LANG Committee Report

RECOMMENDATION 1:

That CIC and its provincial and community partners study the possibility of adopting the following definition of a francophone immigrant:

a) a francophone immigrant is an immigrant whose mother tongue is French, or whose first official language in Canada is French if their mother tongue is a language other than French or English.

As for the definition of an anglophone immigrant, the Committee proposes the following definition:

b) an anglophone immigrant is an immigrant whose mother tongue is English, or whose first official language in Canada is English if their mother tongue is a language other than English or French.

Following the example of the Canada-British Columbia Immigration Agreement (2010), the Committee recommends that the abovementioned definitions, if adopted, be included in all Canada-provincial-territorial immigration framework agreements. If they are not adopted, the Committee maintains its recommendation that the definitions be harmonized.

RECOMMENDATION 2:

That Citizenship and Immigration Canada, in partnership with the provinces and territories, as well as the communities:

a) by 2012, completely re-evaluate the targets and definitions contained in the Strategic Plan to Foster Immigration to Francophone Minority Communities (which is expiring in 2011), and specifically the anticipated increase in the number of immigrants settling in francophone minority communities;

b) consult the communities with the aim of establishing new objectives, new targets and performance indicators so that the new plan is an accurate reflection of the communities’ needs;

c) consider, with the cooperation of the FMCs, the possibility of setting at 7% the number of French-speaking immigrants that Canada wishes to receive each year in the FMCs;

d) establish a time frame and develop a rigorous follow-up mechanism incorporated into the plan in order to regularly verify the results obtained;

e) communicate the new strategy to the House of Commons Standing Committee on Official Languages and the Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration before it is adopted, so that it can be evaluated by two committees with complementary jurisdictions in francophone immigration, if that be the wish of the said committees.

RECOMMENDATION 3:

That the Government of Canada, after consulting with the FMCs and developing a new strategy for francophone immigration, set up a national policy on francophone minority immigration so that intergovernmental and interdepartmental cooperation can be better defined and the actions of the government and the communities better coordinated.

RECOMMENDATION 4:

That Citizenship and Immigration Canada recognize that the Anglo-Quebec community presents a model of linguistic integration for immigrants and that it recognize the specific role that this community plays in the integration of immigrants in the societies of Quebec and Canada.

That recognition of this specificity be taken into account when developing policies, programs and new partnerships on immigration, so that the Anglo-Quebec community too can obtain support under Part VII of the Official Languages Act and section 3 of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act.

RECOMMENDATION 5:

That Citizenship and Immigration Canada proceed without further delay with a systematic review of all memorandums of understanding on immigration between Canada and the provinces-territories to ensure that they contain all of the clauses to foster immigration to OLMCs.

RECOMMENDATION 6:

That the Department of Canadian Heritage through the Ministerial Conference on the Canadian Francophonie, and Citizenship and Immigration Canada through the CIC-FMC Steering Committee, encourage the provincial and territorial governments to:

a) adopt precise targets for the short, medium and long terms on the number of francophone immigrants they want to receive in the OLMCs;

b) support those targets with specific financial requirements.

RECOMMENDATION 7:

That the Destination Canada program be offered in more countries of the Francophonie so that it extends beyond Western Europe and North Africa to the Caribbean and the Middle East, and so that it is also offered in Latin America.

RECOMMENDATION 8:

That Citizenship and Immigration Canada also open referral offices in member countries of the Francophonie and that the programs offered in those offices be adapted to the specific needs of francophone immigrants and FMCs.

RECOMMENDATION 9:

That Citizenship and Immigration Canada, in collaboration with the provinces and territories, revise in the next fiscal year the memorandums of understanding on off-campus work permits for foreign students, on the post-graduation hiring of foreign students, and on a pilot project to issue work permits to international students, so that specific objectives are included for the number of francophone international students that the provinces want to admit to FMC postsecondary institutions.

RECOMMENDATION 10:

That the Department of Canadian Heritage, in collaboration with Citizenship and Immigration Canada, take the necessary positive measures to help immigrants and their host minority communities preserve their mother tongue and their culture as they integrate with their host community.

RECOMMENDATION 11:

That Citizenship and Immigration Canada increase its intergovernmental efforts to assess the needs of the Anglo-Quebec community and provide it with financial support so that it can develop its immigration network, particularly in the regions.

RECOMMENDATION 12:

That Citizenship and Immigration Canada, in collaboration with the other departments, the provinces/territories and the OLMCs:

a)           consider the issue of intake and integration services for immigrants to official language minority communities in rural regions;

b)           set up a program and a special fund to assist rural regions that wish to create intake and integration services for newcomers;

c)           create a coordination round table so that both francophone and anglophone OLMCs in rural regions can dialogue and exchange best practices, and thereby develop new projects and help other rural communities attain their immigration objectives;

d)           promote rural OLMCs to economic-class immigrants who work in the field of agriculture.

RECOMMENDATION 13:

That the minister of Canadian Heritage ask the members of the Ministerial Conference on the Canadian Francophonie to encourage stakeholders in francophone immigration to develop tools and strategies in collaboration with the FMCs in order to promote francophone immigration to rural areas, and that the same stakeholders provide appropriate funding to community projects related to the intake and integration of francophone immigrants in rural areas.

RECOMMENDATION 14:

That the Minister of Canadian Heritage raise awareness among the members of the Ministerial Conference on the Canadian Francophonie of the urgent need to offer settlement and integration services to immigrants through French-language school boards. That the Minister encourage his provincial counterparts to open a dialogue with their respective ministries of education in order to offer multiyear funding to address the needs of young immigrants and those of education workers.

RECOMMENDATION 15:

That the federal government and the Council of Ministers of Education, Canada, provide funding for language courses for young immigrant students in their next Protocol for Agreements for Minority-Language Education and Second-Language Instruction or in all other similar agreements.

RECOMMENDATION 16:

That the Department of Canadian Heritage increase its financial assistance in order to improve existing community-school centres and permit the construction of new ones in the OLMCs.

RECOMMENDATION 17:

That the Government of Canada encourage provincial governments to recognize that integration services for francophone immigrants, including training in English as a second language, should be offered primarily by francophone organizations, and that it provide multi-year funding for language training offered by francophone community organizations. The same principle applies to the English community in Quebec as regards French-as-second-language training for anglophone immigrants.

That the above measures take into account that some official-language minority communities are more influential in their region. Some official-language minority communities are large enough to warrant that an immigrant from the majority-language community learn the minority language in the interest of integration. The same measures should be taken if immigrants’ socio-economic integration in a region can be enhanced by learning the language of both official-language communities.

RECOMMENDATION 18:

That Citizenship and Immigration Canada ensure that OLMCs receiving a high number of refugees obtain the necessary funding to meet their specific intake, integration and language training needs and encourage the provinces to create a refugee program like the one in Manitoba.

RECOMMENDATION 19:

That Citizenship and Immigration Canada work with Industry Canada, Human Resources and Skills Development Canada and the provinces and territories to develop a plan for the economic integration of francophone immigrants.

RECOMMENDATION 20:

That in their list of priority professions, Citizenship and Immigration Canada and Human Resources and Skills Development Canada retain the three professions identified by the francophone communities (speech therapy, teaching and health care) so as to achieve a balance between the needs of the majority and the needs of the francophone minority.

RECOMMENDATION 21:

That Citizenship and Immigration Canada be made aware of the inability of many immigrants to integrate economically in their host community and of the problems this creates among their family members.

That memorandums of understanding between Canada and the provinces/territories and communities on the recognition of credentials be put in place. We enjoin the authorities to never lose sight of the human dimension of this issue.