Mr. Speaker, our goal is one we hope to achieve within a few years from now. Our aim is to increase the number of francophone economic immigrants to more than 4% of all immigrants by 2018. By 2023, our goal is to increase the proportion of francophone immigrants outside Quebec to more than 4.4% of all immigrants. That includes economic applicants and their dependents, members of the family class and those who arrive under our humanitarian streams.
Our government is convinced that our new economic immigration application management system, Express entry, will contribute toward achieving our goals. After all, Express entry is the route through which the majority of all immigrants to Canada will arrive.
In 2015, Canada plans to welcome 65% of all immigrants through our economic immigration stream. Express entry also increases the opportunities for employers and communities to attract and recruit French speaking and bilingual immigrants. This is where the role of employers, as well as provinces and territories, is important. Skilled workers with offers of employment in Canada, or a nomination from a province, receive more points under express entry. This means an offer of employment or a nomination from a province will increase their rank in the pool, along with their chances to be invited to apply to come to Canada.
This is how express entry operates very differently from our previous immigration system. Under express entry, we now only invite top ranking economic candidates to apply for permanent residence. Candidates who speak both of Canada's official languages receive additional points for their proficiency in their second official language, which can increase their rank in the pool and their chances to be invited to apply.
The government also continues to promote francophone immigration to Canada with our partners and stakeholders abroad. Under the roadmap for official languages, our government committed to increase our promotion and recruitment activities abroad. Our Canadian embassies actively promote express entry and our francophone minority communities to prospective immigrants in French speaking countries.
We have also had great success with Destination Canada, our annual series of job fairs that take place in November. Since January, we have held 65 promotional events in countries with a French speaking population, such as France, Belgium and Senegal, to name just a few.
That being said, express entry is still very new and that is why we continue to explore ways we can further improve and expand on our efforts to date. In fact, our government just completed a series of consultations with francophone minority communities across Canada and our various partners, such as employers, provinces and territories. We are now exploring various options on how we can best move forward.
Our government is incredibly proud to promote our immigration programs to the Francophonie and French-speaking populations around the world. We will continue to find ways to attract and retain the most talented francophone immigrants outside Quebec, with the ultimate goal of ensuring our francophone communities can continue to thrive across Canada.