Citizenship and Immigration committee  With regard to francization, earlier we were talking about people from francophone Africa. I think it's really important to facilitate access to Canada for these people. It's extremely limited. I'd say that could be done by granting scholarships, for example, for people from the

Citizenship and Immigration committee  That's obvious. We see it. Administrative procedures monopolize the mind. Talking about mental load, for example, this is an enormous mental load for immigrants. All this energy is spent on completing administrative procedures instead of on the right things, such as learning mor

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Absolutely. It takes up an enormous amount of time and energy. It's an energy-consuming process.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Absolutely. We support that recommendation because it's very important. These people are already here. Most of them are already learning French, although some already speak French. They are workers. They are scattered across the province, in slaughterhouses, in the health system

Citizenship and Immigration committee  To ask the question is, in a way, to answer it. I'm not here to play ideological games with the French fact, but, from a demographic, pragmatic and objective perspective, the fact remains that the French language is sensitive. If the French language in Quebec…

Citizenship and Immigration committee  ALPA handles a lot of those kinds of cases. Earlier I mentioned a situation we know of involving delays and expiring documents. Many problems are related to medical exams. Very few of the families we're currently assisting can afford the exams, and I should acknowledge all the ef

Citizenship and Immigration committee  It's complicated. I'm not here to point the finger at anyone. However, we're in a tough situation. Since the borders have been closed since last March, the people we're assisting aren't newcomers. We're providing follow-up in their cases. They've been coming to see us for years.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I said at the start of my presentation that the pandemic revealed pre-existing structural problems. You can see that everywhere, particularly in the health system. It's easy to say after the fact that there were structural problems, but those pre-existing problems were identified

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Thank you very much, Madam Chair. I'll answer Ms. Martinez Ferrada. I also thank you for the invitation. We've experienced the changes along with you. I welcome the modernization effort, that is, the digital shift, that's been made by both parties. It has helped us facilitate pr

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Yes, absolutely. The Quebec case is relevant because I think it currently takes an average of 26 months to get permanent residence in Quebec. So that's about two years. Earlier I talked about how all documents expire. So you can imagine the situation. I think there are promisin

Citizenship and Immigration committee  There's no funding for processing asylum claims. A small portion of the funding we receive is earmarked for housing assistance, but services for asylum claimants are currently nonexistent. They need those services. These people have work permits and therefore can work. They're al

Citizenship and Immigration committee  First, allow me to introduce Accueil liaison pour arrivants, or ALPA. The mission of ALPA, which has been actively involved in immigration for 35 years, is to provide immigrants with integration, francization, employment assistance and regionalization services. An average of 4,0