Official Languages Committee on March 31st, 2015

[Stefanie Beck]

I would like to thank the member for his question.

I think, as the committee has heard during the presentations over the past few weeks, that the link between the labour market and immigration is crucial. That is really what makes the difference. The CIC works very closely on the ground with local organizations to try to make sure that we are bringing in the kinds of people the employers want. The consultations that the minister launched last October have included representatives from the private sector throughout, across the country, justement, avec ça en tête, so that we can make sure that the programs that we are structuring, reforming, and reviewing constantly are well aligned with what the private sector needs.

CIC's mandate is of course citizenship and immigration, it's not job creation, but we work very closely with our colleagues in other government departments as well.

[Yves Saint-Germain]

Mr. Speaker, I would like to add that the recipe for success is to arrive in Canada with an offer of employment. It is important to CIC to work with employers to advertise positions at job fairs such as Destination Canada.

The greater the number of jobs posted, the easier it is for immigrants to come to Canada because they will obtain more points. For these immigrants there will also be a retention factor in these communities. If they have a job, they will want to settle in the community, buy a house, start a family and enrol their children in school.

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

Just to follow up on that, I know from when I immigrated that there was a beautiful form with all these points, etc., and I would have actually gotten more points if I had been a brain surgeon, but when we talk to a lot of these communities, they need people who will actually work in the forestry industry, who will work in all sorts of other industries where they are lacking people.

Are there going to be any changes there? Can you tell us how that process is going to work so that you get people who are covering all the industries, the whole spectrum, not just the highly educated?

[Maia Welbourne]

Maybe I can just speak a little bit to express entry, how that works, and how that gets to exactly that question.

Under the ranking scheme the minister talked about, there are a certain amount of points that can be accorded to somebody who has expressed interest in coming to Canada and is in the pool. Of those points, 600 are based on human capital characteristics, things like education—the higher the level of education, the more points you get—work experience, age—the younger you are, the more points you get—and so on. Another 600 points are related to policy objectives. For instance, one of the policy objectives we had when deciding express entry was to make sure it was responsive to the labour market as well as recognizing high levels of human capital. Under express entry, an individual with a job offer gets 600 points, which means that they're essentially guaranteed to be invited to apply. That's how we get at making sure we're not just bringing in the highly educated, brain surgeons or what have you, but also those individuals who have the skills in demand in the labour market.

[The Chair, Conservative, Michael Chong]

Thank you.

Mr. Nicholls.

[Jamie Nicholls, NDP, Vaudreuil—Soulanges, QC]

The first question would be in light of the fourth recommendation of the commissioner to develop, in collaboration with the provinces and territories, an action plan for targets of immigration. How many times has the minister met with his counterparts at the provincial level since the report was deposited in November 2014?

[Stefanie Beck]

I'm sorry, I don't think we would have that number with us, but we can get back to you.

There are regular meetings with all of the provinces and territories, but he would also meet with them not only in groups but bilaterally.

[The Chair, Conservative, Michael Chong]

If you could pass on that information to the clerk, we'll have it distributed to the members of the committee. Thank you.

[Stefanie Beck]

Okay. Thank you.

[Jamie Nicholls, NDP, Vaudreuil—Soulanges, QC]

I came across an interesting fact in a book by Jean-Benoît Nadeau and Julie Barlow called The Story of French. It says that in Syria there are 294,000 children who are learning French. This was published in 2010.

I'd like to talk about the largest humanitarian tragedy of our time. Why not sponsor and settle some of these children here? The report that recently came out from Save The Children highlighted the lost generation of Syrian children. Four out of five refugee children in Lebanon do not go to school. Enrolment rates in Syria are down to 50% from pre-war levels of almost 100%. There are 2.8 million children out of school.

When we look at the history of your department, particularly in the Trudeau and Clark years, the department managed to resettle 60,000 Southeast Asian refugees in 18 months. The department was headed by politicians—

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

On a point of order, Mr. Chair, I recognize that the member has the right to say whatever he wants, but this is so far outside the scope of this study that the question may even be out of order.

[The Chair, Conservative, Michael Chong]

Thank you, Mr. Williamson.

I'm going to allow the question because the member has referenced francophone immigration in respect of Syria. We are here under two rubrics. One is the study, but there's also a motion to talk about how the department is meeting its commitments under part VII of the Official Languages Act.

I'll remind all members to make sure that they stick to the two rubrics under which we're conducting this hearing.

I'll allow Mr. Nicholls to continue.

[Jamie Nicholls, NDP, Vaudreuil—Soulanges, QC]

Mr. Chair, it's just that I see an opportunity here for the department to act. In 18 months, the Clark government was able to settle 60,000 refugees, and yet this government, in three years, has only been able to resettle 1,300, I believe. Is there any way that we could use this as an opportunity to bring in young Syrian children to populate our French schools and French communities?

[Stefanie Beck]

Thank you for the question.

The way that we bring in refugees, which is the case with the children, their parents, and their families from Syria, is through a process that is different from the one for economic immigrants or family immigration. The initial selection is not based on language, as I expect you would know. The UNHCR is the channel that we use for immigration, for refugee processing. We don't specify by language, but by most in need, if I can put it that way.

The government has targets on Syrian refugees, which we will be meeting. I can't give you more than that. I can't comment on whether we would change our policy to only ask for files of children who are francophone, because that would be a significant change in policy.

[Jamie Nicholls, NDP, Vaudreuil—Soulanges, QC]

In terms of those funds, do you know how much money is being allocated to education for the Syrian refugees? The money that's been—

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

Mr. Chair, that's out of order again.

[The Chair, Conservative, Michael Chong]

I'm going to allow the question, Mr. Williamson, because it has been framed in terms of francophone immigration to this country, and the motions adopted were pretty broad in respect of the two studies.

Go ahead, Madam Beck.

[Stefanie Beck]

We spend around $120 million on language training, but we don't track by country of origin, for instance. I couldn't tell you how much is spent on Syrian refugees or indeed on citizens from another country.

[Jamie Nicholls, NDP, Vaudreuil—Soulanges, QC]

Given that Africa will be the source of many of the world's francophones, what is the department's strategy for attracting African immigrants?

[Stefanie Beck]

As I mentioned earlier, we will be using our embassies and high commissions abroad more and more. You will see in the future that we will leverage ministerial travel. For instance, when he was in India, we made use of the opportunities that he had to reach out to the communities. Similarly, travel in Africa would provide those opportunities. Mainly, we are providing the missions with more tools: more documentation that they can hand out, more webinars, and more experts on the other end of the telephone and on the Internet.

I would add, though, that it's not something that we can do alone. We do that in concert with the communities and with the associations with which we work closely, with whoever is able to provide the information at the expert level. We don't pretend that our staff in the embassies and the high commissions abroad know everything about the minority communities, for instance. We make sure that they are fully supported in the outreach they do.

[The Chair, Conservative, Michael Chong]

I would like to thank all of you for your questions, comments and answers.

I would like to thank the officials for their testimony.

We will suspend proceedings for three minutes.

[The Chair, Conservative, Michael Chong]

We are continuing the meeting of the Committee on Official Languages.

Before I give Mr. Gourde the floor, I would like to mention one thing.

The House of Commons administration has decided to put in place a project that will eliminate all the paper we use. In April, I will organize a committee meeting so that the House of Commons administration can give a presentation on having our committee go paperless. The meeting will last between 30 and 60 minutes. This project will be start at the beginning of May.

All committees are going paperless.

Mr. Gourde, you have the floor.

[Jacques Gourde, Conservative, Lotbinière—Chutes-de-la-Chaudière, QC]

Thank you, Chair.

I would like the committee to continue in camera.

[The Chair, Conservative, Michael Chong]

I will now have the Clerk proceed with a recorded vote.

[The Clerk of the Committee, David Chandonnet]

The vote has been completed.

(Motion agreed to: yeas 5; nays 4)