Official Languages Committee on April 4th, 2022

[Brigitte Duguay-Langlais]

Housing.

Even with a job, at minimum wage or even at two or three dollars more, they are all living below the poverty line. They are below the poverty line and want to be able to to pay for affordable housing. That's extremely important.

There is also a lot of work involved in job integration, such as employer awareness and providing these employers with access to new employees. Those are the two most important points.

They also need access to the francophone community. The need to know we exist. That's essential.

[Angelo Iacono, Liberal, Alfred-Pellan, QC]

Thank you very much, Ms. Duguay-Langlais, for your very interesting testimony.

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

[The Chair, Liberal, René Arseneault]

Thank you, Mr. Iacono.

The next questions will be from Mr. Beaulieu.

Mr. Beaulieu, please go ahead.

[Mario Beaulieu, Bloc, La Pointe-de-l'Île, QC]

A recent article talked about foreign francophone students in Ontario. The article said that at the only two French-language community colleges in Ontario, the refusal rates for study permits were 67% and 73%. The percentages were no better for universities.

Basically, there is a very straightforward solution to the problem. Why not raise the percentage that they have to accept?

Using Quebec as an example, people are accepted by a CEGEP or a university. They receive an acceptance certificate from the Quebec government . After that, 80% of them are refused by the federal government. It seems to me that it would be fairly simple to simply instruct them to accept 50% of applications from the francophone recruitment pools.

What do you think about that, Dr. Miville?

[Dr. Serge Miville]

Thank you for your question.

I believe that the federal government would be well advised to work with institutions and French-language institutions in minority communities, and with Quebec institutions, to do something about these integration and approval issues.

Work with us. We are the ones who leverage community, economic, social, cultural and even demographic development. In the regions, there are more opportunities for a successful settlement in French in a minority community. We need to work with these institutions to meet our targets.

[Mario Beaulieu, Bloc, La Pointe-de-l'Île, QC]

I don't know how to explain this to you. One witness told us that generally, there had to be 15 to 20 offers to candidates to get 20 students to accept, and that three of these students would be granted a study permit.

It seems to me that there should be a way of establishing guidelines on accepting more francophone foreign students.

[Brigitte Duguay-Langlais]

If I may, Mr. Beaulieu, I might have a partial answer.

I promise that it will take me less than 15 seconds, Mr. Arseneault.

When I talk about the gap between public policy and the field, there is work to be done there. Those who accept and work on study permits abroad may not be particularly well informed about the current state of political will.

[The Chair, Liberal, René Arseneault]

Thank you, Ms. Duguay-Langlais.

We're getting to the final question for today.

Ms. Ashton, you have the floor for two and a half minutes.

[Niki Ashton, NDP, Churchill—Keewatinook Aski, MB]

Thank you very much.

I have a brief question for Dr. Miville .

For some time, the federal government has been asked to provide stable support to French-language postsecondary institutions.

Do you believe that the federal government should give more stable and more predictable support to postsecondary educational institutions that have programming in French? I'm thinking in particular of your university, of the Université de Saint-Boniface and of the University of Alberta's Saint-Jean campus.

Do you think this is important?

[Dr. Serge Miville]

Thank you for asking that question.

Naturally, I believe that investing in our French-language postsecondary institutions, which are governed on the "by and for" model, will ultimately lead to better results. An institution developed on the basis of the French fact will be in a better position to generate educational success and integration, whether for Canadian citizens or economic immigrants.

Predictable funding is therefore needed. We need to put an end to project-by-project funding and to work with French-language postsecondary institutions so that they can be equipped to achieve our collective objectives.

We want to welcome people. Regional communities have the capacity receive immigrants and are most likely to be successful in helping them settle, establish a family and send their children to our institutions, thereby contributing to our vibrant economy.

Institutions based on the "by and for" model perform better than others.

[Niki Ashton, NDP, Churchill—Keewatinook Aski, MB]

Thank you very much.

I have 10 seconds left. Ms. Duguay-Langlais, what should the federal francophone immigration policy look like?

[Brigitte Duguay-Langlais]

It's not fair to have only 15 seconds to answer that question.

All I can say is that collaboration with the provinces is essential if the provinces are to get involved in francophone immigration. But I also think that we can expect to hear lots of other ideas on that score.

[The Chair, Liberal, René Arseneault]

Thank you, Ms. Duguay-Langlais.

That completes the round of questions. I'd like to start by thanking Ms. Duguay-Langlais, Dr. Miville, Ms. Djiemeni and Mr. Guy-Roland Kadio.

Thank you for your testimony and for having come. If you think that you haven't had enough time to provide us with additional details about what you have to say, don't hesitate to send a report or something in writing to our clerk to provide us with any information you think is missing. It will be treated as if you had testified about it today. So don't hesitate to send us any additional information.

Mr. Godin has asked Ms. Duguay-Langlais to send the committee information about the 14 welcoming communities, a government program that was announced in the spring of 2019, if my memory serves me correctly, before COVID-19, I believe.

So on that note, I would like to thank our guests, who have helped us understand their views.

The meeting is adjourned.