Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
It's my first time in this Parliament to be here. I have been at this committee in the previous Parliament. I'm happy to be able to join you again.
As many of you will know, I'm from Edmonton. Edmonton Strathcona is the home to Campus Saint-Jean, of course, and is the heart of a very thriving Franco-Albertan community, so I'm happy to be here and to be able to ask some questions of you.
Some of the first questions I have are around the immigration and IRCC issues we have been hearing about today. The witnesses talked about the idea that they are looking into it and that there is research being done, but I think it's very clear that we have a problem here.
Francophone communities are very clear. They know very well that immigration is critical to maintaining their demographic weight and protecting their access to critical services, and they rely on the IRCC to work with them for their very survival. The department has neglected francophone minority communities. The government's target of 4.4% of francophone immigration, established 20 years ago, has never been reached.
The francophone communities need to go beyond aiming for the same targets and, rather, to correct the situation. We need to go further because the government has failed to meet that 4.4% target. We need more ambitious targets. We need to recognize how important it is that we make up for the failure to meet those targets in the past.
What is the department willing to do? Will it be willing to listen to the communities? Will it set new targets to correct these decades of failure? What are those concrete steps? I would just like some very concrete steps on what will be done to ensure that the new targets are actually reached, not just put forward.