Official Languages Committee on Feb. 16th, 2022

[The Chair, Liberal, René Arseneault]

Good afternoon, everyone. I call this meeting to order.

Welcome to meeting number seven of the House of Commons Standing Committee on Official Languages.

Today's meeting is taking place in a hybrid format, pursuant to the House order of November 25, 2021, and members may attend in person or remotely use the Zoom application. The proceedings will be made available via the House of Commons website. For your information, the screen will always show the person speaking, rather than the entirety of the committee.

Given the ongoing pandemic situation and in light of the recommendations from health authorities, as well as the directive of the Board of Internal Economy on Monday, February 14, 2022, to remain healthy and safe, all those attending the meeting in person are to maintain two-metre physical distancing. They must wear a non-medical mask when circulating in the room, and it is highly recommended that the mask be worn at all times, including when seated. They must also maintain proper hand hygiene by using the provided hand sanitizer in the room.

As the chair, I will enforce these measures for the duration of the meeting, and I thank the members in advance for their cooperation.

For those participating virtually, I would like to outline a few rules to follow.

You may speak in the official language of your choice. Interpretation services are available for this meeting. You have the choice at the bottom of your screen of either “Floor”, “English” or “French”. Please inform me immediately if interpretation is lost, and I will ensure that it is promptly restored before resuming the proceedings.

Members participating in person may proceed as you usually would when the whole committee is meeting in person in a committee room.

Before speaking, please wait until I recognize you by name. If you are participating in the meeting via videoconference, please click on the microphone icon to unmute yourself. For the members in the room, your microphone will be controlled, as usual, by the proceedings and verification officer.

We remind you that all comments by members should be addressed through the chair.

When speaking, please speak slowly and clearly, not as I often do when I forget. When you are not speaking, your microphone must be on mute.

Regarding the speaking list, the committee clerk and I will do our best to maintain an order of speaking that is fair for all members, whether they are participating virtually or in person.

Should any technical challenges arise, please advise me. Please note that we may need to suspend for a few minutes as we need to ensure that all members are able to participate fully.

Pursuant to Standing Order 108(3)(f) and the motion adopted by the committee on Monday, January 31, 2022, the committee is resuming its study of government measures to protect and promote French in Quebec and Canada.

I would now like to welcome our witnesses for the first hour.

First of all, from the Department of Canadian Heritage, joining us via videoconference is Julie Boyer, Assistant Deputy Minister, Official Languages, Heritage and Regions. She is accompanied by Sarah Boily, Director General, Official Languages.

Then, from the Department of Citizenship and Immigration, we have Corrine Prince, Acting Assistant Deputy Minister, Settlement and Integration Sector. She is accompanied by Glen Linder, Director General, International and Intergovernmental Relations.

You will have a maximum of five minutes for each speech, after which we will proceed with questions.

To our guests, I will let you know when you have about one minute left.

Before going any further, however, I must consult my colleagues. We have just lost nearly 45 minutes as a result of the vote in the House. I was going to suggest that we divide what remains of the two hours into two equal parts for the first and second panels of witnesses. Madam Clerk informs me that our technicians and interpreters can continue for a full two-hour block.

I realize that some of you have obligations after 5:30 p.m. eastern time—I'm in New Brunswick—but would it work if we extended the meeting by 15 minutes? We would then adjourn at 5:45 p.m.

Are there any objections?

Please raise your hand or signal to me.

Then we will adjourn the meeting 15 minutes after the scheduled time.

Is that correct, Madam Clerk?

[Joël Godin, Conservative, Portneuf—Jacques-Cartier, QC]

Mr. Chair, I apologize for speaking, but I requested the floor and you couldn't see me from New Brunswick. That's perfectly understandable. I'm happy to see you in good health on screen.

Mr. Chair, would you please see with all the members whether it is possible to extend the meeting by half an hour?

[The Chair, Liberal, René Arseneault]

That would be even better; then we could do the full two-hour block.

Before asking the question, I'll go to Mr. Beaulieu, who has his hand up.

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

I was going to say the same thing and ask if people would be prepared to do a full two-hour block.

[The Chair, Liberal, René Arseneault]

I don't think so.

I see Ms. Lattanzio raised her hand before Ms. Gladu.

[Marilyn Gladu, Conservative, Sarnia—Lambton, ON]

Yes, same answer; I can stay until 6:00 p.m.

[Patricia Lattanzio, Liberal, Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel, QC]

Mr. Chair, I unfortunately have to leave at 5:45 today. You'll still have a quorum, but I won't be able to stay. I apologize.

[The Chair, Liberal, René Arseneault]

Out of respect for all the members, do we agree to extend the meeting to 5:45 p.m.?

[Joël Godin, Conservative, Portneuf—Jacques-Cartier, QC]

Mr. Chair…

[The Chair, Liberal, René Arseneault]

Go ahead, Mr. Godin.

[Joël Godin, Conservative, Portneuf—Jacques-Cartier, QC]

Mr. Chair, as I am privileged to be in the same room as the clerk, I was able to do a check. According to our colleague Mr. Drouin, if there is a quorum and no one intends to introduce a motion, perhaps we could continue the meeting until 6:00 p.m., even if not all members can participate.

However, we Conservative Party members can agree not to introduce a motion in the last 15 minutes.

[The Chair, Liberal, René Arseneault]

All right.

Do I have the unanimous consent of all members to Mr. Godin's motion?

We have unanimous consent. No motions may be introduced after 5:45 p.m. That's perfect.

(Motion agreed to)

Madam Clerk, is that a legitimate motion? Is it in order?

[The Clerk of the Committee, Ms. Ariane Gagné-Frégeau]

Yes, it's all in order on my end. I'm noting down the motion.

[The Chair, Liberal, René Arseneault]

That's perfect.

Then we'll do a full hour with the first witnesses.

Before starting, I wanted to tell you that I was present on Monday and learned Tuesday morning that I had been in contact two days earlier with people who subsequently tested positive for COVID‑19. That's why I'm no longer in Ottawa. I was asked to isolate for five days. I want to tell the people who were in the room on Monday that I have no symptoms, that I have never had any and that my COVID‑19 test was negative again this morning. So I wanted to tell the technicians, interpreters, the clerk and Mr. Godin, who was in the room with the members of his staff, that all is well.

Now I would ask Ms. Boyer or Ms. Boily from the Department of Canadian Heritage to deliver the first five-minute opening speech.

The floor is yours.

[Julie Boyer, Assistant Deputy Minister, Official Languages, Heritage and Regions, Department of Canadian Heritage]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I'll be speaking first.

First of all, my sincere thanks to you and all the members of the committee for your invitation and especially for the work you are doing.

Your studies are important for Canadians in general, but particularly so for federal employees. Your research and investigations provide them with guidelines for developing policies.

My colleague, Sarah Boily, and I are delighted to have the opportunity to speak to you about the government's efforts to protect and promote the place of French in Canada.

Since the September 2020 throne speech, the government has recognized that French is in a unique situation and that we have a responsibility to protect and promote it, not just in Canada, but in Quebec as well.

In fact, several initiatives are already under way to provide the government with important levers to take concrete action to protect and promote the French language from coast to coast to coast.

The most recent “Action Plan for Official Languages - 2018-2023: Investing in Our Future” was launched after extensive consultations with communities and partners in the sector. The plan represents an investment of $2.7 billion over five years, with $500 million of new funds intended to counter the decline in the demographic weight of francophone communities across the country.

This plan has enabled the government to make investments in key sectors essential for the vitality of francophone communities in Canada, such as immigration, early childhood education, justice, health and many others. Above all, it has made it possible to better fund initiatives to promote French, such as French immersion programs; a recruitment strategy for French teachers; French second language post-secondary scholarships; support for second language learning and minority language education through federal, provincial and territorial agreements; better support for French language services in the territories; and the renewal of the collaboration agreement for the development of arts and culture in francophone minority communities.

With one year to go, we have completed all of the initiatives included in this action plan for official languages, and we are about to begin consultations for the next action plan for 2023-28.

In addition to these major investments, on April 19, 2021, the federal government announced that it was planning to invest an additional $389.9 million over three years to support official languages, starting this fiscal year, 2021‑2022.

Among other things, it proposed to allocate $180.4 million to expand bilingualism. First of all, we want to improve the French immersion and French second language programs in schools and postsecondary institutions. Second, we want to assist the provinces and territories in meeting the strong demand from students and parents for spaces in French immersion and French second language programs. Third, we want to enhance the strategy in place to recruit and retain teachers and support French language learning in early childhood.

Another $121.3 million was committed to provide high-quality minority-language postsecondary education across Canada.

Lastly, $81.8 million was allocated over two years to support the construction, renovation and expansion of the educational and community spaces that serve official language minority communities.

These investments will help to provide greater protection and promotion for French across the country and will contribute to the vitality of the official language minority communities.

The department is working hard to introduce a new bill to modernize the Official Languages Act and to implement the legislative, regulatory and administrative proposals outlined in the reform document entitled “English and French: Towards a substantive equality of official languages in Canada,” which was released last February.

The government has demonstrated its commitment to protecting and promoting French and will continue to do so by implementing the modernization of the Official Languages Act.

I would be pleased to take your questions.

[The Chair, Liberal, René Arseneault]

Thank you, Ms. Boyer.

We will now hear from Glenn Linder, from the Department of Citizenship and Immigration.

[Glen Linder, Director General, International and Intergovernmental Relations, Department of Citizenship and Immigration]

Mr. Chair and members of the committee, thank you for the opportunity to address you today.

I'd like to emphasize that I am joining you from the traditional territory of the Algonquin people.

I am accompanied by Corinne Prince, acting assistant deputy minister, settlement and integration sector.

We are pleased to provide you with information on the Canada–Quebec Accord Relating to Immigration and Temporary Admission of Aliens and on francophone immigration outside Quebec.

Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, or IRCC, works closely with its Quebec government counterpart, the Ministère de l'Immigration, de la Francisation et de l'Intégration, and acknowledges the respective roles and responsibilities of the two levels of government as defined in the 1991 Canada-Quebec accord. The main objectives of the accord are to preserve Quebec’s demographic weight within Canada and to integrate immigrants to the province in a manner that respects the distinct identity of the province.

As a result of the accord, Quebec is the only province that publishes its immigration objectives and targets every year. However, the onus is on the Canadian government to establish the total annual number of immigrants for the country as a whole, taking into account Quebec's position on the number of immigrants it wishes to accept in all classes.

Quebec is also assigned other responsibilities under the accord, such as establishing its own economic immigrant selection criteria, setting and assessing financial criteria for sponsoring in the family reunification class, selecting refugees taken in by the government or through collective sponsorship and providing intake and integration services in the province.

With respect to federal responsibilities, IRCC administers the family reunification program and the protected persons program in Canada. Protected persons are persons whom the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada has recognized as refugees in need of Canada's protection.

The Government of Canada is also responsible for determining the eligibility of all immigration applicants to Canada. Evaluating eligibility includes health, security and criminal checks to determine whether applicants meet statutory requirements for admission to the country.

Now I would like to discuss francophone immigration outside Quebec.

The federal government recognizes that immigration plays an important role in supporting the vitality of francophone minority communities across the country. In March 2019, IRCC launched Meeting Our Objectives: Francophone Immigration Strategy, in which it outlined the government's vision for francophone immigration and reaffirmed a target of 4.4% of French-speaking immigrants outside Quebec by 2023.

IRCC has since launched new initiatives to reach that 4.4% target, notably by awarding additional points to French-speaking and bilingual applicants in the express entry system, which we use to manage permanent residence applications from skilled workers outside Quebec.

The strategy has yielded positive results. Admissions have constantly increased from less than 2% in 2017 to 3.6% in 2020. However, pandemic-related restrictions, particularly border restrictions, have had a significant impact on immigration in general and have affected francophone immigration in particular. As a result, francophones represented only 2% of admissions in 2021.

In 2020 and 2021, the department introduced a number of measures in response to the pandemic to ensure that Canada remained a top destination for French-speaking immigrants, including a pathway from temporary to permanent residence. By the time the pathway closed on November 5, 2021, the department had received 2,300 applications in the two components reserved for French-speaking essential workers and approximately 4,700 applications in the component reserved for recently graduated francophone international students.

Mr. Chair, we will be pleased to answer your questions.

[The Chair, Liberal, René Arseneault]

Thank you, Mr. Linder. All our witnesses stayed within their speaking times today.

We will therefore begin the first round of questions and answers. Each party will have six minutes.

The first questioner will be our vice-chair, Joël Godin.

Go ahead, Mr. Godin.

[Joël Godin, Conservative, Portneuf—Jacques-Cartier, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I'd like to thank our witnesses, the representatives of the departments of Canadian Heritage and Citizenship and Immigration. Thanks to them for taking part in this exercise, and I apologize for being late.

My first question will be for the people from the Department of Canadian Heritage. Before going any further, Mr. Chair, I'd like to mention that we had invited the Minister of Canadian Heritage and that he unfortunately did not accept our invitation. So we'll put our questions to the people who work at the department every day.

Ms. Boyer, you said that the government acknowledged the decline of the French language in the 2020 throne speech. You also discussed offensives conducted by the government, which announced a $389‑million investment over two years on April 19, 2021. Investments are all well and good, but you said you had to improve immersion programs, assist the provinces and territories and support French. What specific measures have been implemented and what measures have been taken to rectify the situation since the 2020 throne speech?

[Julie Boyer]

Thank you very much for your question.

I'll begin by saying that that was stated in the 2020 throne speech and repeated in the 2021 throne speech. We're responding in several ways to these trends and to the decline in the demographic weight of francophones, in particular, through the Action Plan for Official Languages, which contains several measures.

In certain cases, we had to increase the amounts allocated to those programs. No correction was necessary. Instead we had to increase the amount of the envelope so we could assist more students, for example, by expanding francization programs, increasing the number of spaces in the schools and recruiting more French-language teachers—

[Joël Godin, Conservative, Portneuf—Jacques-Cartier, QC]

Thank you, Ms. Boyer. I'll stop you there because, as you know, my time is precious and monitored here.

My understanding is that the only problem with the representation or position of francophones was a lack of funding. The tools and programs in place were effective, but you were simply short of money. That's actually what you're saying, isn't it?

[Julie Boyer]

Yes.

[Joël Godin, Conservative, Portneuf—Jacques-Cartier, QC]

All right, thank you.

Now I'll go to the Department of Immigration people.

The number of complaints that have been filed with the Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages concerning the language that Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada uses to respond to members of the public has surged.

Mr. Linder, do you have a plan to correct those issues?

[Glen Linder]

Thank you for your question.

We take note of those complaints, of course, and we take them seriously. We're totally aware of our obligations under the Official Languages Act but also understand how important it is to provide service to clients in the language of their choice. We examine all cases brought to our attention, and we definitely—

[Joël Godin, Conservative, Portneuf—Jacques-Cartier, QC]

Pardon me for interrupting, Mr. Linder, but it's a simple question: do you have a plan to correct the problem?

You're telling me about observations and saying you respond to all complaints, but do you have an action plan to rectify the situation?