Madam Speaker, I am pleased to rise in the House.
I am the NDP finance critic as well as my party's critic for the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency and the caucus representative for Atlantic Canada.
These roles gave me the opportunity to visit all four provinces this summer and meet with many different organizations and individuals in each community. It was a wonderful experience that helped me understand the challenges facing the people of Atlantic Canada. We know that they are extremely resilient to these challenges, but the challenges are many.
One of the challenges is demographics. With this motion, the member for Fundy Royal is bringing this matter to the attention of the House. I thank her for doing so.
It would have been relatively simple to ask members of the Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration to study the matter, but moving this motion in the House will raise public awareness of the problem, which is a good thing.
When we talk about the challenges that people in Atlantic Canada face, obviously there is a demographic challenge. The demographic challenge is not only in terms of the number of Atlantic Canadians year after year who live there; it is also a question of the aging population. When we look at this situation all across the country, the problem in Atlantic Canada is very acute.
Is immigration the solution to that problem? It might or might not be, but that will be up to the committee to study this question. However, one problem we could see in terms of immigration being the lone solution to this aging problem is the fact that for this immigration, we need an economic environment that is conducive to retaining them after they have arrived.
When we look at the situation in Atlantic Canada, the exodus problem comes from the youth population.
One of the main reasons why we are seeing this exodus of young people is because, although it does vary by region, a large part of the Atlantic provinces' economy depends on seasonal work and many of those jobs are precarious. Obviously, if we want people to immigrate to the Atlantic provinces and stay there, we need good quality jobs, jobs that provide a certain amount of stability for those who want to start a family and watch their children grow up in the Atlantic provinces.
I think that that is one of the main questions that the committee will have to examine if this motion is adopted. I want to say right now that I will be voting in favour of this motion.
One of the reasons why I asked the member for Fundy Royal a question about francophone immigration is that this issue is often overlooked. When we look at the situation across the country, not including Quebec, we see that francophone immigration to the nine other provinces of Canada represents only 2% of the immigrant population.
As in other parts of Canada, francophone communities in the Atlantic provinces are at risk of assimilation and their ability to make a significant contribution to their province's economy is threatened. The fact that more immigrants to Canada are anglophone definitely jeopardizes the vitality of francophone communities surrounded by an anglophone majority.
I am not alone in saying so. Others have also sounded the alarm, including Katherine d’Entremont, the Commissioner of Official Languages for New Brunswick. In 2014, she indicated that francophone communities, which represent one-third of New Brunswick's population, are not deriving as much benefit from immigration as anglophone communities.
Of course, if there are no major demographic changes, immigration is going to start tipping the balance on the anglophone side, potentially threatening francophone and Acadian communities in New Brunswick.
One of the things the member talked about was the pilot program, the details of which began surfacing in July. We will be paying close attention to this pilot program, whose aim is to enhance immigration in the hopes of better attracting and retaining newcomers.
Details remain scarce, however. We do not know how much money will be invested, nor do we know anything about the conditions of the program or how its success will be evaluated. What we do know is that 2,000 immigrants will be accepted initially in the Atlantic provinces, with the hopes that they will one day be able to stay there.
One area where I would love to see the government take concrete action is in economic diversification. If we want to retain these newcomers, having a more stable economy will be crucial. I mentioned the precarious and seasonal nature of the jobs in many industries in Atlantic Canada.
At the beginning of the summer, I was extremely disappointed to learn that the Atlantic fish and seafood processing industry had been exempted by the government from the national restrictions on the temporary foreign workers program, which were put in place because of past abuses.
The restrictions imposed on the program forced industries to offer higher wages in order to attract interested local workers and provide training programs to improve employee retention. As a result of pressure by the fish and seafood processing industry, these companies were allowed easier access to temporary foreign workers rather than hiring local workers. I believe this is a step backwards.
Temporary foreign workers are not really the solution, at least not in the current immigration and demographic context, because these workers come here and eventually leave. Therefore, it was disappointing that the government went in that direction.
The member's motion addresses immigration as a whole, and I certainly hope that the issue of temporary foreign workers and the impact of the program on employment and the local success of industry will be thoroughly studied by the committee. I believe that is something that will need to be addressed to ensure the success of this study.
The NDP will vote in favour of the motion. I do not think we can be opposed to studying the demographic question of Atlantic Canada, not only the question of the population levels but also the question of the aging population. Atlantic Canada has a very specific makeup and has concerns that need to be taken up by the House and the committee.
I certainly hope the committee will take its work in that regard seriously. I look forward to being able to contribute in some manner to its work. We certainly wish the committee success in this work, and we hope the House is able to finally find some solution that will help Atlantic Canada to revitalize their communities. They have done a lot for Canada, and it is time for Canada to give back to them.