Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thank you, Mr. Shory, for those substantive questions.
With respect to foreign credential recognition, your first question was how we are working with the provinces. First of all, there is of course the very substantial foreign credential recognition program administered by the Ministry of Human Resources and Skills Development Canada, which does work with the provinces and professional agencies and credential recognizing bodies to try to encourage them to streamline their processes. We provide support through this HRSDC program for community organizations representing foreign-trained professionals to advocate for a faster and more transparent consideration of their applications for credential recognition with the agencies. More than 400 agencies exist across the country.
Also, our government has created the Foreign Credentials Referral Office, with its $32 million budget. Together with HRSDC, in partnership with the Association of Canadian Community Colleges, we've created three pilot offices through the Canadian immigration integration project that are providing a kind of a head start on integration broadly and foreign credential recognition in particular, hopefully getting people to make applications for credential recognition before they even land in Canada following their selection for permanent residency.
But most importantly, as it relates to working with the provinces, the Prime Minister, for the first time, I believe, in history on this issue, put FCR on the table with the first ministers at their meeting in Ottawa on January 16, where they came to an important agreement to create a pan-Canadian framework for credential recognition by September of this year. As I mentioned, we're investing $50 million in the economic action plan to put the flesh on the bones of that framework. As Minister Finley has said, it's our hope that it will lead to a benchmark where all of the 400-plus provincially regulated professional agencies will give foreign-trained professionals a clear answer on their application for credential recognition within a year of their application. We cannot guarantee everyone that they'll get their credentials recognized; it would be irresponsible to do so, but people shouldn't have to wait five years.
The other day in Edmonton I met a doctor educated in Syria. She did five years of medical training, did her residency, delivered hundreds of babies as a highly trained medical professional, came to Canada, and during the last five years has been cleaning hotel rooms and working as a maid trying to get recognized, with one barrier after another set up in her path. This is unacceptable, and we expect the provinces to work with, in this instance, their colleges of physicians and surgeons to ensure that women like this have a clear pathway so at least they can get an answer and know, if they're not going to get credential recognition, what the alternative is.
With respect to integration and settlement funding, as I mentioned, we've increased the envelope for this by about $1.4 billion to ensure that all provinces are getting roughly the same funding as Quebec used to under the Canada-Quebec immigration agreement. This is principally being delivered through non-profit settlement agencies, which are usually community based, through programs like LINC language training and other programs. There are two provinces, British Columbia and Manitoba, with whom we have bilateral agreements. We transfer the money to the provinces, and they deliver the programs themselves.
One of the things I've asked this committee to review is the effectiveness of our spending in this area. You asked what our objective is. Well, obviously our objective is the fastest possible integration of newcomers, particularly into the labour market. There was a recent study done by COMPASS that indicated that for employers who don't hire foreign-trained professionals, the principal issue is language skills. So it is of concern to me that only 20% or 25% of newcomers are actually availing themselves of the free language training programs we offer through LINC. That's why in the Speech from the Throne we said we want to increase the take-up of these programs. We're working very closely, for instance, with the Government of Ontario as it relates to settlement programming in this province. I would invite this committee to look at other ways we can increase the uptake, the use of these programs. I've mentioned one idea that has been floated, which is perhaps a pilot program that gives certificates to newcomers that they can then redeem for hours of language training to create a more responsive client-based system.
Finally, on fraud, as I mentioned, we're very concerned about this. I will be pre-publishing regulations for public comment later this spring on the issue of third parties, of immigration consultants, and we will be doing public consultations on how to better regulate that industry. I mentioned our efforts overseas to increase public awareness about the fact that people don't need to use third parties, and if they do so, they should be registered third parties. The video we released today is part of our ongoing public awareness efforts in that regard.