Good morning.
My name is Florence Ngenzebuhoro and I am the president and CEO of the Centre francophone du grand Toronto. I'm very honoured to be here this morning. I am accompanied by the vice-president, Ms. Aissa Nauthoo, whom I also consider an expert in francophone immigration.
As president and CEO of the Centre francophone du Grand Toronto, I want to thank you for this opportunity to share our observations and potential solutions pertaining to the challenges and opportunities associated with the increase in francophone immigration, as well as settlement services needs across Canada.
The centre is a multi-service organization that helps and supports over 50,000 French-speaking individuals each year. It has over 25 years of experience in providing settlement services to French-speaking newcomers in the Greater Toronto Area and throughout Canada.
Through our mandate to welcome and refer all francophone, anglophone and allophone newcomers arriving at Pearson Airport, the centre is the gateway and first experience of many newcomers to Canada. We also offer a wide range of complementary services to help newcomers integrate. This includes legal aid services managed by Ms. Aissa Nauthoo, who is with me today, employability and entrepreneurship services, primary and mental health care, and housing support. We thus strive to provide all of the services a newcomer to Canada might need.
As a result, the centre has a unique view of newcomers' needs and services issues along the continuum. We will share with you some of our findings and suggested solutions on how to better meet the needs of French-speaking newcomers.
Our findings are as follows. Since the implementation of French-language services at Pearson airport in 2019—we are very grateful to the federal government for offering this opportunity to francophones—we have noted challenges related to access to immigration services, and this applies throughout the continuum of services. We find that the journey of French-speaking immigrants, from their country of origin and after their arrival in Canada, is not always very complete or seamless. We know this from experience, because we are able to follow immigrants from their host country to the city where they settle.
For example, we've noticed that French-speaking newcomers arriving at Pearson airport aren't always aware of the services available, or haven't obtained enough information about these services prior to their arrival. Also, for those French-speaking newcomers who received reception and referral services at Pearson airport, i.e., those we welcomed, we found that they did not always contact settlement services or know about settlement services in their destination city. Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada also presents administrative challenges and issues related to processing times for immigrant files, whether for those already on Canadian soil or those abroad.
These findings have highlighted some issues pertaining to the lack of systematic access to the services necessary for the successful integration of francophone newcomers throughout the continuum of services. In addition, there is a lack of coordination of settlement services and a lack of concerted effort between all participants in the continuum of services for francophone immigration to ensure that newcomers have an uninterrupted experience of support and services for successful integration. There's also an administrative slowness, which I've already mentioned.
In reality, then, what's missing is a pan-Canadian, systemic and collective approach to collecting, analyzing and sharing information relevant to coordination and co‑operation between pre-departure, reception and settlement services, which limits the ability of francophone newcomers to take full advantage of reception and settlement services.
I'm going to present a few possible solutions. We recommend an integrated approach to facilitating access and referral to services for francophone newcomers, from pre-departure to arrival and settlement. We recommend strengthening data and information sharing among the various stakeholders involved in the continuum of services to increase the effectiveness of support offered to francophone newcomers. We recommend improving in‑person support in immigrants' countries of origin. Finally, we recommend that more consular offices be opened in other French-speaking countries, especially in areas where the great distances between offices make it hard for people wanting to immigrate to Canada to access them.
To conclude—