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.