Evidence of meeting #34 for Official Languages in the 42nd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was province.

A recording is available from Parliament.

On the agenda

MPs speaking

Also speaking

Cyrilda Poirier  President, Fédération des francophones de Terre-Neuve et du Labrador
Gaël Corbineau  Director General, Fédération des francophones de Terre-Neuve et du Labrador
Emmanuel Nahimana  Project Manager, Immigration Francophone Nouvelle-Écosse

9:25 a.m.

Liberal

Paul Lefebvre Liberal Sudbury, ON

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

It's rare for there to be time left.

I know that we are sort of seeing the negative side of things. In your remarks, you mentioned the dynamic nature of your communities. Could you expand on that?

9:30 a.m.

President, Fédération des francophones de Terre-Neuve et du Labrador

Cyrilda Poirier

Just having emerging communities indicates that there is some dynamism. There is a certain need and desire to live in French in the communities that are not necessarily structured the way the three western communities, Labrador and even St. John's are.

9:30 a.m.

Director General, Fédération des francophones de Terre-Neuve et du Labrador

Gaël Corbineau

West of Newfoundland.

For us, the west coast is Newfoundland, not Vancouver.

9:30 a.m.

President, Fédération des francophones de Terre-Neuve et du Labrador

9:30 a.m.

Liberal

Paul Lefebvre Liberal Sudbury, ON

How can the roadmap support the dynamic nature of emerging communities?

Whether we like it or not, we take a step back and look forward. I know that in your remarks you spoke about your problematic situations, but I would like to hear your suggestions.

Funding is a basic aspect. That said, what can we do better compared with the old roadmap, were it not for the funding shortfalls or delays? Aside from funding, what can we do to improve the situation?

9:30 a.m.

President, Fédération des francophones de Terre-Neuve et du Labrador

Cyrilda Poirier

I'll let Mr. Corbineau answer.

9:30 a.m.

Director General, Fédération des francophones de Terre-Neuve et du Labrador

Gaël Corbineau

I would like to come back to the example of emerging communities that we gave in our presentation.

Earlier, a member of Parliament asked us about the number of francophones in the province. There is one thing that is remarkable. Between the 2006 and 2011 censuses, the francophone community in Newfoundland and Labrador increased by 36%. Some will say that it's because of the oil in St. John's, but when we look at the numbers very closely—which I did—it is surprising to see that over 40% of people are not in the traditional francophone regions. The number of francophones increased in all regions, including those not affected by the oil boom or the mining boom at the time.

In some regions, like in the Burin peninsula, for instance, the increase was even more than 1,000%. The numbers have risen from 10 people to 120. Many regions are not economically favoured in Newfoundland, but the number of francophones still increased significantly there. So this cannot be due solely to economic reasons.

How do you explain that? I think it's because of the work done in the past 40 years to promote a bilingual Canada, bilingualism and cultural identity. When people completed the census, they began to understand that their roots were francophone and checked the “French” box. Previously, they weren't interested.

Personally, that's what I am seeing, and that's what inspires me with dynamism. Among the emerging communities, I would mention Corner Brook. There is no school or organization, but from 2006 to 2011, there was a 59% increase in the francophone population, one that we are unable to serve today. Even the mayor of Corner Brook is francophone, but we can't provide services because we lack funding.

9:30 a.m.

Liberal

The Chair Liberal Denis Paradis

Thank you.

9:30 a.m.

Director General, Fédération des francophones de Terre-Neuve et du Labrador

Gaël Corbineau

It is the second largest urban centre in the province.

9:30 a.m.

Liberal

The Chair Liberal Denis Paradis

Thank you, Mr. Corbineau.

We're going to pick up the pace a bit. So I will have to ask you to move on to immigration, which is the second part of your presentation.

Could you give us a brief presentation of about five minutes on that? We will then go around the table again, but I will have to reduce the time each committee member has because of the time we have left.

Mrs. Poirier, go ahead.

9:30 a.m.

President, Fédération des francophones de Terre-Neuve et du Labrador

Cyrilda Poirier

In that case, Mr. Chair, I will skip the introduction since it is the same as the earlier one. I won't remind you of the importance of this for our communities and for maintaining their demographic weight. You are probably already very familiar with it.

As we have already said, the multi-year funding of the francophone immigration networks in our provinces by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada was an important step in the development of our communities.

As a result, we have been able to establish long-term partnerships with stakeholders, including employers, chambers of commerce and anglophone organizations working in this field.

Unfortunately, there are still several challenges that we must face every day. The lack of direct French-language services in the province is certainly the most problematic. We lack services in the schools, as well as reception and integration services, especially in remote regions.

The lack of opportunities to take the Test d'évaluation de français in our province is very problematic. This situation forces our newcomers to go to the islands of Saint Pierre and Miquelon or to Halifax to take the test. This is particularly the case for temporary applicants who wish to make the transition to permanent residence through Express Entry, as well as for permanent residents wishing to obtain Canadian citizenship.

Mr. Chair, I would like to point out the irony of the situation. The consular authorities of the French government have resources available and are recognized in our own province to conduct their French tests, in particular in partnership with Memorial University, while our own Government of Canada does not. However, these services are in their own country. The lack of direct services for temporary residents has long been an administrative anachronism that has certain negative impacts.

In our province, as it certainly is in others, the vast majority of francophone newcomers come for a job, which they sometimes already have lined up, and have a temporary work permit. When they step foot in our province, we have added value to offer them. We want to make sure that they come to contribute to the dynamic nature of our communities and that they know that their children can attend our schools. We are still unable to serve them, despite years of demanding a change in the situation.

This deprives us of a whole new francophone population. Because they are not properly informed and served, they orient themselves toward the linguistic majority, and their children head right toward being assimilated and will not contribute to our communities.

We should also mention the lack of direct national services for temporary residents. How can we support the temporary workers who come through Mobilité francophone, an initiative we applaud, if we can't offer them services? How can we encourage them to settle permanently in Canada and in our communities? This also applies to the participants of the Canada working holiday program and to international students.

In 2012, we were adversely affected by a very negative measure when the government decided not to financially support community organizations such as ours to travel to the Destination Canada forum. It deprives us of an extremely important promotional forum that worked very well. Our organization has not been compensated by our provincial government and has therefore not attended almost any editions since 2012. Our provincial delegation is no longer promoting our communities and the services available in French. This does not help candidates turn to Newfoundland and Labrador in their choice of destination.

Newfoundland and Labrador has a distinctive feature when it comes to international recruitment. It is 25 kilometres from France. I am referring, of course, to the archipelago of Saint Pierre and Miquelon. Unfortunately, our current agreements do not allow us to promote our province because it is no longer Canadian territory. We are losing a great recruiting opportunity because they often have many friendly and family ties with our province. This is an important retention factor, not to mention that they are accustomed to the climate and are already big hockey fans. However, we can't go there, even though it costs three times less to get there than to Labrador City, in our own province. In addition, 25% of their young people go to Quebec for their studies. These are lost opportunities for us.

We hope that our future agreements with the IRCC will allow us to do this. We should note that other federal departments have already shown their willingness to adapt to our reality in other sectors.

Once is not customary, and I wish to end my speech with some positive notes. Therefore, we are pleased with the federal government's willingness to educate each province and territory on setting targets for francophone immigration. We are currently negotiating with our provincial government and hope to have a target set within a few months.

We have also very positively welcomed the recent IRCC measure to facilitate the retention and return of international students through Express Entry.

Mr. Chair, members of Parliament, on behalf of Newfoundland and Labrador's French speakers, we thank you for your attention.

9:35 a.m.

Liberal

The Chair Liberal Denis Paradis

Thank you, Mrs. Poirier.

Since we don't have a lot of time, committee members will have four minutes each for this round of questions and answers.

We will start with Sylvie Boucher.

November 17th, 2016 / 9:35 a.m.

Conservative

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

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I would like to thank the witnesses for being with us this morning. Your presentations were very interesting.

As is the case for many groups we have met with, your situation is problematic. Every organization told us their story, but your case is quite specific. There is a lack of money. It will take time to free up the money. I think three years is terrible.

As for immigration in your community—Ms. Lapointe referred to it, and we have heard about it often—are you aware that, in some cases, the funding that francophone organizations were to receive was paid to an anglophone organization that had one bilingual person to provide services in French? Have you encountered this?

9:40 a.m.

Director General, Fédération des francophones de Terre-Neuve et du Labrador

Gaël Corbineau

No, that hasn't happened to us.

9:40 a.m.

Conservative

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

Right. It hasn't happened.

So in your case, no one has—I was going to say “diverted”—taken the money from the francophone side and given it to the anglophone side?

9:40 a.m.

Director General, Fédération des francophones de Terre-Neuve et du Labrador

9:40 a.m.

Conservative

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

The government has set itself a target in light of this. Are you currently setting a target provincially for a certain level of immigration?

9:40 a.m.

Director General, Fédération des francophones de Terre-Neuve et du Labrador

Gaël Corbineau

We're working on it. We have approached the provincial government about this and, I have to say, we were received fairly positively. The government is currently reviewing the demographic growth strategy, which includes immigration. We hope to receive some news in the next provincial budget about launching our strategy. The old strategic plan didn't contain a target.

Currently, the government wants to establish numbers everywhere, including for us. We called for a fairly high target of 5%. It was mentioned that we are currently at 0.6%, so it would be nice to reach 5%.

9:40 a.m.

Conservative

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

That's a lot.

9:40 a.m.

Director General, Fédération des francophones de Terre-Neuve et du Labrador

Gaël Corbineau

We think the target is realistic because we have already surpassed 3.7%. We were at that rate just before the previous government abolished the francophone significant benefit program. Immigration increased very quickly and decreased immediately after.

So we believe that positive measures like Mobilité francophone and other programs like it will help us to get there. And if we get help from the province, which officially sets these numbers, we can reach 5%.

9:40 a.m.

Conservative

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

So you think it's realistic to reach a francophone immigration threshold of 5%. How much time are you giving yourself to reach the 5% rate? Do you have a timeline for that? It certainly can't happen in the first year. Have you set a deadline to reach the 5% rate?

9:40 a.m.

Director General, Fédération des francophones de Terre-Neuve et du Labrador

Gaël Corbineau

No, it hasn't been discussed.

9:40 a.m.

Conservative

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

It hasn't been discussed.

9:40 a.m.

Director General, Fédération des francophones de Terre-Neuve et du Labrador

Gaël Corbineau

However, I'm sincerely optimistic. We are doing pretty well because of the benefits provided, and it will be all the better if we can work with Saint Pierre and Miquelon. We are a small community ourselves, and there aren't many immigrants across the province. There are 700 in the entire province.

9:40 a.m.

Conservative

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

You want to reach 5%, and you are optimistic about that. What about retaining francophones in your region right now?