Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
Ladies and gentlemen of the Standing Committee on Official Languages, thank you very much for this opportunity to speak to you about the recruitment and economic integration of French-speaking immigrants.
For over 10 years, the members of RDÉE Canada, as well as its network in nine provinces and three territories, have been working closely with Canadian employers, both francophone and non-francophone, raising awareness, mobilizing and supporting them in recruiting and integrating the talents and skills of French-speaking immigrants.
I can tell you that it's not an easy task, because the companies we work with are mostly very small or small businesses. In fact, according to Statistics Canada figures for 2020, almost 1.2 million businesses in Canada, or 97.9%, are small businesses with fewer than 10 employees. Those we encounter in the provinces and territories often have two or three employees. The task is not an easy one. These companies don't always have the capacity and tools to recruit locally or internationally, let alone the resources to integrate these new French-speaking immigrants into their businesses and adopt diversity and inclusion policies.
We're also delighted to have reached our target of 4.4% by 2022. However, now that the course has been set after so many years, we need to maintain and surpass it. We have some catching up to do, especially since the Government of Canada, through the Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship, has announced a target of half a million new permanent residents by 2025. That's a huge number. A lot of people need to come to Canada.
If we are to succeed in this ambitious project, our system must be reviewed to better recruit and integrate these newcomers, including francophones. At RDÉE Canada, we hope that the proposed modernized system will include a selection process that places greater emphasis on criteria such as the skills required in the job market, rather than on selection criteria related solely to education.
I'm an immigrant myself. I arrived over 20 years ago, and I'm still flabbergasted to hear about the same challenges that existed back then, such as prior learning recognition, the need for a first Canadian experience, or language barriers. In recent years, these have been compounded by issues of discrimination in hiring and inclusion in the workplace.
The difficulties faced by French-speaking immigrants are often the same as those experienced by other immigrants. However, francophone settlement services are not as well developed as those offered to the English-speaking majority. Why is this? Because they're new, and because IRCC funding is often based on the number of applicants we serve. If we have fewer French-speaking applicants, we'll receive much less funding than others. This represents a major challenge for us. As providers of economic integration services, we find that we can't always offer the same quality of service to French-speaking immigrants, due to a lack of resources, as I was saying.
With regard to international recruitment, RDÉE Canada and its network recently adopted a strategy, based on five interrelated axes, for the recruitment of an international workforce in French-speaking areas, and for the engagement of employers. This starts with identifying the workforce needs of Canadian employers. Secondly, it's important to raise the awareness of these employers, because many of them are, as I said, very small companies or small businesses that don't have the means to recruit internationally, or are afraid to do so. So the third step is to support them. Fourthly, we need to set up a continuous recruitment process in French-speaking areas, by adopting targeted missions, in partnership with employers. Finally, it's important to put in place a process to ensure that candidates selected on these missions are matched with employers and job offers.
Whether for international recruitment in French-speaking areas, or for economic integration once people have arrived in Canada, it's important to put in place holistic integration programs that cover all aspects of the recruitment or economic integration process.
In conclusion, the task is colossal, but nothing is impossible. We need to continue the work we've started, but we need to do things differently. It's important that we're strategic, that we all work together, and that we don't go off in every direction.
Thank you very much.