Mr. Gourde, thank you for your continued efforts to be a champion of official languages in Canada.
The Express Entry program is really how we are going to achieve the goal of 4% of francophone immigrants. It's faster and it's on line. That is one way to recruit people. At job fairs like Destination Canada, people are practically obligated to create a profile when they apply for a work placement in Canada or when they apply for a one-year work permit. The Entry Express program can be quickly identified, which makes francophone immigration more successful.
This is how it works: an applicant creates a profile and is put into a pool of people who are available. Individuals are ranked based on their education, language and professional skills, and their age. People with the most points are invited to apply to come to Canada as permanent residents.
We saw the first positive results of this program last week: 2.5% of the people invited to apply were francophone, and that figure represents only those who identified themselves as francophone. We still have to identify those who are bilingual. This was done without any additional efforts to increase the number of francophones coming to Canada through Express Entry.
We are proud of this system. For the first time, we can process applications in less than six months. This is unprecedented in Canadian immigration, at least in modern times. We will continue promoting Express Entry among francophone temporary workers already in Canada and among students studying in French. There are many such students in Montreal and across the country, and they often want to stay in Canada as permanent residents.