Good afternoon, Mr. Chair and members of the Standing Committee on Official Languages.
My name is Alexandre Cédric Doucet, and I am president of the Acadian Society of New Brunswick, the organization that represents the Acadians and francophones of the province of New Brunswick. I am accompanied today by Ali Chaisson, executive director of SANB.
Thank you very much for inviting SANB to appear before your committee as part of its study on francophone immigration to Canada and Quebec.
Immigration is an especially important area of intervention for the Acadian nation. In New Brunswick, in particular, where French is the mother tongue of some one-third of the population, immigration policies and programs have an essential role to play in maintaining the demographic weight of the francophone community, one that is protected by section 16.1 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. I should also point out that the governments of Canada and New Brunswick are therefore required under the charter to ensure that their immigration policies and programs do not assist one community at the expense of the other and, at the very least, that they maintain the demographic weight of the minority community.
Unfortunately, what the Acadian nation of New Brunswick has witnessed in the province is a very disturbing reality. New Brunswick's francophone community has not benefited from immigration to the same degree as the anglophone community. This is an area where the federal government has undermined the Acadian nation by treating it in the same way as the rest of Canada.
It goes without saying that federal immigration policies can enhance the vitality of the francophone minorities without taking into consideration the specific linguistic composition of those provinces. With a francophone population of approximately 32%, New Brunswick requires permanent, customized federal government immigration support to help it maintain and develop that population. This is because New Brunswick's unique linguistic balance is disturbed every time the percentage of francophone newcomers falls below the percentage of francophones living in the province.
For example, the federal government's target of 4.4% of francophone immigration outside Quebec does not reflect New Brunswick's specificity. If applied to New Brunswick, the 4.4% francophone immigration rate is in fact an assimilation rate. Moreover, in its 2014 New Brunswick francophone immigration action plan, the provincial government gave itself until 2020 for the number of francophone immigrants settling in the province to reflect its linguistic makeup. However, after failing to meet that 2020 target, the government pushed it back to 2023.
Bearing that in mind, we strongly encourage the Standing Committee on Official Languages to recommend that the Government of Canada negotiate an agreement with New Brunswick that reflects the linguistic and constitutional specificity of the only officially bilingual province in the country. More specifically, it should consult the New Brunswick government and concerned representatives of both official language communities and negotiate and adopt a five-year agreement on support for the distinct educational and cultural institutions of both communities to ensure their protection and promotion. That five-year agreement should focus on primary and secondary education, early childhood, post-secondary education, health and, of course, immigration.
According to projections derived from a baseline scenario, by 2036, the francophone population of New Brunswick will have fallen closer to one-quarter of the total population, rather than one-third, as is currently the case. An annual 10% of francophone immigration to Canada outside Quebec would help to slow the decline in New Brunswick and to reach a francophone population percentage of 30% in 2036.
To do that, the province must be granted a federal quota of at least 15% of the francophone immigration target over the next few years in order to maintain growth in its Acadian and francophone population and thus avoid decline. Engineering that increase will be no easy task: raising the number of francophone immigrants means expanding funding for institutions and integration services and reinforcing the francophone support system. Greater financial and human resources will have to be introduced to support efforts to meet the target so we can inform the New Brunswick population and increase its awareness of diversity, inclusion and multiculturalism.
In short, increasing the number of francophone immigrants in the province would help maintain or expand the francophone population. However, our hosting capacity must be taken into consideration in this process because it will have a significant impact on our retention rate. Initiatives will also have to be funded to respond to those social challenges and to help us learn to live together.
I appeal to your courage and sense of responsibility as statesmen and stateswomen. A bright future lies ahead for Canada and Acadie. We are at a veritable crossroads. It is up to you to decide the direction of this major Canadian project and its distinct implementation within our language minority communities.
Thank you.