OLLO – Summary Report - Standing Senate Committee On Official Languages – February 6, 2023

Meeting No. 09 – Study on matters relating to Francophone Immigration to Minority Communities

May 16, 2022 from 5 p.m. to 6:46 p.m.

Committee Members^{Footnote 1}

Independent Senators Group (ISG)

• René Cormier – Chair (New Brunswick)
• Mobina Jaffer (British Columbia)
• Lucie Moncion (Ontario)
• Bernadette Clement (Ontario)
• Marie-Françoise Mégie (Rougemont, Québec)

Canadian Senators Group (CSG)

• Jean-Guy Dagenais – Deputy Chair, (Victoria, Québec)

Conservative

• Rose-May Poirier – Deputy Chair and Chair of the Conservative Caucus (Saint-Louis-de Kent, New Brunswick)
• Percy Mockler (New Brunswick)

Non Affiliated

• Raymonde Gagné (Manitoba)

Progressive Senate Group

• Pierre Dalphond (De Lorimier, Québec)

Witnesses Present

Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship

• Hon. Sean Fraser, P.C., M.P.

Department of Citizenship and Immigration

• Caroline Xavier, Acting Deputy Minister
• Catherine Scott, Assistant Deputy Minister, Settlement and Integration
• Marie-Josée Dorion, Acting Director General, Operations Planning and Performance

Takeaways

• The Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship appeared before the committee for the first hour, followed by department officials during the second hour.
• During the rounds of questioning, Senators inquired about immigration targets, systems and processes; from stakeholder consultations to selection, admission, settlement and integration.
• Senators shared potential avenues to increase immigration levels and increase the and the vitality of Official Language Minority Communities (OLMC) by increasing the francophone demographic weight and addressing labour market needs.
• The creation and establishment of partnerships were discussed in support of efficient settlement and integration, including ensuring foreign credential recognition through FPT partnerships as well as programs with foreign institutions to address labour market needs.
• The processing time difference of Québec economic immigration files compared to the rest of Canada and the Temporary Foreign Worker admission from countries outside of the Americas was discussed impediments to meeting the francophone immigration levels.

Summary

In his opening remarks, the Minister spoke of francophone immigration as an immigration priority. Despite the unforeseen outbreak and unprecedented effects of the global pandemic, the 4.4% francophone immigration target will most likely be attained by 2023. This is possible, as a result of combined measures including reviewing the express entry ranking system, welcoming community initiatives, allowing TR to PR processing without caps for francophone immigration, and making additional investments to support rural communities. The targets developed in collaboration with francophone communities outside Québec and stakeholders account for best practices/lessons learned; which will serve to future plans and ensure consistent growth. The record level of participation in last November’s Destination Canada Mobility Forum is a clear indication that Canada remains a destination of choice for work and studies. The retention of skilled French-speaking workers and foreign students through efficient settlement and integration were presented possibilities to ensure demographic weight.

Questions and interventions by committee members focused on the following topics:

Ambitious and achievable immigration targets

• The FCFA recommends to reach target (12% in 2024 to 20% in 2036) - this would allow to pick up for the fact that the target that was never met. Would it be possible to create and attainable ambition target? (Senator Dagenais (Victoria, Québec)) – CSG
  • A/DM: The creation of the new targets will be done in consultation with stakeholders, and strategies will be established to allow to exceed the goal.

Bill C-13

• Need to adopt a policy for francophone immigration to increase immigration levels to minority communities (Senator Poirier (Saint-Louis-de Kent, New Brunswick) – Conservative

Foreign Credential Recognition

• Despite selecting the most qualified eligible applicants, foreign credentials are not recognized (Senator Mégie (Rougemont, Québec)) – ISG
  • IRC Minister:  Economic immigration sectors with high needs are regulated by provincial governments and sometimes regulatory bodies.

Foreign Students (from TR to PR)

• Could there be a market to offer transition from students to PR status? (Senator Dagenais (Victoria, Québec)) – CSG
  • A/DM : Student admission is based on the assumption that the student will be in Canada on a temporary basis. They can, however, have the possibility of becoming permanent residents or Canadian Citizens through various programs.

Particularities of OLMCs

• Immigration is a means to ensure economic success and address demographic challenges such as an aging population while increasing the rate of francophone immigration supports the Canadian identity by ensuring linguistic duality (Senator Poirier (Saint-Louis-de Kent, New Brunswick) – Conservative

Other

• The use of public funds put towards addressing irregular migration perceived as jumping the queue, and need for better border protection. (Senator Dagenais, (Victoria, Québec)) – CSG
  • IRC Minister: The Canadian immigration system is mean to be robust and humane. The crossings are an indication of the need for a modernized Safe Third Country Agreement with the U.S.

Recommendations made included:

• Include Haiti as part of the admissible countries for Temporary Foreign Workers. (Senator Mégie (Rougemont, Québec)) – ISG
• Opening additional immigration offices in Africa to increase francophone immigration in and outside of Québec and ensure growth beyond the 4.4% target (Senator Jaffer (British Columbia)) – ISG
• Giving student the opportunity to give students the PR Status to ensure francophone immigration in OLMCs. (Senator Dagenais (Victoria, Québec)) – CSG
  • A/DM: With over 500K foreign students bringing  $23B into the Canadian economy, they are great contributions. However, if we were to automatically give PR status to international students, it would take up spaces from other streams. Countermeasures such as allotting additional points for bilingualism help towards obtaining the PR status.

Follow-ups

NIL

Committee Forward Business

There was no mention of future committee business.

Report by: Tsiry Tsiverinasy, IRCC Parliamentary Affairs