Citizenship and Immigration committee  Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, members of the committee, thank you for inviting us to appear before you today. My name is Yves‑Gérard Méhou‑Loko, and I am the vice-president of the Fédération des communautés francophones et acadienne du Canada, or FCFA for short. Joining

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Thank you for your question, Mr. Redekopp. We are aware of the problems certain immigration applicants are experiencing right now. We know the government needs to do better and do more. We expect all of Canada's elected officials to speak out about the situation and take the nec

Citizenship and Immigration committee  As far as the immigration target goes, the FCFA has repeatedly underscored the need to significantly increase francophone immigration levels and to adopt a catch-up target. The government has never managed to achieve the 4.4% target to date, which explains why the deadline has be

Citizenship and Immigration committee  You used the word “dragging”, and that is precisely how we see it. As we go about our daily lives, we, francophones, have been waiting for Canada's elected officials to vote on and pass Bill C-13, which somewhat bolsters the gains made by francophone communities but, above all,

Citizenship and Immigration committee  If it's all right with you, Ms. Kayabaga, I'll keep my answer short on the new office in Yaoundé. Of course, we're extremely glad that a new office was opened in sub-Saharan Africa, specifically in central Africa. However, we don't know whether the office is actually handling vi

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Immigration measures have to be tailored to Canada's francophone community. The government introduced express entry, but as I discussed in my opening remarks, the government must do better than that. Action is desperately needed. We appreciate being given the opportunity to spea

Citizenship and Immigration committee  We hope so. We've come here for reassurance about the intentions of Canada's government and elected representatives. Today, we are once again calling upon Canada's elected representatives to implement a strategy to ensure that this 4.4% target be reached by 2023, and in 2024, th

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 franc

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 commun

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.

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  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  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 p

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 conside