Official Languages committee  Should we encourage bilingualism in the private sector or in other occupations in the same way we're trying to do in the federal public service? Certainly. I think we should have more bilingual people in Canada, more people who speak French. A lot of anglophones learn French through French immersion programs.

Official Languages committee  There are labour shortages in all areas, particularly in education and health care. Efforts should most certainly be made to hire more educators and teachers who can teach in French. On the other hand, it's not easy, because there are indeed labour shortages just about everywhere.

Official Languages committee  Yes, up to a point. More and more francophones have become bilingual over the past 20 or 30 years. In today's world, English is an international language, a bridge language. If you go to Europe, you'll see that people complain about the value placed on English and the dangers it poses.

Official Languages committee  The difference is that Italians, for example, learn English as a second language, but speak Italian at home in their country. In Quebec, the problem is that there's a large anglophone community—

Official Languages committee  A number of methodologies can be used to compare wages and incomes. Depending on which one is used, results can vary. As for the method I used, I don't necessarily want to get into the technical details. Economists who compare wages usually use microdata. It's called the human capital earnings function.

Official Languages committee  I don't want to venture too far into anglophones' needs in Quebec. I think English is already very alluring in Quebec. We don't need to work to get more people to speak English. I can't say any more in that respect.

Official Languages committee  Yes, a little. You're right to say that most of the articles I've written have focused on Quebec, and especially on Montreal. That said, some 20 years ago, I wrote an article on francophones in Ontario and New Brunswick. More recently, I had a master's student update my results from that study.

Official Languages committee  I think they're very ambitious and I'm not sure we'll be able to meet them. The federal government has long had targets for francophone immigration outside Quebec, that is to say to attract francophone immigrants to provinces other than Quebec, but, as I understand it, those targets were met only once.

Official Languages committee  It's not easy, because the pool of immigrants who will integrate into English is much larger than the pool into French. English is the world language. Currently, the vast majority of immigrants to Canada come from China, India, the Philippines and other Asian countries. Although those countries are not predominantly anglophone, English is the prevailing second language.

Official Languages committee  I imagine you're talking about the policy to admit 500,000 immigrants a year. Personally, I find that this policy aims to bring in too many immigrants. I've expressed that opinion in the past, particularly when I've made suggestions for Quebec. I've always thought that Quebec's immigration levels were reasonable, but that the projected targets for the rest of Canada were much too high.

Official Languages committee  I did some studies on this a while ago, but I don't have the most recent data. So I don't want to go too far.

Official Languages committee  Okay. As I said, as far as Ontario is concerned, all the economic results show that Franco-Ontarians are doing well economically. The Franco-Ontarian community is very dynamic and has a lot of entrepreneurs. According to income and labour market data, the situation is very good.

Official Languages committee  Hello, everyone. Thank you for inviting me. I am a professor emeritus in the economics department at the University of Ottawa. I will present the findings of some of my past research that relates to the committee's concerns. The research looked at the economics of the labour market and included the links between language and immigration on the one hand, and salaries and financial status on the other.