Official Languages committee  Mr. Chair and members of the committee, I am speaking to you today from Moncton, New Brunswick, which is part of the traditional land of the Micmac people. I am accompanied by the executive director of the FCFA, Alain Dupuis, who is joining us from Ottawa. Thank you for this opp

Official Languages committee  Going back to Mr. Godin's earlier question, we'd like the budget to provide more funding for recruitment, which some of our partners are doing. The SNA is doing good recruitment, and the people of New Brunswick are as well. So it would be good to have funding so we could recruit

Official Languages committee  It's very important for us that the bill be adopted because it has some very good components; we've discussed that. However some components need to be reworked. We hope we can work with the various committees to ensure that the amendments we propose are considered. Most of you in

Official Languages committee  I'll answer first and Mr. Dupuis can definitely add to my response. I've been following this issue for a very long time. It's very important to eliminate barriers for international students. One issue in particular is always a problem, and that's the fact that students are requi

Official Languages committee  Following the discussions we had with Minister Fraser's office and the parliamentary secretary, and those that Mr. Dupuis and his team had with various officials, I think there's a willingness to listen, dialogue and cooperate with us on those targets and the policy. We know we'

Official Languages committee  Good afternoon, Mr. Chair and members of the committee. We are very pleased to appear before you today to discuss Bill C‑13. We have also come here with a sense of accomplishment. For five years, we have committed ourselves to this grand effort to provide Canada with a strong,

Official Languages committee  It's very important for us that the work be done quickly but well. Every week's delay in the process turns out to be very costly for the various communities. As you know, the new Action Plan for Official Languages is being prepared. The longer the bill's adoption is delayed, the

Official Languages committee  No. We're asking that it go a bit further with regard to the Treasury Board. We'd like it not to apply solely to what's included in Bill C‑13, and that it extend to the act as a whole. It's important for us that a central agency implement the act as a whole, coordinate the act as

Official Languages committee  As you know, we've been working on this for five years, even more. We began thinking about it in 2009. So it's been a very long time. Many of you have witnessed the various efforts we've made: the model bill the FCFA presented in 2019, the involvement of our committees in Ms. Jo

Official Languages committee  Thank you very much for that question. As you know, the FCFA has 21 member organizations. We've submitted many proposals to the committee and government over the past five years. As I said earlier, we drafted the model bill, which included more than 100 proposals for modernizing

Official Languages committee  We could miss the 2023 budget cycle. We brought up the action plan earlier because the next action plan will run from 2023 to 2028. The budget cycle is very important. If delays occur in passing the bill, the act could be out of sync with the action plan, which is the essential o

Official Languages committee  We've conducted exhaustive consultations thus far in order to present our priorities to you. So I think we're done with consultations.

Official Languages committee  Yes, I'm hopeful we can for all the reasons you just cited.

Official Languages committee  As we recommend, we have to have a holistic francophone immigration policy and to look at everything that can be done in this area.

Official Languages committee  Yes, you need targets. We recently conducted a study to propose targets that would help restore and increase the demographic weight of francophones. Those targets were established based on a demographic study. So they're based on a scientific approach. Since that's Mr. Dupuis' a