Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Minister, I too would like to commend your tireless efforts to speak French as much as possible. Your French is improving every day and I tip my hat to you.
Roughly a year ago, we received people from Citizenship and Immigration. It was at that time that we learned how hard it is to recruit francophone immigrants. I think that every member of this committee from all parties were extremely troubled to hear that the target for francophone immigration outside Quebec was set at 4.4% and we managed to reach barely 2%. In fact, I'm not even sure if we'll reach 2%. We may not be congratulating ourselves, but we do seem to just accept this fact. You have no idea how much that pains a French-Canadian, an Acadian like me, whose family has been settled in Canada for 12 generations. It is very painful to hear that we have a hard time achieving 2%, let alone the 4.4% target.
According to the testimonies, the machine is difficult to operate. I am talking about funding, immigration, investments in cultural communities. In your presentation, you just provided the answer and I commend you for that. The Department of Finance has invested $40.8 million. Add to that the contribution from your department and that of Minister Joly. These concerted efforts address our concerns. I am sure that this will bear fruit, or at least I hope so.
Page 31 of the famous Official Languages Action Plan 2018-2023 mentions strengthening coordination at Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada through the creation of a francophone immigration public policy centre.
What form will this centre take? Are we talking about a sort of sub-department or a parallel department where experts focus only on francophone immigration?