Official Languages Committee on Oct. 4th, 2016

[The Chair, Liberal, Denis Paradis]

Thank you.

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

[René Arseneault, Liberal, Madawaska—Restigouche, NB]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I thank Ms. Sniadoch and Schulz as well.

We were talking about retention, and I'd like to spend a bit of time revisiting what my friend Paul Lefebvre was discussing earlier.

We do not live in a republic. When someone from southern, northern or western France finishes secondary school, or its equivalent, he can apply to study at a college or university, and might be accepted. There are no equivalency problems. But this country is vast. It's a federation. There are different levels of government. There's a federal government, and there are provincial governments, and to complicate matters, there are self-governing professional bodies.

[Annick Schulz]

Okay.

[René Arseneault, Liberal, Madawaska—Restigouche, NB]

My question will be about those challenges.

Francophones arrive here with their skills, and I think the challenge, as far as their retention is concerned, is to ensure that wherever they may be, the professional bodies talk to each other, and are harmonized.

If I understand correctly, your organization is making efforts in that regard; it's trying to get them to confer and coordinate, and this is the case with lawyers, engineers, physicians and land surveyors, to name a few. Is that right? Are efforts being made so that a francophone immigrant who arrives with a diploma in land surveying can work in Manitoba and meet our friends Mr. Vandal or Mr. Ouellette, or work in Ontario, Acadia or Quebec?

[Valérie Sniadoch]

Yes, that's right. We are fortunate to be able to work closely with IRCC and the Ontario MCI on things like the Express Entry roundtables and the Ontario government expert committee. The question was raised several years ago, and continues to be addressed daily. We have formed a partnership with GEO—that is, Global Experience Ontario. It's a section of the MCI. It provides videos on all the regulated professions. The government is making an effort in this regard, so that people abroad are informed ahead of time that regulated profession x requires a certain professional certification path or educational background.

It's important—and I say this in my interventions—that Ontario and the federal government regularly work together on signing agreements with various francophone countries, to ensure that people have a gateway to certain fields of endeavour if they've achieved an equivalent level of studies.

We were talking about retention. Let me use a number at random. We don't want to have 25 physicians arriving, and 20 leaving because they can't practice, have to invest $10,000 in studies, and have to work at a Starbucks for the coming two years.

Clearly, then, efforts must be made in this regard.

[The Chair, Liberal, Denis Paradis]

Thanks very much, ladies and gentlemen.

We now move on to the second part of the meeting concerning immigration. We have already addressed this question, in part. I'll give you five minutes to round things up on immigration, and will then reduce all the speakers' times to three minutes so we can end at 10:45 a.m. You have five minutes to give your presentation.

Ms. Sniadoch, you have the floor.

[Valérie Sniadoch]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I've already said a lot, so I will try to address the subject concretely.

Immigration is Ontario's way to renew itself. As I regularly say, we need immigration for economic stability and growth. Based on what I believe are the 2014 numbers from the Conference Board of Canada, we'll be needing 300,000 people over each of the coming years, given the many people who will be retiring. So the need is clearly there. Professionals and businesses also have needs. As I mentioned, there were 2,500 jobs on indeed.ca a half-hour ago.

Ontario has set a 5% target for francophone immigration. At the moment, we're at 2 or 3%. The province has brought together an expert committee, which can make practical recommendations that can be implemented rapidly. These are not long-term recommendations; immigrants are needed quickly.

The RDÉE Ontario employability and immigration team works to make effective connections between candidates and employers on a day-to-day basis, and to ensure that our immigrants are prepared for the realities of Ontario's market. As I mentioned earlier, we have a five-person team: one of us is in Ottawa, another is in Sudbury, and three people, including me, are in Toronto. That is what we do daily. Our members are human resource experts, and others from the private sector.

That was my wish when I became director. My own background is in HR. I have 15 years of experience in the field. Who better than a human resource specialist to talk to a human resource person in the private sector?

It's important to understand their needs in order to train our francophone immigrants as well and as accurately as possible. Based on our performance, our funding from IRCC was increased.

In 2013, when our funding was renewed for three years, we received $350,000. This amount was increased to $428,000 in 2015, and $448,000 in 2016. So our work is making its mark, and IRCC is recognizing our efforts. But there is additional need, because more and more people seek our services.

I will now cite some much more concrete figures. In 2015 and 2016, our four-person team met with 764 people. We gave employability training to 800 people. We met with more than 700 Ontario employers to raise their awareness. We held a virtual job fair in February.

Why a virtual job fair? It's well-known that people love computers. Wherever we go, we have our cellphones within reach. Moreover, a virtual approach reduces costs. Brick-and-mortar job fairs mean expenses for employers, as well as travel, lost productivity, and more. That's why we held the virtual job fair.

It spanned two days—February 24 and February 25, from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m.—because we wanted to reach all of Canada, and extend our reach as far out as Belgium. With the first virtual job fair, we managed to welcome more than 5,000 visitors over the course of the two days. More than 80% of visitors were from outside Canada; 19% were francophones in Canada, whereas 81% were from elsewhere, including France, Tunisia, Mauritius and Martinique, among other places. This shows that people have a real interest in Canada. The evidence is there.

However, there is there Express Entry system. The government is making efforts to speed up the immigration process. And cases are indeed being processed in six months, but it's difficult to get the human capital in an arranged employment context.

We're working closely with embassies in sub-Saharan Africa and North Africa to identify people in the pool who have very high economic potential, but do not have sufficient points to be taken from the pool because they have no Canadian experience.

It's an initiative called Entrée francophone, put in place by those embassies. The people in question have granted permission for their file—French and English proficiency, degree equivalency, activity sector—to be disseminated to partners in Canada, so that more people can be matched with employers.

We continue to work with people to ensure they understand the market, to submit their file to employers, and to facilitate francophone immigration. The potential is there.

[The Chair, Liberal, Denis Paradis]

Thank you very much, Ms. Sniadoch.

We will now move on to the comments and questions period.

Ms. Boucher, you have the floor for three minutes.

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

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Hello, Ms. Sniadoch and Ms. Schulz. Thanks very much for being here. That was very interesting. I have many questions to ask you.

I know the organization you represent is involved in recruiting, welcoming and integrating immigrants. You spoke at particular length about the challenge of retaining immigrants—a challenge chiefly associated with credential recognition. At the federal level, former Minister Kenney acknowledged the importance of credential recognition during his tenure.

Has the province of Ontario implemented a structure for recognizing the credentials of francophone immigrants? What are the problems? When you recruit francophone immigrants abroad, and you hold out the prospect of employment as a physician, a physiotherapist or a surgeon, are they aware, before arriving in Canada, that certain provinces won't recognize their credentials? Do they realize this?

[Valérie Sniadoch]

As I explained earlier, I think that when a person applies to immigrate, they choose the quickest path. They go to the IRCC website, and see what documents they need to fill out. If they're a doctor, and they see a request from the health care sector, they think everything is perfect, and submit their application. They don't necessarily go beyond that. It's fastidious, and there are many documents to fill out. People don't think about credential recognition.

However, as I was saying, IRCC has implemented the Pré-départ, or pre-departure, program for francophones, a program we are coordinating Canada-wide. We work with the people abroad, to raise their awareness about the credential recognition issue. We work a lot with engineers, and people in the information technology and health fields. Thanks to this pre-departure program—it takes place before the people leave their countries of origin— we explain all the steps they will need to take. They are generally not aware of this beforehand; we explain the process to them, and give them the information. Then, they begin planning their short-term, medium-term and long-term activities, and start to put money aside for their return to studies. Thanks to this pre-departure program, there is less of a shock when they cross the border.

Many immigrants are not adequately informed before arriving in Canada. The example I know best is my own. When I immigrated, with my degrees in policy and human resources, I didn't know that people need a human resource certification to practice in Ontario. Even I didn't know, and I have a Canadian degree.

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

Thank you very much, Ms. Sniadoch.

[Valérie Sniadoch]

You're welcome.

[The Chair, Liberal, Denis Paradis]

Thank you very much.

Mr. Vandal, you have the floor for three minutes.

[Dan Vandal, Liberal, Saint Boniface—Saint Vital, MB]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Ms. Sniadoch, Ms. Schulz, both your presentations provide a great deal of information. We don't have much time. What percentage of your team works in immigration?

[Valérie Sniadoch]

My entire team of four people plus myself. There are five of us.

[Dan Vandal, Liberal, Saint Boniface—Saint Vital, MB]

What percentage of the RDÉE team does your team represent?

[Valérie Sniadoch]

There are 25 people at RDÉE, so we are one-fifth of that.

[Dan Vandal, Liberal, Saint Boniface—Saint Vital, MB]

Do you travel to the countries selected by Destination Canada as part of your duties?

[Valérie Sniadoch]

Yes. In 2014, we went to the Paris emigration fair. I met 300 people in the course of a recruitment day that ran from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. And Europe is seeing an increasing number of fairs promoting Canada as a destination.

There is a desire to emigrate to Canada. Destination Canada consists of three days in Paris, one day in Brussels, and one day in Tunisia. We don't go to Tunisia, because that day is mainly about technicalities, such as verifying the skills of a heavy truck driver or welder. Destination Canada representatives welcome 900 people per day, and the line for Ontario is very long.

[Dan Vandal, Liberal, Saint Boniface—Saint Vital, MB]

Where do most of the immigrants come from? From France, Belgium or North Africa?

[Valérie Sniadoch]

The percentage of immigrants from Europe is higher. So they come from France, Belgium, Switzerland, and other francophone countries in Europe. As I mentioned, there's a lot of potential in sub-Saharan Africa and North Africa, but most people in that pool do not have the human capital, because they've never visited Canada. Many immigrants from France have already been to Canada, or are there already.

[Dan Vandal, Liberal, Saint Boniface—Saint Vital, MB]

Since we only have three minutes, I need to interrupt you.

[Valérie Sniadoch]

Not a problem.

[Dan Vandal, Liberal, Saint Boniface—Saint Vital, MB]

We have a minute and a half remaining.

What could the government do to better serve you? You have the floor.

[Valérie Sniadoch]

I would agree with my colleague that the first thing would be to increase the budget we're allocated. With Express Entry, an effort has been made with regard to immigration policy. I am part of a roundtable with IRCC to re-adjust the points for francophones, because we want to attract more francophones. It's very important to get some support in that direction.

The submissions are being drafted, but it's important to get an increase.