Official Languages Committee on Oct. 4th, 2023

[Marc Miller, Liberal, Ville-Marie—Le Sud-Ouest—Île-des-Soeurs, QC]

First, in terms of service standards for students, we are currently below the 60‑day threshold, at 46 days. Second, in terms of responsibility for housing, educational institutions clearly have a role to play. The federal government can get involved, but the provincial government must also contribute.

We have made major investments, particularly at the Université Laval and, on the west coast, at the University of British Columbia, to ensure that there is acceptable housing for foreign students. This is a discussion that will have to be coordinated with the provinces and with the institutions themselves.

[Tom Kmiec, Conservative, Calgary Shepard, AB]

It only takes two minutes to read a post on social media, which I know you spend a lot of time on. I have here an article from La Presse titled, loosely translated, “International students are struggling to obtain services”, which talks about the services the federal government does not offer students when they apply or when they want to change something.

Many students want to enrol in the post-graduate work permit program—

[The Chair, Liberal, René Arseneault]

Mr. Kmiec, your time is up. Thank you very much.

I now give the floor to Ms. Taylor Roy and Mr. Samson, who will share the next five minutes.

Ms. Taylor Roy, you have two and a half minutes.

[Leah Taylor Roy, Liberal, Aurora—Oak Ridges—Richmond Hill, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I also want to thank the minister, as well as Ms. Fox and Ms. Scott.

I will speak in English because I represent a community that has a minority francophone population.

We heard from the witnesses previously that one of the concerns is that many of the francophone communities are not keeping up the language—that their children are speaking English and that they are actually losing some of the francophones there.

In my riding there is an organization by the name of Trille Blanc, which is a francophone organization trying to develop a community for francophones, for seniors, for child care and so on.

There's also an organization called AFRY, which stands for Association des francophones de la région de York, and another called PARTAGEZ le français.

Under the action plan for official languages—and I understand you're going to be working with the Minister for Official Languages—are there programs or other things that are being done to ensure that immigrants who come into these communities retain their French language? Are we supporting these minority communities in their work to keep the French language alive there?

[Marc Miller, Liberal, Ville-Marie—Le Sud-Ouest—Île-des-Soeurs, QC]

It's a really important question. I alluded to it in one of my answers to a question from one of your colleagues on the other side.

When people who speak French to come to this country, we can't expect them to keep the language when after two generations—and the statistics prove that it's two generations—it will disappear if they're not properly surrounded. The overarching threat to the French language is the English language, just by its volume, in particular outside Quebec but also inside Quebec.

Having raised, and continuing to raise, three kids in three different languages, I totally understand the struggle of your constituents in making sure that the dominant language does not take over, whether it's through friendships or just by people's surroundings. It is a constant struggle.

I'm not going to say that the federal government has all the answers, but the official languages plan has settlement services that have gone from 50 to 80 communities across the country. That's important.

When I met with some institutions in London that were working with IRCC and were funded in large part by it, they talked about the importance of making sure that unilingually French people not only get their community supports but are also able to be integrated into a predominantly anglophone area, while at the same time preserving the language that we want to support, French.

It is a challenge. I think it's one that we can really live up to as the federal government, but there is the need for provincial governments to step up. In this case it's Ontario, but we've also seen this need in New Brunswick and other provinces.

It is a partial answer to your question. When we talk about thresholds and the mechanisms that we need, it is important to have those proper supports in place in order for French to thrive outside Quebec. Otherwise, you are just creating conditions such that after 60 to 65 years, people are then speaking the dominating language, which more often than not is English.

[Leah Taylor Roy, Liberal, Aurora—Oak Ridges—Richmond Hill, ON]

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, René Arseneault]

Mr. Samson, you have a little less than a minute and a half left.

[Darrell Samson, Liberal, Sackville—Preston—Chezzetcook, NS]

I can't contextualize my question in a minute and a half.

Minister, I want to congratulate you. I know that you are the right person to fulfill the government's commitments, but time is very limited and we have to act quickly, turning on a dime, as we say back home.

It is recognized that almost 100% of the population increase today is due to immigration. By 2032, all of that growth is expected to come from immigration.

You said something very important. You talked about the mechanism. I'm interested in the existing mechanism, as it is a mechanism that we can improve upon if we quickly turn on a dime.

I understood that the first one that worked well was to remove barriers to admitting international students so that they could more easily receive their visas and go to schools during the pandemic. I would like us to be able to apply this strategy to francophones, since it is a strategy that has helped us quickly and greatly.

[Marc Miller, Liberal, Ville-Marie—Le Sud-Ouest—Île-des-Soeurs, QC]

That's something we're looking at. In my opinion, it will be important to put this mechanism in place. When I talk to my department about my ambition, they answer me by talking about the pool of candidates, and thus about the game plan to reach the thresholds. However, it is clear that the current pool is insufficient to meet the demand.

[Darrell Samson, Liberal, Sackville—Preston—Chezzetcook, NS]

Exactly. I will soon share with you new mechanisms and strategies for filling this pool.

[The Chair, Liberal, René Arseneault]

Thank you, Mr. Samson.

Mr. Beaulieu, you have the floor for two and a half minutes.

[Mario Beaulieu, Bloc, La Pointe-de-l'Île, QC]

Minister, you will soon be setting immigration thresholds. Did you consult Quebec and, if so, did you take its suggestions into account?

[Marc Miller, Liberal, Ville-Marie—Le Sud-Ouest—Île-des-Soeurs, QC]

As you know, these are not just suggestions, but demands, which I think are very legitimate. We have disagreements at certain levels. In particular, I made it very clear that Quebec could make an additional effort in terms of welcoming family class immigrants, which includes spouses and parents.

The thresholds will have to be discussed. I talked about mixing apples and oranges. Very often, the public discourse mixes up the temporary nature of the stay of certain people who come here, be they students or foreign workers in the agricultural sector, with the immigration thresholds needed to ensure the sustainability of the population and offset the declining birth rate. In the latter case, there is a need for coordination.

[Mario Beaulieu, Bloc, La Pointe-de-l'Île, QC]

Quickly, do you agree that a society's ability to integrate and welcome should be taken into account in determining immigration levels?

[Marc Miller, Liberal, Ville-Marie—Le Sud-Ouest—Île-des-Soeurs, QC]

Across Canada, the answer is yes. When someone tells me that, I want to get into the details and clarify what it means.

[Mario Beaulieu, Bloc, La Pointe-de-l'Île, QC]

You are somewhat following the objectives of the Century Initiative, which is to welcome 500,000 immigrants a year. That seems to me to be determined more by ideological causes than by a consideration of the capacity to integrate. We talked about the housing shortage, among other things, but we don't get the impression that you are taking that into account.

[Marc Miller, Liberal, Ville-Marie—Le Sud-Ouest—Île-des-Soeurs, QC]

That's your point of view.

[Mario Beaulieu, Bloc, La Pointe-de-l'Île, QC]

Do you have no comment on that?

[Marc Miller, Liberal, Ville-Marie—Le Sud-Ouest—Île-des-Soeurs, QC]

I don't share your point of view.

[Mario Beaulieu, Bloc, La Pointe-de-l'Île, QC]

So you're saying that you look at the capacity to accommodate.

[Marc Miller, Liberal, Ville-Marie—Le Sud-Ouest—Île-des-Soeurs, QC]

Absolutely.

First of all, volume is volume. Then you have to look specifically at what provinces, businesses, universities or economic sectors are actually calling for international workers. When you take all that into account and add asylum seekers and the ambitious demands of Canadians and Quebeckers to welcome international refugees—be they from Ukraine, Afghanistan or Syria—that is a lot of people.

Yes, we need accommodation capacity and infrastructure, but I think that, as a country, Canada is able to take in all those people, whether it be in terms of housing, welcoming, integration or francization, for which we pay hundreds of millions of dollars to Quebec—

[Mario Beaulieu, Bloc, La Pointe-de-l'Île, QC]

Did you base that on data?

[The Chair, Liberal, René Arseneault]

Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Your time is up.

Ms. Ashton, you have the floor for two and a half minutes.

[Niki Ashton, NDP, Churchill—Keewatinook Aski, MB]

Minister, francophone communities outside Quebec consider francophone immigration to be essential to their survival.

As the new minister, what priority do you give to the work that needs to be done on francophone immigration?

[Marc Miller, Liberal, Ville-Marie—Le Sud-Ouest—Île-des-Soeurs, QC]

In terms of who we are as a country, this is one of my top priorities. As a minister, I never have the luxury of having a single priority, but I would put that work at the top of the list.

We are talking about our identity as a bilingual country. If we at the federal level are not doing our job in our own area of jurisdiction, we should all be ashamed. We have a mission to do that. I think it's achievable as a societal project for our country.