Science and Research committee  Thank you very much. Good evening, Madam Chair and members of the committee. Today I want to discuss the role our members play in science and research on behalf of our 142 publicly supported colleges, CEGEPs, institutes and polytechnics. With 95% of Canadians and 86% of indig

Citizenship and Immigration committee  The problem is, the pool for recruiting foreign students is not as big for French-speaking countries. The countries in which francophone establishments can recruit francophone students are often less affluent countries where students have little financial means. The whole issue

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Yes, they do get scholarships. However, two years ago, we saw a case where IRCC and Quebec CEGEPs neglected to mention that the scholarships were available. We've seen the problem with our own eyes.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  For any process, it's important to do some audits to look at how it's going, and to do them in different parts of the world to assess the process and see if there is discrimination or bias, whether you use artificial intelligence or not. I'll share a story with you very quickly

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I'm not familiar with those specific cases. I can tell you, and I'll ask my colleague to add to this, that IRCC worked really hard to ensure that all the students who were making a request to have a student visa could have it in a timely fashion. But we know that it's not enough,

Citizenship and Immigration committee  We should just drop it; it doesn't make sense. On the one hand, you spend money to market Canada as a country to come to study and to immigrate, and on the other hand, you refuse them if it's not obvious that they will go back. We should drop it. Our members have expressed frustr

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Yes, absolutely. That's unacceptable, much like when international students with a university degree who want to come and study at one of our colleges or CEGEPs are told it's strange that they would want to study at a college when they have already studied at a university. We kn

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Actually, students don't experience discrimination because the system is different in Quebec, for we musn't forget that CEGEPs offer both qualified pre-university programs and vocational and technical training. International students who come to study in Quebec often do vocationa

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Exactly.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Thank you.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Absolutely. We can't say that international students are our best immigrants because they have studied in Canada and gained Canadian work experience, and then deny them a study permit on the grounds that they may not return to their country after they finish their studies because

Citizenship and Immigration committee  In fact, we did a pilot project in Dakar. The key to ensuring there's no fraudulent behaviour is to ensure that there's constant communications between both the IRCC and the institutions. The pilot was live; it was in real time. This allowed us to ensure that there were no fraudu

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I agree with you that SDS is essential. In fact, we put in place the first concept. Before it was called SDS, we did a pilot project with IRCC. At the time it was called by another name. What is interesting is that afterwards, we saw more and more countries having an SDS process.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Thank you very much, Madam Chair and members of the committee. I'm here on behalf of our 140 member institutions, colleges, CEGEPs, institutes and polytechnics. For 50 years, Colleges and Institutes Canada has championed education, training and innovation on a global scale.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Thank you, Madam Chair. Good afternoon. Bonjour. It's a real pleasure to be here with you today to share how colleges support the recruitment and retention of skilled immigrants and help improve labour market outcomes. Colleges play a unique role in the immigration ecosystem. T