Official Languages committee  Those are facts too.

Official Languages committee  Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. We've certainly reached the 4.4% target, but what have we done better? We've certainly reduced waiting lists. But have we been innovative enough to exceed expectations? You know, I was a journalist when the 4.2% target was proposed, a long time ago. I'm delighted that we've achieved it.

Official Languages committee  Absolutely. I'd like to come back to the question you asked us earlier, Mr. Beaulieu. You asked us whether we were taking assimilation into consideration. Assimilation is certainly one reality, but there's another. I stand before you, the father of two children who were born in Ontario, who are Franco-Ontarian and who speak French.

Official Languages committee  I'll let Mr. Dupuis answer the question.

Official Languages committee  That's an excellent question, and one we in fact put to the Minister of Citizenship and Immigration to find out whether a new formula had made it possible to reach the target. It's true that the 4.4% target has been reached, but it's by no means enough. We need to do better, and as everyone who has spoken so far has said, we need to review our recruitment pools.

Official Languages committee  Thank you very much for that excellent question. At the FCFA, we are following the British Columbia issue very closely, as you know. To date, several decisions have been made in this regard. That being said, I'm going to turn the floor over to the FCFA's general manager, Mr. Alain Dupuis, who will give you a few answers on the subject.

Official Languages committee  Thank you for that extremely pertinent question, Mr. Drouin. The FCFA has indeed looked into the needs of communities. The needs are immense, insofar as the prosperity of our communities today is threatened by the decline of the French language. We need to re‑establish the demographic weight of our communities, and that means targeted francophone immigration to francophone communities outside Quebec.

Official Languages committee  Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, honourable members of the committee, thank you for inviting the FCFA to appear today. I'd like to begin by expressing our deep appreciation for this committee's recent work on Bill C‑13. This all-party effort has resulted in a considerably enriched bill.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  There appears to have been some progress, but the refusal rate is 34%, which is very high unfortunately. So yes, that's worrisome for us.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Definitely. It's an urgent matter.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  As I was mentioning a little earlier, we're not certain that the Yaoundé office provides this service at the moment. But even if it did, it wouldn't be enough. We will have to increase processing capacity substantially.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Your question is extremely important, Ms. Kwan. The problem of discrimination and racism is unfortunately real. It has to be dealt with as quickly as possible to ensure that applications are received and that processing is entirely impartial, fair and equitable, with a view to promoting immigration.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Thank you for your question, Ms. Lalonde. It's true that under the current circumstances, any initiative definitely deserves to be studied. As for the Express Entry program, my colleague Mr. Dupuis was saying earlier that having francophones carry out a study on behalf of francophones would lead to a substantial increase in francophone immigration to Canada, including to our francophone communities.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  First of all, francophone immigration needs to be considered as specific to francophones, and ought not to be included in general immigration targets. Some serious thinking is required, along with a strategy focusing on francophones outside Quebec, if the vitality of these communities is to be maintained.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Thank you for your question, Mr. Brunelle-Duceppe. It's interesting. I think we now have communication channels, but we are awaiting the results. I'll let Mr. Dupuis continue, because that's his everyday role too.