Official Languages committee  Well, first of all, 63% is a pretty good retention rate. It's very good. As Ben said, the outcomes for immigrants who stay in Nova Scotia, like those in Manitoba, are much better than the national average. Those people who stay are doing better economically. The number one reason why they do not stay is that they're not able to find employment or business opportunities in their areas of expertise.

Official Languages committee  Okay. We have a Canada-Nova Scotia immigration framework agreement, and that agreement has a nominee program annex. We have a Canada-Nova Scotia Acadian community agreement. I'm not going to restrict it just to immigration. If I may, I'm also going to talk about official languages federal-provincial agreements that exist in Nova Scotia.

Official Languages committee  The numbers show that 76% of all our immigrants settle in HRM, Halifax Regional Municipality, and that is also true of our francophone immigrants. Those who settle outside the HRM in rural communities do so because they have a job in those communities.

Official Languages committee  I'm not sure I would say the pie is big enough, but I would agree with Ben that when we go abroad, we go as provinces in a country called Canada, and we work cooperatively. Manitoba, which has been the leader in this regard, has been very generous with its lessons learned and with helping provinces such as Nova Scotia.

Official Languages committee  No. In fact, 4% of the current Nova Scotia population speaks French as their mother tongue. It's not a goal or a target; that's the actual percentage. We haven't set a target in that regard as far as the percentage of immigrants landing in Nova Scotia are concerned. We are developing a new immigration strategy for Nova Scotia.

Official Languages committee  I'm not going to be able to answer that question without doing the homework. At this point, we are preparing the groundwork. We're looking at how we can build our capacity to attract and retain more immigrants overall with all our immigrant landings in Nova Scotia. We are in our infancy in immigration in Nova Scotia.

Official Languages committee  I will answer. Actually, this morning, Joëlle and I discussed this. We thought this would be a question that you might ask.

Official Languages committee  You may know that our government is now in financial restraint and has a budget that is going back to a balanced budget, so at this point we are in a very tight fiscal position, but I would say that our government has allocated new moneys to immigration, which it has not done for each department.

Official Languages committee  I believe it's 4% for Nova Scotia.

Official Languages committee  Good morning, Mr. Chair and members of the parliamentary committee. Thank you so much for inviting us to present to you this morning. I'd like to introduce Joëlle Désy. Joëlle is one of my colleagues at the Nova Scotia Office of Immigration. She is our designated francophone staff within the Office of Immigration.