Official Languages Committee on May 7th, 2018

[Ahmed Hussen, Liberal, York South—Weston, ON]

I went to Alberta to conduct ministerial round tables on immigration. I had one in Calgary and another in Edmonton. First of all, on the representation, we made sure there were advocates in the room from the francophone settlement community organizations, and francophone employers and so on, and we spoke about what more we could do.

Well, one of the ideas that were brought forward was to open a second refugee welcoming centre in Canada. There's only one in Winnipeg. As you know, many refugees who come to Canada are coming from French-speaking countries, so part of our approach is to make sure that we also have a strategy for those people.

The second one, which is really important not just for Atlantic Canada but for all of Canada, is international students. I was really disheartened recently when I had a meeting with about 26 leaders of the Canadian Arab community, and only one of them had heard of Mobilité francophone.

They were all employers, so I pushed them hard. I said, look, you have a great program called Mobilité francophone. You come from countries, some of which are French-speaking. Could you please use this program? They were very encouraged, but they hadn't heard enough about it.

I speak often about these programs. I speak about the extra points in express entry. I speak about the Mobilité francophone. I speak about the Atlantic immigration pilot program. I speak about the study and stay program.

I am talking about the action plan.

I speak about the extra investments.

I am talking about projects undertaken by and for francophones.

I speak about all of those things, but I think you are also ambassadors for this, and you should also speak about these opportunities, because that's what they are. They are opportunities. I can tell you that one of the investments that were made in Alberta was by a company precisely because they identified a bilingual community there.

We have our work to do, and we will continue to work toward those targets. We've done a lot already, but that doesn't necessarily mean that people on the ground are aware of that progress.

[The Chair, Liberal, Denis Paradis]

Thank you very much, Mr. Boissonnault.

Even though our time is up, I am going to allow two last questions, one from Ms. Boucher and one from Mr. Choquette.

Ms. Boucher, you have the floor.

[Sylvie Boucher, Conservative, Beauport—Côte-de-Beaupré—Île d’Orléans—Charlevoix, QC]

Minister, thank you for being here with us today. We are always pleased to talk about the francophonie and linguistic minorities here in committee. You no doubt know that our committee is non-partisan, and I am very happy that I am treated with respect, even though I am a Conservative member.

That being said, I will ask my question.

Your action plan states, and I quote:

From 2015 to 2017, the number of French-speaking immigrants admitted through provincial/territorial immigration programs has more than doubled and represents 38% of all French-speaking immigrants of the economic category.

What percentage of the 38% of French-speaking immigrants of the economic category who came to Canada are now working in one province or another?

[Ahmed Hussen, Liberal, York South—Weston, ON]

Thank you very much for the question. I would like to begin by putting on the record the fact that I respect all members of Parliament regardless of party status.

Second, we recognize the importance of economic immigration programs as a great tool for Canada to continue to grow our economy, to continue to address labour market challenges, to continue to address skill shortages, and yes, to continue to shore up the vitality of our francophone communities outside of Quebec. That is why we increased our provincial nominee program allocation in our recent immigration plan by 33%, because we want to spread the benefits of immigration all across the country.

[Sylvie Boucher, Conservative, Beauport—Côte-de-Beaupré—Île d’Orléans—Charlevoix, QC]

Minister—

[The Chair, Liberal, Denis Paradis]

I'm sorry to interrupt you Ms. Boucher, but since our time is already up, we agreed that you would ask only one question.

Mr. Choquette, you can ask one last question.

[François Choquette, NDP, Drummond, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, minister. We hope that the money will indeed get to the communities and that it will be used by and for minority communities, in this case francophone communities.

My question has to do with the family reunification lottery system. The old system was changed into a lottery system. As you know, this move has been highly criticized. However, my question has to do more specifically with francophones.

Could or will such a lottery system penalize francophone families when it comes to reunification? Names are drawn at random from a pool of candidates. Will francophones be part of a separate system or will they just be lumped in with and risk becoming lost within the anglophone majority?

Do you understand my question?

[Ahmed Hussen, Liberal, York South—Weston, ON]

We felt that the parent/grandparent system that we inherited was unfair, so we made two promises. We said we will double the number of the parent and grandparent allocation from 5,000 to 10,000. We've delivered.

The second thing was that the previous system was unfair. If you were willing to spend more money than the next person, or pay a lot of money to an agent, or if you lived closer to the processing centre, you would have better odds than the next person. That wasn't a fair system, so we introduced a fair system.

[François Choquette, NDP, Drummond, QC]

What about francophones?

[Ahmed Hussen, Liberal, York South—Weston, ON]

In terms of the francophone applicants, there's no discrimination against francophone applicants under the parent/grandparent program. All applicants are treated the same.

[François Choquette, NDP, Drummond, QC]

So they will be lumped in with the majority for the lottery.

[The Chair, Liberal, Denis Paradis]

Thank you, Mr. Choquette.

[Ahmed Hussen, Liberal, York South—Weston, ON]

In the system they're treated like every other applicant, and they have the same opportunity as any other applicant to sponsor their parent or grandparent.

[The Chair, Liberal, Denis Paradis]

Minister, before we wrap up, I too would like to ask you a question.

We learned here in this committee that the French tests that people who want to come to Canada have to take were written and designed in Paris. We know that France is different from Canada. Why not solicit bids in Canada to see if someone here could write a Canadian French test?

[Ahmed Hussen, Liberal, York South—Weston, ON]

You actually read my mind.

Thank you for reminding me of that point. There is an ongoing process; we're having a discussion with a second service provider in addition to the one that exists right now, to provide those services, to make them more accessible, and to introduce competition into the field so that prices can come down for our French language speakers who take the test.

[The Chair, Liberal, Denis Paradis]

Thank you, minister.

[Ahmed Hussen, Liberal, York South—Weston, ON]

It's a Canadian company.

[The Chair, Liberal, Denis Paradis]

Okay.

Minister, thank you very much for being here with us today. I speak for all my colleagues when I say that you have shed a lot of light on our concerns.

We'll suspend for a few minutes and then come back to talk to the people from your department, who will remain with us.

[The Chair, Liberal, Denis Paradis]

For the second hour of the meeting, we'll be speaking with the departmental representatives.

We'll move immediately into questions and comments.

We'll start with Sylvie Boucher.

[Sylvie Boucher, Conservative, Beauport—Côte-de-Beaupré—Île d’Orléans—Charlevoix, QC]

Hello and welcome.

I would like to ask two very simple questions. They have already been asked but, for one reason or another, we did not have time to hear the answers.

My first question is this. Of the 38% of French-speaking immigrants of the economic category who arrived in Canada between 2015 and 2017 under provincial and territorial immigration programs, what percentage are now working in French in provinces where there are francophone minorities?

My second question has to do with the test designed in Paris. Our committee has learned that the French test costs twice as much as the English test. That does not make any sense to us. What we want to know is why Canada, regardless of what party was in power, never thought to design the test here in Canada. Since we have our own Canadian expressions, it is becoming increasingly difficult to understand. Someone in my riding office had me take the test a few years ago, and I think I would have been deported because I did not do well at all.

These two questions are very important to me. I would like to know what percentage of the 38% of French-speaking immigrants of the economic category who arrived between 2015 and 2017 are now working in French in the provinces, and why the French test was not written in Canada.

Anyone can answer.

[David Manicom]

Thank you for your questions, Ms. Boucher.

We have pretty accurate data on the number of people who are working and the number of people who are working in the province where they first arrived. We have access to that information because our databases are linked to the tax system. We can send you those numbers.

However, we do not have any detailed information about the number of people working in French. We are not the kind of society that collects that type of information. People are not required to report to the government whether they work in English or French. We therefore cannot tell you exactly how many people work in French or what percentage of their day is spent working in French.

We do have data on the number of newcomers who are working and the number of newcomers who are working in the province where they first arrived.

With regard to provincial candidates, I can say that most of them are working and that the vast majority of immigrants still live in the province where they first arrived.

[Sylvie Boucher, Conservative, Beauport—Côte-de-Beaupré—Île d’Orléans—Charlevoix, QC]

So what you are saying is that there is no way of knowing what percentage of the 38% of French-speaking immigrants of the economic class are working in French because that information is not available.

Did I understand correctly?

[David Manicom]

That data does not exist.

[Sylvie Boucher, Conservative, Beauport—Côte-de-Beaupré—Île d’Orléans—Charlevoix, QC]

Okay.

[David Manicom]

I imagine that it would be difficult for a society like Canada to collect that type of information.