Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Good afternoon, members of the committee.
I'd like to begin by acknowledging that I join today's meeting from the traditional unceded territory of the Anishinabe Algonquin people.
Immigration plays a key role in supporting Canada's immediate economic needs, reversing our longer-term downward demographic trends, sustaining our official languages, and continuing to support humanitarian needs as part of the global community.
In 2019, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, or IRCC, announced a comprehensive francophone immigration strategy that aimed to reach a 4.4% target of French-speaking immigrant admissions outside Quebec by the end of 2023. The strategy also supports the successful integration and retention of French-speaking newcomers and strengthens the capacity of francophone minority communities.
As you are surely aware, we reached the 4.4% target of French-speaking immigrants admitted to Canada outside Quebec before the end of 2022, a year earlier than the target date, and we are committed to at least meeting this target again this year, if we cannot exceed it.
In 2022, Canada welcomed over 16,300 French-speaking newcomers outside Quebec, three times as many as in 2018. This is the highest number of French-speaking immigrants admitted to Canada outside Quebec since we started collecting data in 2006. These French-speaking newcomers have already begun to enrich and contribute to their new francophone minority communities. They will support the preservation of the French language and help address the labour shortages across Canada, which will be beneficial to population growth and economic prosperity in francophone minority communities.
We reached our target for francophone through concrete actions, including increasing the additional points allocated to francophone and bilingual candidates under the express entry system in 2020; introducing the time-limited temporary resident to permanent resident pathway in 2021, a measure that had no cap; and improving promotional activities in Canada and abroad, including the Destination Canada mobility forum.
New financial investments announced at the end of April as part of the Action Plan for Official Languages 2023-28 provide $137.2 million over five years for seven francophone immigration initiatives. These investments provide IRCC with the means to contribute to the vitality of francophone minority communities across the country, notably with respect to their demographic weight. Taken together, the francophone immigration initiatives will contribute to consolidating IRCC's settlement and integration capacity by strengthening the francophone integration pathway and language training opportunities.
These investments will make it possible to continue to offer French-language services of equal quality to anglophone services to a growing number of French-speaking newcomers in francophone minority communities. This additional funding will also allow us to increase our promotional activities and lay the foundation for long-term improvements to selection mechanisms.
Among our initiatives, the new Centre for Innovation in Francophone Immigration located in Dieppe will explore new avenues to optimize our results and ensure we meet the diverse needs of francophone minority communities across the country.
We are committed to doing even more in the coming years. The new version of Bill C-13 sets out ambitious commitments for the government, particularly with regard to francophone immigration. The department is committed to successfully meeting this challenge. We are currently laying the groundwork for a new francophone immigration policy, including new admissions targets that will be ambitious and achievable.
We will continue to work in close collaboration with partners to provide francophone minority communities with the tools they need to welcome and retain people who want to set down roots in these communities, in particular, by pursuing the welcoming francophone communities initiative.
In closing, I hope I have given committee members a good idea of what our department is doing to encourage newcomers to settle in one of our many francophone minority communities across Canada.
Rest assured that we will do everything in our power to achieve ambitious new francophone immigration goals in the coming years.
With that, I would be pleased to answer the committee's questions.
Thank you.