Official Languages Committee on Oct. 6th, 2016

[The Chair, Liberal, Denis Paradis]

Ladies and gentlemen, we will begin. Pursuant to Standing Order 108(2), we will continue our study on the roadmap and immigration in Francophone minority communities.

This morning, we are pleased to have, by videoconference, two representatives of the Association canadienne-française de l'Alberta: Jean Johnson, President, and Isabelle Laurin, Executive Director.

Madam, sir, welcome to the committee.

We will begin with the roadmap. You will have five minutes to make a presentation, and then we will move on to a period of questions, answers, and comments. Then we will address the immigration issue.

Will Ms. Laurin or Mr. Johnson be making the presentation?

[Jean Johnson, President, Association canadienne-française de l'Alberta]

It will be me, Jean Johnson.

[The Chair, Liberal, Denis Paradis]

Go ahead, Mr. Johnson. We are listening.

[Jean Johnson]

Perfect. Thank you very much.

I would like to begin by thanking you for inviting us to give you our opinion as part of your study on Canada's roadmap for official languages 2013-2018.

My name is Jean Johnson, and I am president of the Association canadienne-française de l'Alberta, the ACFA.

Founded in 1926, the ACFA is the organization that has represented Alberta's francophone community for 90 years. I want to point out that Alberta's francophone community is much older than that. French was the first European language spoken in our territory. It is estimated that the first francophones appeared in what would become Alberta in 1705. It is important to make that historical note since, even today, some people believe francophones arrived in Alberta very recently. However, nothing could be further from the truth.

Our community has a rich and interesting history because it had to overcome many obstacles to its continued existence and development. The creation of the Province of Alberta in 1905 and the erosion and disappearance of language rights vastly exacerbated the assimilation of our many founding francophone communities. That is why the establishment of our first French-language schools in 1984 and the judgement of the Supreme Court of Canada in the Mahé case in 1990 breathed new life into Alberta's francophone community. Today we are proud to say that full-time French-language education is spreading to a growing number of primary and secondary schools, including 40 francophone schools that have been managed by our community through four school boards since 1993. We also have more than 225 French immersion schools across Alberta in addition to our postsecondary education institutions.

However, some major issues still persist. We strongly support the common front of parents, communities and school boards in favour of modernizing and subdividing the Protocol for Agreements for Minority-Language Education and Second-Language Instruction in order to enhance the vitality of the francophone and Acadian communities. Our vision of Alberta's francophone community is inclusive of anyone wishing to live in French in Alberta. We are therefore here on behalf of 238,000 Albertans who constitute our French-language community.

As we look to the next action plan for official languages, I would like to address five points. I could take a look back, but I prefer to look ahead and propose some pathways for our future, some of which are highly innovative.

First, it is becoming necessary to enhance the Canada-community agreements. I do not know whether you are aware, but the funding granted to our community under the Canada-community agreement has remained at the same level since 1991, that is for the past 25 years. Over that time, our community has undergone enormous changes and has diversified, thus creating new needs. According to Statistics Canada, the French-mother-tongue population of Alberta increased by 43% between 1991 and 2011, rising from 56,730 inhabitants to 81,085. We take in many francophones from across the country and around the world. In 2016, we can see that this population is only growing.

Over the years, we have put considerable effort into minimizing our spending. Here are a few examples: we have shared payroll services; spaces and human resources are shared where possible; we use technology, in particular for online training seminars; we hold meetings via videoconference to enhance knowledge and information-sharing, while reducing travel-related costs; we have platforms that we use to share the best resources among organizations; we work together to maximize travel; and many others. However, despite our efforts, the federal government has not taken into account our population growth or increases in the cost of living, which has put enormous pressure on our community network and has prevented us from being competitive—

[The Chair, Liberal, Denis Paradis]

Mr. Johnson?

[Jean Johnson]

Yes?

[The Chair, Liberal, Denis Paradis]

Mr. Johnson, you may supplement your arguments when you answer the questions from committee members.

[Jean Johnson]

All right.

[The Chair, Liberal, Denis Paradis]

Our time is somewhat limited.

I will immediately move on to Ms. Salwa Meddri, coordinator of the Réseau en immigration francophone du Manitoba, who is here with us in Ottawa today.

Ms. Meddri, you have five minutes for your presentation, following which we will have some questions for you and our other witness who is in Edmonton.

[Salwa Meddri, Coordinator, Réseau en immigration francophone du Manitoba]

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. On behalf of the Réseau en immigration francophone du Manitoba, thank you for having me here.

The Réseau en immigration francophone du Manitoba is an initiative of the Société franco-manitobaine and Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, or IRCC, that has been developed under the roadmap and the community plan.

There are a total of 13 francophone immigration networks in Canada. The Manitoba network previously existed in the form of a cooperative network of partners that worked together in the community, but Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada has funded that position on a full-time basis since 2013, when the Réseau en immigration francophone du Manitoba was born.

Without further ado, I will move on to the essential points of the roadmap 2013-2018. This roadmap definitely contains objectives that are optimistic about immigration. The linguistic component is one of the basic elements of the roadmap, from which I want to cite the following passage:

The Government of Canada will promote the benefits of Canada's official languages and invest in official language training for newcomers.

I am going to analyze that statement. I do not claim to be an expert, but I will give you my humble opinion and those of our partners. Immigration applicants are required to pay higher fees for French tests than for English tests, both before they arrive in Canada and for permanent residence. On this point, I refer you to the recent report of the Commissioner of Official Languages. The academic level of the French test is very high. A level ranging between five and seven, and even up to eight, is required for certain occupations, which is not within the everyone's grasp. The places where the tests are taken, such as the offices of the Alliance française or the French cultural centres in certain countries, are not always accessible. Candidates must also wait a very long time from the date of the exam until they receive their results as the tests are corrected only in France.

English language courses are available and offered to all permanent residents, but that is not the case of French courses. English-language learning is virtually mandatory in the francophone minority communities, and a full range of settlement and integration services are also provided. French, however, is optional.

“Improving efforts to recruit French-speaking immigrants to minority communities” is also part of the roadmap. We have been witnessing a reintroduction of the Mobilité francophone program since this past June. This is a very positive step forward for us, and we are definitely delighted with it.

However, for international fairs such as Destination Canada, IRCC has cut funding to community groups that have a major role to play in talking about the various services offered to provide assistance to future permanent residents.

There is also the Entrée francophone pilot project, the purpose of which is to share the database of francophone applicants who have been identified as such in the Entrée express program in order to match them with employers and thus facilitate occupational matching to provide better employment opportunities and accelerate the process within the Entrée express pool.

We can find no data on francophone applicants in the Entrée express program, since those applicants are not identified, partly as a result of the French test problem. In addition, not enough points are assigned to francophone applicants who speak English.

Yesterday, we had a meeting with the coordinator of the Fédération des communautés francophones et acadienne, the FCFA, the organization representing French-language communities outside Quebec, and IRCC to discuss various problems. We hope the suggestions made by the communities and organizations during the consultations conducted last August will help in finding solutions. It was also apparent from the consultation in summer 2012 that, to maintain community vitality and take advantage of progress achieved, it is important to attract French-language immigrants to francophone minority communities and to ensure they are well integrated.

Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada will increase its support for recruitment and integration of French-language immigrants in six minority communities outside Quebec.

[The Chair, Liberal, Denis Paradis]

Thank you, Ms. Meddri.

I am going to make the same comment I made earlier, that you may supplement your remarks in response to questions from committee members.

[Salwa Meddri]

That is perfect.

[The Chair, Liberal, Denis Paradis]

First, I want to thank the people from Edmonton for getting up so early to take part in our debates.

We will start immediately with the first series of questions and comments.

Mr. Généreux, you have five minutes.

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

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thanks to our witnesses for being with us this morning.

You received funding under the last roadmap for the promotion of French, integration, and so on.

Mr. Johnson, you said you had not received an increase in 25 years. However, that has encouraged you to develop efficient ways of doing things.

Which of the initiatives you have conducted in the past 25 years would you carry out if you were granted additional funding?

[Jean Johnson]

In the past 10 years, we have witnessed a dizzying increase in Alberta's francophone population. Consequently, the demand for services in the community has risen and we are no longer able to meet that demand. What is becoming frustrating to a large degree is that we are losing these people, who ultimately opt for services in English.

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

Exactly where did the money come from?

Was it granted under regular programs outside the roadmap?

[Jean Johnson]

Part of it came from the roadmap and the Canada-community agreement. To improve our efficiency, we would like an increase, but also a kind of community self-determination. We would like to sign an agreement with the federal government on funding transferred to the representative organization. All the mechanisms have been established in Alberta, and the community organizations recognize ACFA as the leader in the development of Alberta's francophone community.

We are currently making decisions and recommendations to Canadian Heritage at the evaluation table, but the decisions are being overturned by Canadian Heritage's officers on the pretext that Ottawa's jurisdictions are not consistent with local jurisdictions. In our view, these are harmful actions for our communities.

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

I see. Thank you very much.

What you just said is very interesting, but I also want to let Ms. Meddri give us her views.

In addition to the funding you have received under the regular programs, both existing programs and the roadmap, what would you do if you received more funding tomorrow morning?

[Salwa Meddri]

I would simply like to clarify one point. The Réseau en immigration francophone du Manitoba has never received funding as such. We operate on funding allocated to settlement services, particularly Accueil francophone, which is the subject of an agreement between the federal government and SFM. However, and I feel I can speak on everyone's behalf in this instance, funding for community services and francophones in general is inadequate. I can confirm that we are doing a lot with little in the way of financial and human resources.

Getting back to Manitoba, we have just conducted a survey on services available in French for francophone newcomers. However, only two or three organizations are funded by IRCC, and the others not at all. The fact remains that, as a result of the goodwill of those around the table, we want to move the matter forward and improve the situation across Canada.

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

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Denis Paradis]

Thank you, Mr. Généreux.

I would like to say good morning to the parliamentary secretary and member for Edmonton Centre, who has just joined us.

Now I will turn the floor over to Mr. Vandal.

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

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Welcome to Ottawa, Ms. Meddri. I would like some clarification of one point concerning your organization's funding.

Does it come from the roadmap or regular programs?

[Salwa Meddri]

For this year, it comes from the Réseau en immigration francophone du Manitoba as part of the settlement and immigration file.

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

These are departments—

[Salwa Meddri]

It comes from an agreement with the federal government.