Official Languages committee  There is a rumour going around that I apparently recommended an increase in anglophone immigration to Quebec. That is not the case. Nothing in the report suggests increasing anglophone immigration to Quebec. I am very aware of Quebec's responsibility in the area of immigration, and my recommendations were intended only for one federal department, namely Citizenship and Immigration Canada.

Official Languages committee  I think that we have to encourage employers to participate in job fairs organized by Destination Canada and to make them more aware of the importance or the benefits of having bilingual employees who are able to communicate with francophones. I know, for example, that western companies want to penetrate the Quebec market.

Official Languages committee  I think we could always do better. In speaking with groups of immigrants, I discovered that before leaving their country, they had not been as well informed as we would have liked about job opportunities and what our country is like. I talked to some francophone immigrants to Toronto who told me that they were surprised to discover that French was not spoken everywhere in Toronto.

Official Languages committee  You mean “Louisianization”.

Official Languages committee  Let us be clear. Quebec has control over recruiting, receiving, integrating and settling immigrants. There is no mystery there. However, the federal department continues to play an overall role. One of its roles has to do with research. We discovered that there is much less research on anglophones in Quebec than on the experience of francophone immigrants outside Quebec.

Official Languages committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair Mr. Chair, honourable members of the committee, good afternoon. I am accompanied today by Ghislaine Saikaley, assistant commissioner of compliance assurance; Mary Donaghy, assistant commissioner of policy and communications; and Johane Tremblay, general counsel.

Official Languages committee  Funds are transferred to the provinces, and they report to the department in question, but there are limits to what we can learn or draw from these reports.

Official Languages committee  The issue of accountability is a tricky one for us because we don't have jurisdiction to investigate or make observations about service delivery or use of funds by the provinces. At an MP's request, we audited an accountability process. All we were able to do was look at the mechanisms in the federal departments.

Official Languages committee  No. We audited an accountability system in one department, but it is not always easy to see what is going on on the ground, in a school board for example.

Official Languages committee  That is a very good question. In our preparations for the celebrations in 2017, I hope that, as an organization or with others, we will be able to create a document telling the story of these contacts between anglophones and francophones, without ignoring or trying to hide the negative aspects of the story.

Official Languages committee  That's right.

Official Languages committee  That's right. And once that's done, I suspect that it simply becomes second nature, that they probably don't even talk about it any more. It's just the way they do business.

Official Languages committee  It's not systematic. We have worked together on a number of initiatives. We have signed protocol agreements separately with Ontario and New Brunswick, so if somebody files a complaint with one of us that should go to the other, it gets transferred automatically. We don't say to a complainant, you're wrong, that's in provincial jurisdiction.

Official Languages committee  It might be in the annual report.

Official Languages committee  I did discuss this recommendation several times, fairly intensely, with the minister last year. I would say that we are continuing to have productive discussions with senior officials from Canadian Heritage. I recently put the question to the people in the office who follow the roadmap closely.