dozen visas have been issued so far. It is still March. Some of these people have arrived in Canada. I don't have the exact numbers, but the process is just starting.

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

There are no more than a dozen Express Entry visas.

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

You asked how many people had arrived in Canada, but the number is much higher when it comes to approvals.

We launched this new system in January. We received the first applications in February and we issued the first visas during the month of March. Some of those people should already be here.

The good news is that 22,398 candidates qualified and are part of the Express Entry pool. The new system has a large pool of people. These are highly qualified people. They are starting to arrive in Canada. The application processing deadlines are generally six months or less.

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

How many of these 22,000 candidates who were approved, speak French or are Francophone?

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

There are more than 22,000 people in the pool. We invited a few thousand people to apply. Among the very limited number of these few thousand people who were already invited, less than 200 are Francophone.

It should be noted that during the last round of invitations, it was 2.5%. Why is that percentage higher? The first rounds mainly invited those who already had labour market assessments, who were working mainly out west and were transitioning from temporary worker status to permanent resident status.

For the last round, it was 2.5%, which did not include the people who had labour market assessments. It's a good number and we plan to keep it up.

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

The objectives for 2023 are 4.3% Francophones outside Quebec.

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

Yes.

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

You say that this 2.5% is higher than that of the first round. How will that work? Is Express Entry essentially a passport to becoming an immigrant? Is it faster to go through Express Entry?

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

Yes, but the passport comes later, once citizenship is obtained.

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

I meant that figuratively.