Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, committee members.
This isn't an easy topic, but you have the text and you can refer to it.
I would first like to thank you for inviting the Centre d'accueil et d'établissement du Nord de l'Alberta, of which I have been the director for 13 years. The centre is a western organization that welcomes francophone newcomers. I will present the perspective of a reception centre in a minority community.
As for the roadmap, I will speak to two points. For us, the roadmap is necessary for minority communities. Second, I will show that the roadmap is an intelligent way to fight assimilation. These are two points that are very important to us.
Why is the roadmap necessary? For a settlement organization like ours, which welcomes thousands of newcomers who settle in western Canada, the roadmap is the only way to assert Canada's bilingualism. Only to the extent that this roadmap is supported will our newcomers be able to keep the French language in a predominantly anglophone environment.
In fact, newcomers have to invent a new life for themselves in these new environments. Through integration services in French, they can use the French language, provided that they have access to services in French. For us, the roadmap is a guarantee. It is an assurance that allows all francophone migrants or immigrants to have access to services in French with regard to the success of their process of settling.
As for the intelligent way of fighting assimilation, bilingualism in Canada is not just a given from our heritage and a source of pride, but it is also a noble value. What would become of our communities if we did not manage to keep French alive?
Ladies and gentlemen of the Standing Committee on Official Languages, without the roadmap on linguistic duality, bilingualism would be a reality that would be losing steam, and tongues would wag. People would say that bilingualism was only a myth, and they would welcome us to the land of the assimilated.
Francophone migrants from minority communities know something about this. As soon as they can't find services or even employment in French, they simply become assimilated by the anglophones, who will not even guide them to the few services that are offered in our minority communities.
The roadmap is, for us, a lever on which our minority communities can lean in order to avoid losing their identity and their vitality.
I would like to make two recommendations in this respect. The roadmap must increase and strengthen the reception and settlement resources that our francophone minority communities have. The roadmap does not go into much detail about funding for francophone immigration. I have attended many meetings where people asked how much money was set aside for francophone immigration. An answer was often not given.
Francophone reception centres are required to beg for funding from the same envelope as anglophone centres for receiving francophone newcomers. We would like you to give true support to the reception centres in francophone minority communities.
We have a second recommendation relating to the roadmap. The entire community life sector should be given resources and a variety of services with adequate funding. We receive newcomers and assess their needs, but we can't do everything. We have to direct them to services that will be able to meet their needs.
When those services don't exist, we have no choice but to refer them to the anglophone majority, with the risk that at some level, these people will assimilate into the majority language and move away from our services.
So there you go, ladies and gentlemen, that is what I can tell you about the roadmap on official languages, which is very important to us as a reception centre. In short, our communities need services, and immigrants need a community where there are services. That is our major concern.
In terms of immigration, without making this introduction any longer, I first want to state that francophone immigration in small minority communities is a necessity.
Then I want to show that we need French-language community services if we want to sustain that francophone immigration. If there are no services in French in the community, it is useless.
Finally, as the lady said earlier, we have to have services provided by and for francophones.
I will start with the first point, the need for francophone immigration in minority communities. We feel that, just as the English-speaking majority benefits from immigration to increase its population, we francophones should also take advantage of immigration to increase our population and overcome our demographic deficit. We are very frustrated to see that the target of 5% of francophone immigrants has never been reached. We would like it to be reached so that our communities can benefit from immigration in the same way as anglophones do. Otherwise, our communities will die, they will disappear over time.
Francophone immigration is a necessity. We must be able to comfortably support it, as we do for the anglophone community.
Let us turn to services in French for the community. I am going to refer to a recent study conducted in western Canada, for which my organization acted as a fiscal agent. The study is entitled “Francophone immigration in the territories and western Canada: realities and prospects after 10 years of welcoming centres and services”. The study was conducted by prominent researchers in western universities under the guidance of Professor Paulin Mulatris. The study will be published soon. It was funded by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada.
The study dealt with some points that I would like to briefly mention to you. The study also came up with recommendations. One is that services should be developed that are tailored to the level of training of immigrants. I am taking the term “immigrants” to mean francophone immigrants.
The study found that organizations seem to meet the basic needs of immigrants better, but they become less efficient over the long term. This in fact means that organizations assisting immigrants in minority communities provide only basic services. When the time comes for specialized services, we are obliged to turn to English-language ones, which somewhat defeats the purpose of trying to integrate those immigrants into minority francophone communities. They end up embracing English, the language of the majority, the majority community.
The study also says that we should examine the possibility of developing personalized services that meet the real needs of the people received. Once again, our services are somewhat lacking; they do not always meet all the needs. We have to further strengthen them.
We have to create new social services to cope with emotional and health problems. When we receive newcomers with mental and emotional health problems, for example, we have no other choice but to send them to the English-speaking system. There is nothing more frustrating than having to go through an interpreter when you are with someone who is sick and has mental health problems. It is very frustrating, the work needed does not get done. So we have to have specialized services.
The study also mentions that we must equip the first points of contact, francophone or anglophone, with information on services in French. Here again, the same thing happens. The few services that we have for newcomers are not at all well known. We really have to promote them more so that they can be used as intended.
These recommendations from the research adequately demonstrate that our communities need new services for francophone immigrants. We need to strengthen the existing services; I will just provide two examples.
First and foremost, we feel that we must increase the operational capacities of our reception services so that we can better accommodate and better integrate the newcomers. I will give an example. We would like to be able to extend to all minority communities the resettlement services in Manitoba, where there has been great success in resettling francophone refugees. The Manitoba experience is enjoying a good deal of success, so we should extend it to all other communities.
I can certainly tell you how frustrated we were when the Syrians arrived. We were ready to welcome them but we were almost forgotten. We were like actors, observers, while our anglophone colleagues were welcoming the Syrians, including any French-speaking Syrians in the group. They were received by the majority anglophone community and were therefore cut out of our host communities. We really think that things have to be looked at a little closer. Even when French-speaking refugees arrive, they are received by the anglophone community; they are not directed to our communities. However, we are ready, willing and able to help them. It just leads them to become assimilated into the majority.
The second point is—