Official Languages committee  First, in recent years, we have been using material dealing with Francophone communities in minority situations. We have made it available to our embassies abroad. We are currently developing a Web portal, which will be a gateway for immigrants looking for information. There is an enormous number of people who visit our Web site for that purpose.

Official Languages committee  I would like to say two things. First, regarding integration programs, there is an orientation program that deals with institutions and those kinds of things. Second—and this is where there is a specific need—there are Francophone reception centres and arrangements such as those described by Mr.

Official Languages committee  Over the past two years, we have instructed our missions to encourage them to assume certain risks with regard to visitors, particularly parents and grandparents. As you know, the waiting period for parents and grandparents who want to be sponsored as immigrants is quite lengthy.

Official Languages committee  Thank you for your very good question Mr. Godin. I suppose that this person would come as a visitor?

Official Languages committee  We definitely have—

Official Languages committee  From a systemic point of view, I totally agree with you. I do not know what is wrong in this specific case, but I am certainly willing to discuss it with you after the meeting.

Official Languages committee  Generally, Mr. Godin, Canada accepts 82% of people applying for a visa every year. Of course, there are specific cases or circumstances. You have informed me of a specific case, and I would be pleased to speak about it with you later, given that we cannot talk about it publicly.

Official Languages committee  I am familiar with Bathurst. I come from Matane, in the Gaspé.

Official Languages committee  Actually, this one of the reasons we justify changing the performance measure we've been using. As I said, if we were to go with what was put in place in 2003—4.4%—we're very close to meeting that objective, because that was based on people who declared voluntarily on their application for immigration that they knew French.

Official Languages committee  Absolutely, and that's why, in redefining the performance measures, we said we think we'll probably be welcoming, on average for the next three years, 5,000 people for whom French is their first official language. In order to bring it to 10,000, which is our objective, it's probably going to take us ten to fifteen years.

Official Languages committee  I think what we say there is that we believe we now have pools in various provinces where the communities, in terms of awareness, are ready to welcome new immigrants and embrace diversity, in terms of having vibrant francophone communities. They have welcoming infrastructure and the potential to go and target immigrants who are not only going to be recruited but are going to stay in their communities.

Official Languages committee  Concerning provinces, they have been encouraged to imitate what is being done in Manitoba, that is to say to adopt specific objectives for Francophone immigration in order to promote it.

Official Languages committee  In the agreements signed with the provinces, we included a provision asking them to make efforts in this respect. On a practical level, we want to show the other provinces the results achieved by such initiatives as those in Manitoba, in order to encourage them. We also hold meetings with the communities in the municipalities and provinces so that they encourage their provincial authorities to do the same.

Official Languages committee  This comes back to the issue of critical mass Mr. Arnal referred to earlier. The numbers are so small that the problem of concentration, which exists for immigration in general, does not apply here. In fact, having pools of a few hundred francophone immigrants settle in Toronto or Vancouver is a good way to establish francophone immigration in those areas.

Official Languages committee  In our agreements with the provinces—as you know, immigration is an area of shared jurisdiction—cities are encouraged to become increasingly active in immigration. Under the agreement with Ontario, there is also a tripartite agreement that will be signed with the City of Toronto.