The Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship is right beside me and confirming that, for the first time in 20 years, the Government of Canada has met its target for francophone immigration outside Quebec, which is 4.4%.
The government could continue to meet this target for 50 years. That would mean making a low estimate of the number of francophones in our communities outside Quebec because we would rely on a single tool, the census, which is conducted every five years. It would lead to fewer services for francophones across Canada, or fewer services for the anglophone community in Quebec.
However, we do have other tools, such as school board waiting lists, that can tell us how many students want to enrol in schools. They could be used as another tool to determine the demand in French or English schools in Quebec. That's what we're talking about right now. However, it must be clearly understood that the federal government can't force the provinces' hand on this.