Official Languages Committee on May 7th, 2018

[Corinne Prince]

Let me give you some examples of best practices used by certain provinces. Last year, Ontario created Destination Ontario, and the Atlantic provinces created Destination Acadie. These programs are similar to Destination Canada. These initiatives have been very helpful. These are just a few of the best practices that the provinces intend to use.

[Linda Lapointe, Liberal, Rivière-des-Mille-Îles, QC]

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Denis Paradis]

Thank you, Ms. Lapointe.

Mr. Choquette, you have the floor for two minutes.

[François Choquette, NDP, Drummond, QC]

I do not have much time left. In any case, we have covered a lot, I think, but I would like to go back to what Mr. Généreux just said.

As I have said from the outset, I am interested in the federal-provincial action plan to increase francophone immigration outside Quebec as a way of supporting official language minority communities. We asked for this the first time the minister appeared, and we have now obtained it. It is a step in the right direction. It is a first draft, however, and we can see that there is still a lot of work to be done.

You talked about the development of indicators, Mr. Denis. We would also like to know what those indicators are and what your objectives will be for next year and for 2020. This will allow us to follow the progress in you work.

There is just one think that concerns me, and it pertains to the creation of this public policy hub for francophone immigration. As Mr. Arseneault also pointed out, we would have liked to see more than a hub. We would have liked a whole section of the department entirely devoted to francophone immigration to official language minority communities. I think the hub answers just part of that request.

Just consider that the level of francophone immigration will be about 2% next year, while a minimum of 4.4% is needed to maintain our demographic weight. Otherwise, the demographic weight of francophones will continue to decline, which will unfortunately weaken those communities.

As you can see, Mr. Chair, I do not really have a question.

[The Chair, Liberal, Denis Paradis]

I understand that those are concluding remarks.

[François Choquette, NDP, Drummond, QC]

Yes, those are the general comments I wanted to make.

[The Chair, Liberal, Denis Paradis]

Thank you, Mr. Choquette.

Mr. Manicom, Mr. Denis, Ms. Prince and Ms. Flowers Code, thank you very much for your excellent presentations.

Before we wrap up, I would like to remind the members of the committee that a report on early childhood will be presented to the House at 10:00 a.m. tomorrow. Then at 1:15 p.m., there will be a press conference in the foyer of the House of Commons.

On Wednesday, we will begin reviewing a draft report on the media.

The committee is adjourned.