Official Languages committee  Thank you. It's true that we have a very large number of immigrant files to process, but I'm sorry I don't have the exact number of francophone immigrant files with me today.

Official Languages committee  Yes, we're closely monitoring the issue because we're concerned about the approval rates of African students in general. We've introduced initiatives to promote student immigration from Africa. For example,…

Official Languages committee  Thank you. As regards African student approval rates, the gap between rates for anglophone and francophone applicants is actually quite small. In 2021, the approval rate was 33% for anglophone African students and 27% for francophone African students. It was the reverse in 2019: the francophone rate was higher.

Official Languages committee  No, I don't think they're incorrect. I'd say there's a very small difference between the refusal rates of anglophone and francophone students from all African countries. I'm not talking about any country in particular.

Official Languages committee  Thank you for your question. We take note of those complaints, of course, and we take them seriously. We're totally aware of our obligations under the Official Languages Act but also understand how important it is to provide service to clients in the language of their choice. We examine all cases brought to our attention, and we definitely—

Official Languages committee  The plan is to examine each complaint and ensure that the situation does not reoccur. We verify our systems and transactions. We conduct thousands of transactions every day. We take it seriously. Every time a complaint is filed, we examine it. We follow it up and, in each case, try to correct the problem where there is one.

Official Languages committee  Thank you. Once again, I don't have that information on hand. However, I can assure you we're entirely aware that immigration information must be made available in both official languages and that language quality standards must be met.

Official Languages committee  We definitely do follow up.

Official Languages committee  Mr. Chair and members of the committee, thank you for the opportunity to address you today. I'd like to emphasize that I am joining you from the traditional territory of the Algonquin people. I am accompanied by Corinne Prince, acting assistant deputy minister, settlement and integration sector.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  This comes back to the fact that these are practices that states can take or leave as they wish. In Canada, to a large extent, our temporary foreign workers are brought in to fill specific labour market shortages, and with specific employers. To the extent that the system works for us, we don't have any plans to change that.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I guess the one thing I would add is that it gives Canada an opportunity as well. It gives Canada an opportunity to engage with other countries that perhaps are not taking advantage of the opportunities that migration can bring. Just as migration has given us economic and social benefits in Canada, it's an opportunity for us to campaign with other countries to ask why they don't think about putting in regular pathways for permanent residents or temporary residents.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Regarding Mexico, they are also a party to the refugee convention, so they have obligations there as well. If someone claims asylum within Mexico, Mexico is obligated to determine whether the person is genuinely fleeing persecution and needs protection and then to offer them that protection, as a party to that convention.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I can assure you it won't have an impact on that. That will be a decision for the Government of Canada to take. With respect to the general point you're raising, I guess it's one that was of fundamental concern to all of us as officials as the global compact on migration was being negotiated.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Ms. Kent.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I can answer with respect to the global compact on migration. There are no out-of-pocket costs to the Government of Canada in terms of implementation. It's very much a decision of the government of the day as to what they would like to do. There are opportunities for the government to make contributions to capacity-building and to funding the International Organization for Migration to deliver some of the coordination work the compact asks it to do, but there's no requirement for the Government of Canada to make those contributions.