Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.
I thank the witnesses for being here.
Mr. Castonguay, one of your statements shocked me, but I am not surprised. I am used to it. In 1965, a song by Mr. Raymond Lévesque told us that schoolchildren in Alberta did not have access to French-language schools. Today, they have access to it. Francophone resilience outside Quebec is very strong. We just need to support and understand it.
Whether it is the francophonie in Quebec or the international Francophonie, francophones are a minority worldwide. It is up to us to do the work. I am used to working in a minority environment and being called a francophone on an artificial life support. Columnist Mathieu Bock-Côté, for example, spoke to me when he eulogized francophones outside Quebec.
Given the fertility rate, whether in Quebec, in the rest of Canada or elsewhere in the world—for example, it is 1.7 children per woman in Quebec and 1.83 in France, I believe that immigration is the way that the Francophonie will survive. So I am reaching out to you. It is up to us to work together to address this issue. The largest French-speaking population is in Africa, and this where the future of the Francophonie lies.
Mr. Pichette, you made some very good suggestions. You talked about charlatans and people abusing other people’s goodwill, and I have a problem with that. I do not know how we can deal with this, knowing full well that we have to be the best. We have no choice. In the Francophonie, we must be better than all the others in immigration, because we are already part of a minority. Whether in France or Canada, we are a minority.
How can we be more effective, more efficient, in attracting French-speaking immigrants from Africa?
We have no choice but to rely on Africa. The birth rate is high and young people make up more than half of the population over there. Young people want to work and they do not have a job. In Canada, Quebec is a great place to welcome them.
You mentioned the importance of having more resources in embassies. Why do you say that?