Official Languages Committee on Sept. 27th, 2016

[Bernard Généreux, Conservative, Montmagny—L'Islet—Kamouraska—Rivière-du-Loup, QC]

Well, I'd like to know in general terms.

[David Manicom]

As a general rule, the people take the test before submitting their application, because the test results are part of the application.

[Bernard Généreux, Conservative, Montmagny—L'Islet—Kamouraska—Rivière-du-Loup, QC]

Quickly, I'd like—

[The Chair, Liberal, Denis Paradis]

One moment, please. I want to clarify. Do you want to know the critical path in that regard?

[Bernard Généreux, Conservative, Montmagny—L'Islet—Kamouraska—Rivière-du-Loup, QC]

Yes, if that's the appropriate term.

[The Chair, Liberal, Denis Paradis]

Critical path means the way the person prepares the application, and the way it moves forward.

[Bernard Généreux, Conservative, Montmagny—L'Islet—Kamouraska—Rivière-du-Loup, QC]

Exactly. I would like to know, essentially—

[The Chair, Liberal, Denis Paradis]

It's the critical path.

[Bernard Généreux, Conservative, Montmagny—L'Islet—Kamouraska—Rivière-du-Loup, QC]

It's one of the reasons the committee is considering the question at this time. What is the critical path, as you call it, for someone who wants to live in Canada? What are the reasons for his choice? At some point, I presume the person has choices to make, and decides to go right or left.

[Stefanie Beck]

Yes.

[Bernard Généreux, Conservative, Montmagny—L'Islet—Kamouraska—Rivière-du-Loup, QC]

It would be interesting to know that.

I have another question, and it's for Mr. Cochrane this time.

You haven't spoken yet. I think it's important for each witness to be able to express himself or herself. You are the senior director for the international region. What exactly does that mean? What role are you playing in relation to our study?

And you can speak English; that's not a problem.

[Donald Cochrane, Senior Director, International Region, Department of Citizenship and Immigration]

I will respond in English.

The international network of CIC oversees the visa offices overseas that deliver our program, which includes, in the instance of official languages, the promotion and recruitment of French-speaking individuals who might wish to go to communities outside of Quebec.

There is a major initiative done every year from our embassy in Paris. There are also some other embassies that conduct some promotion recruitment activities. Destination Canada is the largest such activity that we carry out.

We have a network of visa offices overseas. Obviously we have offices in areas where the tendency for immigration is higher than from other parts of the world. The areas of most concern for this committee would be the visa office in Paris, as well as the offices in the Maghrib area and sub-Saharan Africa, particularly western Africa.

[The Chair, Liberal, Denis Paradis]

Thanks very much.

[Bernard Généreux, Conservative, Montmagny—L'Islet—Kamouraska—Rivière-du-Loup, QC]

Mr. Chair, if possible, I'd like a document that explains exactly what Destination Canada is. There have been several references to it, so I'd like the explanatory documents on the subject to be submitted to our committee this morning.

[The Chair, Liberal, Denis Paradis]

Very well. That will be a document we'll need to receive.

Ms. Boucher is requesting the floor for one minute, to address a specific point.

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

Just a short minute.

[The Chair, Liberal, Denis Paradis]

And then, I will give the floor to Mr. Samson.

[Darrell Samson, Liberal, Sackville—Preston—Chezzetcook, NS]

Okay.

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

Considerable time was spent discussing solutions for the French test, which is apparently long and painful. With the technology we have today, such as iPads, iPhones and other digital technology, isn't it possible to have people take the test online?

[Stefanie Beck]

We would very much like that to be possible. What worries us about such a test is program integrity. How can we know it's the actual applicant who took the test and pressed the button? As long as we're not able to confirm the identity of the applicant who took the test, we can't be sure we have the correct result for the correct candidate. It's an avenue we're exploring, and we would very much like to be able to use it.

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

That makes sense.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Denis Paradis]

Many thanks.

Mr. Rioux, you have the floor.

[Jean Rioux, Liberal, Saint-Jean, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair. And I thank the witnesses for being with us.

I have three questions for you, and time is limited.

My first question is about the cost of the tests. Is it possible to grant a subsidy to a person who is applying to immigrate to Canada, in order to cover the difference between the cost of the English test and the cost of the French test?

My second question is about the goal of increasing immigration to minority communities outside Quebec by 4%. This increase is important to the survival of minority communities outside Quebec, but it's also important for Quebec's profile, because, when French outside Quebec has the opportunity to grow, it also helps ensure our overall survival. I acknowledge there's a problem in that regard. Are the objectives not being attained because you have a resource problem?

My third and last question is about host groups in the different provinces. Does the department offer financial support to these groups, to help them welcome immigrants well?

I invite you to provide a brief answer to each of those three questions.

[David Manicom]

To answer your first question, we're assessing the possibility of granting a subsidy. However, it's very complicated, because a lot of people ask to take the test, but don't submit their immigration application. There are also people who take the test, but whose immigration application is rejected. Moreover, the price difference varies by country and even by city.

There are cities where the French test is more expensive. The administration of this matter is complex, even nightmarish, but we consider it one of the possible solutions.

[Stefanie Beck]

I will also try to be brief.

The 4% target is for 2018. We haven't yet met the objective, but it doesn't mean we won't achieve it in 2018. What more can we do on the subject? When we study the immigration continuum, we see that not enough francophones are submitting an application?

The problem is not to know where the new immigrant will settle if his or her application is accepted. The problem is finding the means to improve the francophone immigration rate in Canada, because we don't receive enough applications. In fact, that's why we have increased our efforts abroad. We observed a 2% to 3% increase in Express Entry and even 4%, the last time we sent out an invitation to francophones interested in immigrating to Canada.

How does one incentivize francophone immigrants to settle in francophone minority communities? It takes a lot of publicity. We use videos, seminars, webinars and other similar products to get francophone immigrants interested in living in French in communities outside Quebec where we need more francophones. We aren't having enough children in Canada.

I give the floor to Ms. Prince-St-Amand.