Thank you for the question.
As I said in my opening remarks, I think embassies need to work with French-speaking communities. Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada must properly align its practices with francophone immigration objectives. I think Alain Dupuis and the Fédération des communautés francophones et acadienne du Canada have often mentioned this. As I said, the communities are working hard to promote and recruit, as well as to help immigrants settle in Canada.
Extending consular services to countries where they don't exist doesn't just involve Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada. Other ministries are also involved in this process, and these ministries must determine where services are lacking.
I mentioned the Canadian embassy in Côte d'Ivoire or Senegal. Isn't it time to bring back, little by little, the services that have been abolished or, in some cases, never existed, so that people can access these services directly in their own country? We could also set up a telephone hotline where people could call to find out the status of their case. After two or three years of waiting, some applicants still haven't received an answer, and are simply told that their application is being processed. People don't know who to contact for information. These services could be offered by consulates, which would help or encourage people, especially in Africa.
In Quebec, as far as CEGEP students are concerned, there has been a lot of media coverage of the fact that the system leads to many systematic refusals. Yet many of our applicants come from French-speaking sub-Saharan Africa.