44th Parl. 1st Sess.
February 2, 2023 10:00AM
- Feb/2/23 2:38:56 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, Ottawa wants to receive at least 500,000 immigrants a year until we have a population of 100 million. These targets are inspired by the Century Initiative, which originated with McKinsey and its former director, Dominic Barton.
Yesterday, in committee, I asked Mr. Barton if he had analyzed the impact of this increase in immigration on the future of French. He replied, and I will paraphrase, that the focus was just on the economics, not the social context.
Did the government paste and copy a McKinsey immigration policy that completely ignores the future of French in Canada and Quebec?
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- Feb/2/23 2:39:44 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, today, this is the first time that I will answer a question concerning francophone immigration and its importance for Quebec and the rest of Canada. I would like to point out to the House, because I do not know if I will have another opportunity, that this is the first time ever that we have met the target of 4.4% of francophone immigrants outside Quebec in Canada.
This is a success story for our government.
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- Feb/2/23 2:40:25 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, Dominic Barton himself confirmed yesterday that the Century Initiative does not take into account the ability to integrate immigrants in French in Quebec and francophone Canada. He said the only objective was productivity.
If McKinsey did not take into account the repercussions of increased immigration on the French language, did the government do so before applying these recommendations?
Will the minister commit to sharing all the studies he used to determine that we could welcome at least 500,000 immigrants every year without any repercussions on the French language and francization in Quebec and Canada?
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- Feb/2/23 2:41:10 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, francophone immigration plays a key role in promoting the French language across Canada and Quebec. I would remind my colleagues that Quebec determines its selection criteria for the majority of immigrants in Quebec, including language skills.
We will always respect the jurisdictions of Quebec and we will continue to work with them.
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- Feb/2/23 2:41:41 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, Dominic Barton himself admitted that McKinsey did not consider the impact on French before recommending unprecedented increases to immigration. Unless and until we see the studies the Bloc Québécois has been calling for, we have to assume that the federal government did not consider the impact on French either before implementing McKinsey's recommendations. Obviously, that raises other questions.
Can this government prove that it did consider the impact on housing needs, health care and immigration, or did it just blindly put its faith in a subcontractor like McKinsey?
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- Feb/2/23 2:42:20 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the member opposite is well aware that the Canada-Quebec accord gives the province the exclusive authority to select the majority of its immigrants.
As I said, we have always respected and will always respect Quebec's jurisdiction over immigration. I know that our government is working very closely with Quebec to improve that framework. Let me reiterate that we met our 4.4% francophone immigration target outside Quebec.
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- Feb/2/23 3:10:25 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, we are taking every step to address the backlog in the short term while making Canada's immigration system more sustainable in the long term.
Allow me to be very candid. We have processed approximately 4.8 million applications in total, nearly double the number of the year before. We tripled the number of work permits issued, and we returned to a 60-day service standard for new study permit applications. We achieved that by digitizing applications and hiring more people, more employees, to help us meet our commitments.
We are going to continue to be there to welcome more immigrants to Canada.
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