Official Languages committee  It's a challenge, but it's a bit of a chicken-and-egg debate. If we don't have immigration, the vitality of our communities is not assured, nor is the maintenance of French-language services. For our part, we believe in it, and we think that immigrants should be included and sent to communities where there is vitality.

Official Languages committee  In British Columbia, the challenge is to select more francophones for the Provincial Nominee Program. The majority of immigrants are selected by the province. However, the vast majority of federal immigrants still choose Ontario and Quebec. This is a conversation that needs to take place between the two levels of government.

Human Resources committee  I feel it's section 8, which covers funding. If there's no guaranteed funding in the framework law for francophone minority communities, we won't see any services on the ground.

Human Resources committee  In our brief, we propose seven amendments, but I will focus on two of them in particular. The first pertains to clause 8 of the Bill C‑35, regarding funding commitments. It is very important that we add a provision stipulating a financial commitment to official-language minority communities.

Human Resources committee  It is absolutely crucial, in fact. The ability to be francophone and to continue to be francophone in all provinces and territories in Canada is contingent upon equal access to daycares in French. We worked hard for the last generation in order to improve access to French-language schools throughout the country.

Human Resources committee  Thank you very much. Mr. Chair, ladies and gentlemen, good afternoon. Thank you for having us. Thank you for inviting the Fédération des communautés francophones et acadienne today to testify on Bill C‑35 and to talk about the main issues linked to early childhood services in French.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I'd say that Mr. Fraser's office is in fact very much involved. We've been deliberating about the new francophone immigration policy promised in Bill C-13. However, we have very high hopes for the policy. It will enable us to have a “before and after” picture of francophone immigration in Canada.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I think so. During the COVID‑19 pandemic, a temporary program was introduced, called the the Temporary Resident to Permanent Resident Pathway. Thousands of applications were submitted under this program. The problem was that not enough of the applications could be processed for it to have an impact during the pandemic.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I don't think there's much of a difference in terms of response time for francophones and anglophones. As was mentioned with respect to the processing capacity for African applications, there is one office in Cameroon. However, we have a presence in just 17 of Africa's 54 countries.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Express entry is being reformed, and that's good, but the only way to make sure the program works for francophones is to set a quota for the number of invitations sent out per year. Applications from French-speaking candidates need to be assessed as a separate category. If the pool of applicants isn't big enough, the government needs to promote immigration to Canada in French-speaking source countries in order to attract people.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Absolutely.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I would add that separate programs are required. The mistake over the past 15 to 20 years has been to think that programs designed for the majority could function for the minority. It's not simply a matter of establishing a new target. All sorts of other mechanisms, programs and appropriate tools for the current circumstances need to be developed.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  It's no longer appropriate to keep the target at 4.4%. That target was set in the early 2000s because, according to the 2001 census, the francophone community made up 4.4% of the population. Last year's report from the Commissioner of Official Languages indicates that, even if the government had wanted to keep the demographic weight of francophones at 4.4%, it should have set a much higher target at the time.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Never.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I would say that Canada's francophone and Acadian communities are very glad to see the immigration levels going up. That's fine, but the proportion of francophones has to go up as well, and that's the big worry. The immigration levels plan for 2023‑25 tabled in Parliament today merely has a footnote at the end indicating that the 4.4% target is based on the overall objectives—