Official Languages committee  Spouses are by far the largest category in the family class.

Official Languages committee  Sorry?

Official Languages committee  Me personally? No.

Official Languages committee  I'll give you my personal opinion about family reunification. As far as I know—and I've been working in this department for a long time—no government has ever considered the possibility of limiting reunification of immediate family members by using criteria other than the family

Official Languages committee  I would ask Ms. Prince to answer that question, because she's been involved in this file directly for a long time. However, I can tell you that the objectives remain the same. There is, of course, an increase or concentration of strategies with regard to francophone immigration

Official Languages committee  Yes, the two plans go hand in hand. Naturally, in the case of the federal/provincial/territorial coordination plan, the provinces and territories' main goal is to retain immigrants. So in that sense, the two plans go very well together, in my opinion.

Official Languages committee  I think we could get you that information.

Official Languages committee  Yes.

Official Languages committee  But—

Official Languages committee  The department is aware. In fact, I think the minister himself has often said he wants to exceed expectations.

Official Languages committee  I can't speak for the other 6,000 people working in the department.

Official Languages committee  The current government has created selection tools to give francophones an advantage, and that is definitely a first. At this time, we don't have a policy on favouring francophones for family reunification. If we take francophone immigration targets into account when processing a

Official Languages committee  Yes.

Official Languages committee  Yes.

Official Languages committee  I am not responsible for developing the Government of Canada policy on that. I can only say that the current family reunification policy is a blind formula. It does not grant preference to any country, race, or linguistic profile. The system provides an equal opportunity for ever