Official Languages Committee on June 14th, 2017

[The Chair, Liberal, Denis Paradis]

Pursuant to Standing Order 108(3), we are continuing our study of the roadmap and immigration in francophone minority communities.

I'd like to welcome our ministers, Mélanie Joly and Ahmed Hussen.

We'll proceed as we usually do. You will each have seven or eight minutes to give your presentation. We will then move into questions and comments from committee members.

Who would like to go first?

[Mélanie Joly, Liberal, Minister of Canadian Heritage]

If it's okay, Mr. Chair, I'll go first.

[The Chair, Liberal, Denis Paradis]

Of course. Go ahead.

[Mélanie Joly, Liberal, Ahuntsic-Cartierville, QC]

Thank you.

Mr. Chair, committee members, thank you for inviting me to appear before this committee once again. I very much appreciate the opportunity.

I am accompanied by Ahmed Hussen, Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship, and his departmental officials.

Allow me to introduce the officials from my department: the friendly Hubert Lussier, assistant deputy minister for citizenship, heritage and regions, and the amiable Jean-Pierre Gauthier, director general of official languages.

First, I would like to mention your report entitled “Toward a New Action Plan for Official Languages and Building New Momentum for Immigration in Francophone Minority Communities”. This report contained good recommendations on issues like early childhood and infrastructure, and highlighted a lack of funding for community organizations. I'd like to thank you for your work.

We responded to part of your report and will, of course, respond to the rest when we submit our official languages action plan, which will be released by year's end. I will come back to that in a few moments.

First, let me review our government's recent achievements.

The year 2016 was a year of unprecedented consultations. Of course, as you well know, the Official Languages Act requires us to do these consultations. These were the most open consultations ever in the history of the Official Languages Act.

My team and I also brought in over a hundred key organizations representing official languages communities as well as those active in bilingualism to update them on the consultations. That took place in December 2016.

It was also a year of action. We granted university accreditation to the Collège militaire royale de Saint-Jean. We named a qualified bilingual justice from Newfoundland and Labrador to the Supreme Court of Canada. We supported immigration to official language minority communities through new initiatives.

Also, last fall I joined Scott Brison, the President of the Treasury Board, in announcing that our government would review the official languages regulations, as they pertain to communications with and services provided to the public in English and French across the country.

Earlier this year, we announced the reinstatement and modernization of the court challenges program. This restored and modernized program will include dedicated funding and a newly created panel of language rights experts.

We also provided $2.4 million to the Réseau de développement économique et d'employabilité, or RDEE, for the creation of a francophone heritage, culture, and tourism corridor as part of Canada 150. That was something the provincial ministers responsible for Canada's francophonie had been calling for for a number of years.

In fact, Budget 2017 included $80 million over 10 years toward community educational infrastructure in official language minority communities—the first explicit investment of this kind by the federal government; $2 million over two years to increase federal courts' ability to render decisions that are available in French and English; $7.5 million per year ongoing to improve parliamentary translation services; and the extension of eligibility for the tuition tax credit to include occupational training in a second language.

We also announced $2.24 million in additional funding for the young Canada works program for organizations that promote official languages and the vitality of official language minority communities. As part of the major celebrations marking Canada's 150th anniversary, we helped fund events to honour Quebec's national holiday and Canada's francophonie nationwide, which will take place on June 24.

I worked with my counterpart Minister Duclos on a new memorandum of understanding on early childhood development in recognition of the importance of francophone services.

In addition, I worked with my three territorial counterparts on agreements to boost financial support for French-language services in the territories.

We allocated $35 million for 2016-17 to 2019-20.

Finally, due to considerable feedback on issues facing the English-speaking community in Quebec, my department has begun working with the provincial government of Quebec to look at improved ways of supporting the vitality of that important minority language community.

Our public consultation report is now online. I'd, of course, like to thank my colleagues who took part in the consultations.

I'd also like to thank the various community members who participated for their excellent work, which was very appreciated.

The report summarizes the consultations, but I will highlight the key issues that were raised: the rate of bilingualism in the general public and Canadians' desire to raise that rate; the role of early childhood development in the promotion of French among francophone students in minority communities; the role of immigration in the vitality of francophone minority communities; the many community infrastructure needs; the importance of access to services, which are often delivered by the provinces, territories, or private sector; and the survival of minority language media.

For the first time, my department directly consulted with representatives from every minority language school board, either through existing consultations with provincial and territorial education ministers and ministries or through separate consultations.

As we look forward to our next action plan, our government has decided to play a bigger leadership role in official languages after 10 years of inaction. Liberal governments have a strong history of taking concrete measures on official languages, be it the Manitoba Schools Act, the Official Languages Act, the Charter, or le plan Dion. In the coming months, we will be putting forward a new action plan on official languages drawn from extensive conversation and dialogue with stakeholders and communities. In it, we will recommit to three important roles of the federal government in official languages.

First, we will increase bilingualism. Our two official languages are at the heart of who we are as a country. They are central to our identity and key for our future.

The second area of focus is the vitality of official language minority communities. This means ensuring the vitality of the anglophone community in Quebec as well as that of francophone communities in the rest of the country.

The third area we will focus on is being a government that leads by example and shows a clear path forward for official languages. This area concerns us, in particular, as a government. Our new action plan for official languages will be in place on April 1, 2018. As I mentioned earlier, the plan will be announced by the end of the year.

Much work has been done, but, as you can see, much remains. There are many opportunities for us to work together.

I would be happy to answer any questions you have.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Denis Paradis]

Thank you very much, Minister.

We will now hear from Minister Hussen.

Mr. Hussen, the floor is yours.

[Ahmed Hussen, Liberal, Minister of Immigration]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I would like to begin by acknowledging the work of my colleague Mélanie Joly, Minister of Canadian Heritage, on the official languages file. I would also like to acknowledge the tireless efforts of my colleague Serge Cormier, my parliamentary secretary, who is also a huge champion of francophone immigration.

I would also like to thank the committee for their hard work in preparing the report, “Toward a New Action Plan for Official Languages and Building New Momentum for Immigration in Francophone Minority Communities”.

The focus of my remarks today will be on the government response to that report and the ways that Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, or IRCC, is working to improve immigration to francophone communities.

Our government recognizes that the bilingual nature of our country strengthens both our economy and society, and our government wants Canada's francophone communities to continue to thrive all across the country.

To that end, we believe immigration has an important role to play in the future of Canada's francophone minority communities.

That includes continued efforts to meet our target for francophone economic immigration outside of Quebec of 4% of economic immigrants by 2018.

Mr. Chairman, let me stop here and say that as a priority, not only do I seek to meet this goal but I'm also encouraging my department to exceed it. While we are not meeting that target currently, we have undertaken a number of initiatives to increase francophone immigration outside of Quebec.

For instance, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada regularly promotes francophone minority communities to French-speaking foreign nationals in Canada and abroad. Our missions encourage French-speaking foreign nationals interested in immigrating to Canada to consider francophone communities outside Quebec.

In June 2016, we also launched Mobilité francophone, a new stream in the international mobility program. This stream exempts employers from the labour market impact assessment process when they hire French-speaking workers from abroad on a temporary basis in managerial, professional, and skilled trade occupations to work in francophone communities outside of Quebec. This is a really important initiative.

This makes it easier for employers to efficiently recruit French-speaking foreign workers to highly skilled jobs on a temporary basis. We know that many successful permanent resident applicants start out as temporary workers in Canada. So, it is incumbent on employers, communities, and governments to work closely together to ensure that the new Mobilité francophone stream is used effectively.

The ultimate goal of this program is the retention of new French-speaking workers in francophone communities outside of Quebec and all over the country.

We know that students are another important group that may want to make the transition to permanent residency. We also know that the retention of these students would significantly help francophone communities across Canada. Indeed, graduates of colleges and universities in francophone communities have created networks, improved their language skills, and built community ties.

Temporary workers and students are just some of those who will benefit from the recent changes that we made to the express entry system, which can help French-speaking candidates increase their chances of being invited to apply. These changes include awarding additional points to certain former international students to Canada, rebalancing the system by reducing the number of points for a valid job offer, and introducing some exemptions from the required labour market impact assessment to support a job offer, including an exemption linked to Mobilité francophone work permits.

Moreover, as of June 6, we are awarding additional points to express entry applicants who have strong French language skills, and even more points to express entry applicants who have strong French language skills and some command of English.

In 2016, 2.9% of all immigrants admitted to Canada under express entry were French speakers.

Projections suggest that these changes will strongly benefit French-speaking immigration candidates who are well ranked in the express entry pool.

And I encourage employers in francophone communities to hire candidates who are in the pool to ensure that francophone candidates do move to their communities.

I'd also like to mention our Atlantic immigration pilot program. This is a three-year program that, while it's not specifically designed to attract French-speaking immigrants, has great potential to help francophone communities in Atlantic Canada attract newcomers. A distinguishing feature of this pilot is that it is the first immigration program in Canadian history to be led by employers. Employers, in partnership with federal, provincial, and municipal governments as well as immigrant settlement service providers, work hard to attract and retain newcomer employees and their families. They do so by getting the employer, for the first time, involved in the settlement of not only the skilled immigrants but also their families. Hopefully, this will lead to more retention of skilled immigrants in francophone communities in Atlantic Canada.

The Atlantic program offers priority processing for permanent resident applications and does not require employers to get an LMI assessment for jobs offered to skilled workers or international graduates under the new pilot programs. The employer helps skilled immigrants and their families to make a settlement plan, takes steps to retain the immigrants, and creates a welcoming environment for them. In exchange, the federal government exempts these employers from seeking a labour market impact assessment, which sometimes can be onerous and take a long time. This program draws on enhanced coordination to identify labour market needs and to endorse candidates who meet those needs. This is a program specifically designed to meet the demographic and labour market challenges of Atlantic Canada. It will also benefit Atlantic Canada's francophone communities.

Every principal applicant will arrive in Atlantic Canada with a job offer and an individualized settlement plan for themselves and their accompanying family members. Applicants will be connected with settlement services to support their successful integration and retention within Atlantic Canada. Again, while this is not specifically designed for French-speaking newcomers, it does present an opportunity for the Atlantic provinces to work with their employers to bring in and retain French-speaking newcomers.

This fall we plan to implement another change that will help us increase our promotional efforts by sending targeted messages to French-speaking candidates in the express entry pool. We are also exploring how we can share the profiles of these successful applicants with our provincial colleagues so that they can attract these individuals to vibrant and well-placed francophone communities under provincial jurisdiction. These messages would inform potential candidates of the possibility of living in a French community outside Quebec and the services available to them for their integration, settlement, and success in Canada. This last point is extremely important. In attracting more French-speaking newcomers to francophone communities, it is important for them to know that they will have the necessary supports to establish themselves. This is an area of settlement in which we rely strongly on partnerships and collaborations.

We can achieve this by building on the excellent work of the 14 francophone immigration networks, or Réseaux en immigration francophone, that receive funding from IRCC.

In collaboration with local and regional partners, the Réseaux en immigration francophone has mobilized community players and governments, leading to better services for French-speaking newcomers.

We are also testing a new pilot service called Arrimage francophone through our settlement program.

This service will help create strong ties between French-speaking immigrants and the local and regional francophone community.

This will be done either by providing direct services to French-speaking immigrants or by linking them to other integration services offered in the community.

This type of collaboration is increasingly important as we work to reach our targets.

I'd also like to mention that we're doing what we can to support anglophone communities in Quebec. Recently, parliamentary secretary Serge Cormier and I travelled to New Brunswick to take part in a historic meeting, the first meeting in Canadian history between francophone provincial and territorial immigration ministers, the federal Minister of Immigration, and the Minister of Canadian Heritage.

I had productive discussions with my provincial colleagues who are responsible for immigration and francophone issues.

I look forward to further discussions with them. I also look forward to continued engagement—

[Michelle Rempel, Conservative, Calgary Nose Hill, AB]

I have a point of order, Mr. Chair.

[Ahmed Hussen, Liberal, York South—Weston, ON]

—with our stakeholders on this file, including the Fédération des communités francophones et acadienne—

[The Chair, Liberal, Denis Paradis]

Minister, can I ask you to conclude, in the interests of time?

[Ahmed Hussen, Liberal, York South—Weston, ON]

Yes, I'm on the last line, actually. Thank you.

In conclusion, Mr. Chair, I would like to reiterate our government's commitment to enhancing and promoting the vitality of francophone minority communities outside Quebec.

Thank you again for inviting me to speak today.

[The Chair, Liberal, Denis Paradis]

Thank you very much.

[François Choquette, NDP, Drummond, QC]

Mr. Chair, I second Ms. Rempel's point of order.

[The Chair, Liberal, Denis Paradis]

Hold on a minute.

I'd just like to thank the ministers for their presentations and let the committee members know that we will be adding a few minutes at the end so that everyone has an opportunity to speak. Since we started the meeting late, eight to 10 minutes will be tacked on at the end. That way, everyone will get the time they are supposed to during the question and answer portion.

Does that work for everyone?

[François Choquette, NDP, Drummond, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

[The Chair, Liberal, Denis Paradis]

I'd also like to thank those responsible for arranging the ministers' appearances today. I know it's not easy to coordinate everyone's schedules, so my thanks to those who made it possible for the committee to meet with the two of you this afternoon.

Now, without further or do, we'll go to Ms. Boucher.

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

Good afternoon, ministers. Welcome to our independent official languages committee.

Thank you for providing the report to us. That said, since you got it to us only an hour ago, we haven't had a chance to read it, which is unfortunate. We would've liked to receive it a bit earlier so we could familiarize ourselves with it. I mention it because we normally get documents like these ahead of time.

Many questions are swirling around in my mind, but first, let me say how taken aback I was by one of your comments, Ms. Joly. You spoke of 10 years of inaction. This is a televised meeting, and I want to say that I reject that statement. I was on the Standing Committee on Official Languages 10 years ago, and although our government may have done things differently, it cannot be accused of inaction. I simply wanted to set the record straight.

Now that that's out of the way, I looked at the new action plan you're proposing. The first area of focus is individual bilingualism. Today, in 2017, that is very important, especially when you work on Parliament Hill. That's a positive stance, and I commend you for it.

The second area of focus is the vitality of francophone and anglophone communities. I think that's also a positive area to focus on. In fact, a motion calling on the Prime Minister to meet with those very communities was proposed here, in the committee, but the members across the way did not support it. I wanted to make that clear because it's important to meet with those representatives. We get phone calls from people every day, and even though we are members of the opposition, we strive to work in a positive and non-partisan way.

With respect to the action plan's third area, you say you will focus on “being a government that leads by example and shows a clear path forward for official languages.”

That principle should have been followed during Ms. Meilleur's nomination process. It may have led to greater co-operation on our part.

People working in the immigration sector who appeared before the committee told us that communities faced structural challenges. Either before or after the holidays, we heard that, in some francophone communities, the funding was going to the anglophone community even though the francophone community already had the necessary infrastructure in place to welcome immigrants.

Could you tell us more about that?

[Mélanie Joly, Liberal, Ahuntsic-Cartierville, QC]

Thank you, my honourable colleague.

Let me begin by thanking my counterpart Mr. Hussen for how well he spoke French. You're right about the importance of bilingualism on the Hill, which we see in action with Mr. Hussen, who is currently taking intensive training.

I'm very glad you all received the report. I would remind you that, during the consultations carried out by the previous government, the report wasn't made available until just before the action plan's release. Our government wants to do things differently, so it has sent the report to you months in advance to give you time to review it carefully before we submit our action plan.

As far as the new official languages vision is concerned, what most definitely happened in recent years was that the responsibility for official languages was, slowly but surely, restricted to the Department of Canadian Heritage. Our government wanted to show leadership and reaffirm the importance of official languages across the entire government.

We've done it in numerous ways. Consider the following examples: in defence, by restoring full university status to the Royal Military College Saint-Jean; in immigration, to which my colleague will be able to speak further; in infrastructure, by investing $80 million in community infrastructure over 10 years; in justice, by reinstating the court challenges program and nominating a bilingual judge to the Supreme Court; in early childhood development, by collaborating on a memorandum of understanding with my fellow minister, Jean-Yves Duclos; in the official languages regulatory review, by working with Minister Scott Brison, President of the Treasury Board; and in public safety, by making sure the RCMP has bilingual officers on Parliament Hill. I could go on.

We did all that in 18 months, which is why I am so proud of everything we've been able to accomplish during that time. Naturally, when the plan is released, we will continue to show leadership in a very meaningful way.

I hope to continue working with you, my fellow members on the Standing Committee on Official Languages, because the terrific work you do is clear every time I work on the official languages portfolio.

I will now hand things over to my colleague Mr. Hussen.

[Ahmed Hussen, Liberal, York South—Weston, ON]

Thank you, Minister Joly.

Our department provides funding to 50 francophone organizations that offer settlement services to French-speaking immigrants and newcomers who are settling into francophone minority communities.

To the question around some of the money going to organizations that may or may not be francophone in their orientation, the way I'll answer that is that we have very strict requirements for whom we fund these services. Any organization that we fund has to demonstrate its ability to provide those services to francophones. We are very aggressive in tracking the implementation of the funding agreements that we have with the organizations. If they don't fulfill the services that they're supposed to fulfill to francophone newcomers, we are able to take action and cut their funding.

[The Chair, Liberal, Denis Paradis]

Thank you, minister.

Maybe you can complete your answer with another witness.

[Ahmed Hussen, Liberal, York South—Weston, ON]

Sure.

[The Chair, Liberal, Denis Paradis]

It is now Paul Lefebvre's turn.

[Paul Lefebvre, Liberal, Sudbury, ON]

Mr. Chair, I'd like to thank both ministers for being with us today.

Like you, Mr. Chair, I want to tip my hat to the team who managed to bring everyone together. It's not easy to do what we are doing today and to have two ministers appearing to respond to our report.

We spent months working on our report on the next action plan and immigration. It addresses key issues, and the fact that it has the committee's unanimous support shows just how important it is. The report contains 16 recommendations, two of which I'd like to focus on.

I'll speak to Mr. Hussen about the first and to Ms. Joly about the other.

Minister Hussen, as you know, Canada's target for francophone immigration is approximately 4%. Unfortunately, we've never reached that target, or even come close. According to the last study, francophone immigration accounted for about 1.4% of the national total.

Before I get to my question, I want to congratulate you on the new Mobilité francophone stream. It is going to be very beneficial. Not to mention, the awarding of additional points under the express entry program will go a long way towards improving the situation. Those are tangible measures. Your participation, along with that of your parliamentary secretary, at the ministerial forum on francophone immigration was very important. I received a lot of positive feedback on that.

Nevertheless, given how hard it is for Canada to reach that 4% target, the committee was told that it may be advisable to have someone in the department who is responsible and accountable for meeting the target. Instead of the target simply being one of the department's internal objectives, someone would be responsible and accountable for meeting the target. That person could be a director general or a deputy minister. We aren't exactly sure what it would look like, but, as recommendation 15 indicates, we want IRCC to ensure that the principle of substantive equality in official languages is applied to all departmental programs.

I'd like to hear your take, Minister, on recommendation 15 in the committee's report.

[Ahmed Hussen, Liberal, York South—Weston, ON]

Thank you very much for the question, honourable member. I will respond by pointing out a number of things.

In the last analysis that we did on the economic immigration side, the number of francophones through that stream is now as high as 2.9%.

[Paul Lefebvre, Liberal, Sudbury, ON]

Progress is being made.

[Ahmed Hussen, Liberal, York South—Weston, ON]

The changes we keep making to our different programs, and the new initiatives that we introduce, are actually having an impact. I'm very proud of that.

We are laser-focused on the target. In fact, I've told my department that we intend to exceed the target. My parliamentary secretary, Serge Cormier, who is here today, has been working aggressively to offer suggestions not only on how we can have more accountability with respect to the target, but also in consulting francophone communities all over the country to make sure we get their ideas and feedback on what more we can do.

We've done Mobilité francophone. We've made numerous changes to express entry. There's the Atlantic program, and so on. The other remaining piece is more aggressive promotion of French-speaking newcomers who could potentially add to our skills base as a country.

Taken all together, you are already starting to see an increase from the stuff that we've implemented. However, to meet the target, we need to do more and are committed to doing more.