44th Parl. 1st Sess.
October 31, 2023 10:00AM
- Oct/31/23 11:08:24 a.m.
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Mr. Speaker, francophone immigration is very important to British Columbia. The B.C. francophone federation does great work when it comes to helping francophones coming into British Columbia.
I have a francophone school in my constituency. The minister has mentioned that when it comes to francophone immigration, the government has achieved 4.4% outside of Quebec but that more work has to be done.
Could the minister elaborate on the additional steps he would take to ensure we have more francophone immigrants coming into British Columbia?
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- Oct/31/23 11:09:10 a.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I would love to transfer myself from being a minister to a deputy minister in this context, but the devil is in the details and the logistics with which my department administers the program. We have not done a very good job in the past of increasing francophone immigration in our own sphere of jurisdiction. It has landed us a lot of rightful criticism about ensuring we are doing immigration in a proper way to reflect the bilingual nature of our country.
The 4.4% that we reached represented an increase of 450% in those numbers, but it is not enough. If we need to ensure and re-establish some level of parity with respect to our communities, we need to get up to a permanent number of about 6%, which would require increases of 6% to 8%, or perhaps even more, over the next years.
We need to put in place the mechanisms to ensure that this is permanent, including ensuring that we have funding, that provinces are providing funding and that we are putting in place structures that favour francophone speakers as they come to our country. This might include moving from a situation where francophone students could have a pathway to permanent residence, ensuring we are doing missions abroad and that we are tackling the challenges to get French teachers. This is a need that exists outside Quebec as much as it exists inside Quebec. It is work that we have not done, structured or well, in the past.
I look forward in the next year being able to show the House of Commons, our colleagues in government and Canadians that we can do this job and that we can put in place a system that favours and encourages francophone migration.
I cannot conclude my comments without talking about the importance of combatting systemic racism. We know that systemic racism has impacted our ability to recruit French talent in sub-Saharan Africa, particularly in West Africa, and that needs to be fixed as well.
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- Oct/31/23 1:51:09 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, each year, when the targets are revised, the government consults with the provinces and territories, including Quebec. We put resources in so immigrants can settle. There are many organizations that help. When it comes to francophone immigration, particularly outside of Quebec, the B.C. francophone association has always advocated to have more more francophones settle in British Columbia.
Our government has achieved 4.4% and we are willing to go up to 6%. We are ensuring they have the resources, not only for the English-speaking people who are coming to Quebec but also for the French-speaking people who are settling outside of Quebec.
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- Oct/31/23 4:05:09 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I would like to know what my colleague thinks.
First, does he consider it legitimate that Quebec, the only francophone state in North America, wants to ensure the future of French? The federal government seems unwilling to take account of our capacity to integrate and provide French instruction to newcomers. To sustain the demographic weight of French in Quebec, we have to provide French language training to 90% of newcomers.
Through its legislation, its funding of official languages and its institutions, the government seeks to provide services in English and simply support English in Quebec.
Does my colleague believe that integration capacity needs to be accounted for, and that the federal government should stop trying to anglicize Quebec?
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- Oct/31/23 4:19:15 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I, too, am a Quebecker and very proud of my language.
In my hon. colleague's opinion, what is preventing Quebec from choosing francophone immigrants?
As for integration capacity, I can reassure him right away. I personally participated in the family reunification program. My husband is from Michigan. I made him feel very welcome, and he even speaks very good French. Our two children were educated at a French school in Gatineau. The member spoke about the capacity to integrate newcomers, but I would remind him that Quebec has that capacity.
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- Oct/31/23 4:21:28 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, many people may be surprised to know that my riding includes the French Quarter in Edmonton. It has a huge francophone community.
I know that this member will not be surprised because he has helped me practise my French many times, and I have told him all about my community. For me, the biggest strength we have is that there are communities across the country that are francophone, and they can incorporate the francophone immigration numbers we want to have. My concern, of course, is that we do not have the housing, and the cost of living is very extraordinary.
Does he not agree that, if we stopped the profiteering of big corporations and fixed some of those other problems, we would be able to take in more of these francophone immigrants, who I think make our community so much richer across the country, not just in Quebec?
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- Oct/31/23 5:33:28 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I listened to my colleague's speech with great interest. I would like to ask him a question about the other provinces.
I was very pleased to see that we reached our target for francophone immigration to the other provinces, notably New Brunswick, Manitoba and Ontario. I remember that this work was really done in partnership, which was not at all the case eight years ago.
I would like my colleague to comment. Does he think we should continue in the same direction of encouraging francophone immigration throughout Canada?
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- Oct/31/23 5:34:21 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, of course it is not a bad thing that there is francophone immigration. However, that is not what we are talking about today. Whether immigration is francophone or anglophone, here is what we are putting on the table: Is the government prepared to consider reviewing its thresholds after consulting with Quebec and the provinces, to support integration?
Of course we always support francophone immigration. We will not engage in segregation. We welcome everyone. I think that if we welcome people to Quebec who do not speak French, then we have an obligation to provide them with the resources to learn the common and official language.
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