44th Parl. 1st Sess.
May 12, 2023 10:00AM
- May/12/23 10:19:14 a.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank my colleague for his questions and his work on the Standing Committee on Official Languages. I think that co-operation really is key.
We understand just how important our two official languages are to our beautiful country, and we can always do more. That is why we introduced an ambitious and robust bill. We often speak about stakeholders across the country. In recent months, the FCFA and many other stakeholders have asked us to pass this bill as soon as possible. They have also said publicly that it is a very good bill.
With regard to the question about the Treasury Board, we made absolutely sure that the Treasury Board will play the role of coordinator for the act. In last fall's economic statement, we put money aside to ensure that the Treasury Board has the resources it needs to do its job.
Let us also look at the matter of francophone immigration. I think that we were very clear in our bill that we want to ensure that we have a robust francophone immigration policy with targets, indicators and so on. Once again, we recognize that francophone immigration is very important to compensate for the demographic loss in this country.
In addition to introducing this bill, we have made historic investments of $4.1 billion in the action plan, and that includes $137 million for francophone immigration.
However, I do have a question for my hon. Conservative colleague. Will the Conservatives finally support Bill C‑13?
The Bloc Québécois, the NDP and the province of Quebec say that it is a good bill. I hope my colleague will answer. Will they support it, yes or no?
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- May/12/23 10:45:16 a.m.
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Mr. Speaker, today's debate on the Official Languages Act has to be placed in the context of the demographic decline of francophone minority communities.
Given that both Liberal and Conservative governments have consistently failed to reach the 4.4% target of francophone immigration, aside from this attempted legislative fix the Liberals are proposing, does my hon. colleague from the Conservatives have any ideas on why successive Conservative and Liberal governments have failed to reach that target? As well, does he have any ideas of his own on how to best meet that target?
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- May/12/23 10:46:02 a.m.
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Mr. Speaker, yes, there is a problem with immigration. I would remind my colleague that this Liberal government has been in office since 2015. I cannot answer for them.
The Liberals met the target this year, probably with the help of their marketing firm, making sure that they got good press and that everyone knew they met their immigration target. This has happened only once since 2003, so there is definitely a big problem.
I want my colleague to know that we are going to do everything we can, once we are on the other side of the House, to ensure that official languages and the decline of French are a government priority.
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- May/12/23 11:25:31 a.m.
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Mr. Speaker, let me be perfectly clear. The Century Initiative is not a government policy. The government does not endorse the findings of this independent group. The government does not have a goal of increasing Canada's population to 100 million people. We have announced our immigration thresholds for the next three years. These thresholds were set according to the needs of Canadians and Quebeckers.
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- May/12/23 12:05:57 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, Sudanese Canadians in my riding, Einam and Hani, have been pleading with the government for help. Their families are stuck in Sudan amidst violence, and the government is nowhere to be found. The government's disorganized evacuation program left people behind with its restrictive criteria. Now Einam and Hani agonize over whether they will ever see or hear from their loved ones again.
Will the government expand and broaden the special immigration measures to allow Sudanese Canadians to bring their loved ones to safety?
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- May/12/23 12:06:34 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the situation in Sudan is highly volatile, and we are deeply concerned for the safety of Sudanese people. That is why we have announced that we are introducing immigration measures to support Sudanese nationals in Canada who are unable to return home. We are also providing facilitative measures and expediting the processing of their applications, free of charge.
We are ready to help the people of Sudan and help their families here.
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- May/12/23 12:07:59 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, once again, I thank my colleague for his question.
Let me be very clear: We are doing everything we can to reduce wait times in processing applications. We have tripled the number of work permits for clients. We have returned to our 60-day service standard for new study permits, and in 2022 we welcomed more than 437,000 new permanent residents, a record number since 1913. This is good news for Canada.
Our modernization of the Canadian immigration system continues, and we continue our good work to return to our usual service standards. We will continue to help people who want to come to Canada as quickly as possible.
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Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my colleague, with whom I am fortunate to serve on the Standing Committee on Official Languages. As she so rightly pointed out, everyone worked really hard to send this bill back to the House, and here we are. All of the official language minority communities are asking that Bill C-13 be passed as quickly as possible. We recently commenced a study on francophone immigration, more specifically francophone immigration from Africa.
My colleague and I do not have access to French child care, so I would like her to explain how important it is to identify the needs of our communities. Bill C-13 provides for the adoption of a francophone immigration policy, and we established a threshold of recovery to 1971 levels.
How important is it to identify the needs of our communities and how will Bill C-13 help with that?
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