Official Languages Committee on Nov. 3rd, 2016

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

That's what I was going to say.

[Lynn Brouillette]

There is still an enormous amount of work to do on that. I appreciate your question, because it's a very important aspect to remember.

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

It seems to me they're a captive clientele.

[Lynn Brouillette]

In a sense, yes. However, on the anglophone side, there really is a wide variety of programs. As I mentioned earlier, there are 16,000 of them, compared to the 900 offered by our network of francophone colleges and universities. This shows how important it is to improve the program offering by increasing the number of programs, and how much work we still need to do on promotion, recruitment, and student success.

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

Earlier, you said you receive $17 million. Is that money from the Health Canada program alone, or is it from all the various departments that have a francophone mandate?

[Lynn Brouillette]

Currently, Health Canada is the main source of funding for the program offering.

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

Have you estimated the additional amounts you would need to get more clients? I'm referring not only to amounts for promotion, but also for program development.

[Lynn Brouillette]

Yes.

In the most recent roadmap, we received $90 million over a five-year period, to maintain and implement health programs in our 21 colleges and universities throughout Canada. We would like to obtain approximately $130 million over five years, so we can create even more programs.

I should reiterate that the number of programs we have represents a mere 7% of the number offered in English. That gives you an idea of the discrepancy in the offerings. The distance of the institutions is another reason it's often more difficult to attract clientele. Many anglophone colleges and universities are closer to the population, and that makes it easier to attend them. Not to mention the fact that they also offer a wide range of programs.

Consequently, we need support to implement other programs in the health and justice fields. In the justice field, we need to multiply the program offering by four so that services can be offered in both official languages.

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

Could be get the report from the Senate?

You said this report includes recommendations. Which are the most important ones for your organization?

In business, we often hire people from other ridings or other countries. Mr. Therrien, you were talking about integration. Integrating people from abroad, who have little experience, is not easy. In your view, what measures would facilitate integration, particularly in minority communities, and in isolated or rural regions?

The fact that these people, from outside the area, are invited to settle in rural areas, adds to the difficulty. In Quebec as well, it's difficult to attract immigrants to the regions, because, in the large cities, they tend to settle in areas where there are people of their nationality. This creates a natural feeling of belonging and connection. So it's not easy to take them away from the major centres and into other areas.

Are you experiencing the same thing in your area?

[Robert Therrien]

Absolutely.

What makes a difference, especially in rural communities where jobs are available, are the host community, and integration into the community. The community that welcomes these new immigrants needs to familiarize itself with their interests. It must be open enough to welcome them, and accept them as they are.

But sometimes, the norms or practices of other countries are not seen as normal here. Some people have no notion of time. For example, if work begins at 8:30, you have to specify to them that it's not 9:15. You have to tell people they must phone if they won't be coming in for work, etc. There's a lot to learn and a lot to teach, and it takes time. Employers need to show some flexibility to prepare these people and accompany them during their integration. We need to invest a lot of effort to create the bond between the employer and the newly hired immigrant.

[The Vice-Chair, NDP, François Choquette]

Thank you very much, Mr. Therrien.

I'm sorry, Mr. Généreux, but the time available to you has elapsed.

I now give the floor to Mr. Arseneault.

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

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Ms. Brouillette, you did a good job summarizing the four areas of intervention in the realm of immigration—namely, promotion, recruitment, intake and integration. I added the question of retention to that.

Several witnesses came to talk to us about promotion. They talked about minority francophone communities, and how to attract francophone immigrants to them. According to these witnesses, the promotion being done in this area outside Canada simply doesn't succeed in communicating to the rest of the world that there's a living, vibrant language in Canada called French. I'd like to hear your comments on this subject.

With respect to recruitment, I will share the negative comments we heard, such as comments on the French test that people must pass outside Canada. I won't revisit that, but let's just as that the situation is already problematic from the start.

With respect to intake, community organizations in minority communities have said they don't have sufficient funds to adequately welcome the people into the community. Often, the larger and possibly better-organized agencies say they can offer bilingual service. But they're not referring to a francophone window, and to services offered by francophones, for francophones. Lastly, with respect to integration and retention, we are told retention is already a problem. In fact, Mr. Généreux alluded to the problem indirectly.

I'd like to know what we've done best, how the federal government could help you improve the situation, and in which fields the government, in your association's view, is less effective.

[Lynn Brouillette]

With respect to immigration, we've implemented a pre-departure project that enables us to go to certain countries and acquaint people with francophone Canada. When we're abroad, our main work is to tell people about francophone Canada outside Quebec, in order to encourage immigrants to come to our communities. It's the initial work that needs to be done, because the knowledge isn't there. After that, we need to tell these immigrants that it's possible to live in French outside Quebec, and that there are lively, interesting communities where they can settle—communities that have a lot to offer them. It's this project, in particular, that helps us encourage immigration.

As for the colleges and universities, they can support what we, in French, call the “three Rs”: recruitment, retention and success. A lot of work will be needed to put service infrastructure in place in our post-secondary institutions for all the student clienteles.

We have an immigrant clientele—they are the topic of today's discussion—but the immersion graduates who make themselves to us need help and support too. In some of our colleges and universities, there are programs or service structures known to work well.

I spoke before about collective projects. With federal assistance, we could do these types of projects Canada-wide. Thanks to our collaborative efforts, we can take what works best in the provinces and territories and apply it in a Canada-wide perspective. That's how we implement all our projects, whether they be program development or service infrastructure to benefit our colleges' and universities' clienteles.

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

I'm going to ask one last brief question.

Sorry, but since my time has run out, I will give the floor to Ms. Lapointe.

[Linda Lapointe, Liberal, Rivière-des-Mille-Îles, QC]

Hello, and welcome, Mr. Therrien.

I'd like to ask you a question about early childhood.

Earlier, you said that there's a shortage of infrastructure, and that, in some places, there are waiting lists. If young children don't attend a francophone day care like their parents want, will those children continue their educations in English, or in French?

[Robert Therrien]

Some of these young children will definitely continue their education in English. Day care is where children are prepared for regular school. I don't have the figures in front of me, but it's been observed that when children are in an anglophone day care, they continue their education in the anglophone system because of that.

[Linda Lapointe, Liberal, Rivière-des-Mille-Îles, QC]

Thank you.

I have a brief question for Ms. Brouillette.

It's thought that francophone immersion tends to make students to want to study in French at the college and university levels. But a shortage of francophone teachers has been repotted. Is this a problem you face? Are you able to meet the francophone schools' needs in this regard? Have you ever thought of doing exchanges with Quebec, where there are a lot of francophone teachers?

[Lynn Brouillette]

We're considering it. There's a shortage of immersion teachers, and French teachers in our schools. It's a problematic situation. We are indeed in touch with Quebec to see how we might help our schools find francophone teachers. We are working on that with the ACPI—the Canadian association of immersion teachers.

We are working with France toward this objective. There are many trained teachers in France who do not have a job. The unemployment rate for teachers in France is high. We have projects to encourage people from Quebec and France to come teach in our schools.

[Linda Lapointe, Liberal, Rivière-des-Mille-Îles, QC]

Have you quantified your teacher shortage?

[Lynn Brouillette]

No. The schools themselves should be able to answer that. We hear of the shortage anecdotally. Our colleges and universities, which often have close relationships with schools, are quite aware of the problem.

Our network of 21 colleges and universities has nine faculties of education. We would like to increase the cohorts of students so that more teachers can be trained, because there's a major shortage at the moment.

[The Vice-Chair, NDP, François Choquette]

Thank you very much, Ms. Brouillette.

We will now move on to Mr. Samson.

After that, we'll have a bit of time for a series of three-minute questions.

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

I have 20 minutes, do I not?

[The Vice-Chair, NDP, François Choquette]

Not quite, Mr. Samson. You have six.

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

Mr. Therrien and Ms. Brouillette, thank you for being with us today. I'm happy to see you both.

Mr. Therrien, I don't think we've formally met. I really appreciated your presentations.

I will start with you, Mr. Therrien. If I understand correctly, your region has achieved the target of 2.4% or 4.4%. Could you confirm that?

[Robert Therrien]

According to the most recent figures available to me, 2.4% is the percentage of francophone immigrants who have settled in the province in recent years.