Thank you very much.

I want to thank you for your invitation to participate in the committee's work.

Canada has introduced policies that are designed to promote the recruitment and intake of the international clientele of postsecondary institutions and that are warranted by our expectations of the economic and social integration potential of postsecondary graduates. That's equally true for the clientele attending postsecondary institutions in francophone minority regions.

According to a survey conducted in 2020, more than 90% of the international clientele of member institutions of the Association des collèges et universités de la francophonie canadienne, or ACUFC, intend to look for employment in Canada upon completing their study programs. That figure is greater than the Canadian average.

This percentage, although impressive, obscures the challenges facing that clientele and those institutions. Just imagine how much more support those institutions, particularly the 22 members of the ACUFC, could provide to the international clientele with their educational plans in Canada and how much more they could contribute to the collective work done on francophone immigration.

At the very start, the government put the granting of study permits on its agenda in response to the concerted efforts of many stakeholders. It was an established fact that the refusal rate of study permits requested by African applicants, particularly those from francophone countries, was far higher than in other recruitment pools.

Some corrective measures have begun to be introduced. At the start of the September 2022 term, the acceptance rate of study permit applications from African countries improved slightly relative to previous years. ACUFC subsequently developed constructive ties with Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, or IRCC, in order to coordinate its efforts more effectively with those of the postsecondary institutions. In addition, in cooperation with IRCC and Global Affairs Canada, ACUFC is developing new promotional initiatives for the international clientele and with various teams concerned within the departments in Canada and abroad.

The institutions are also providing many services to the international clientele to support those students in their academic programs. For example, pre-departure support and post-arrival orientation and integration services are now offered, including support in finding housing, achieving academic success and preparing for the labour market. Some institutions also provide support for students wishing to transition to permanent residence.

However, the international clientele still faces many systemic barriers. Many institutions are taking action to expand the scope of their services and to foster ties between the international clientele and the francophone communities, which is one of the keys to an eventual successful integration. To continue retaining a portion of that clientele in Canada, we have to come up with a systemic, coherent, effective and ethnic approach in which the academic paths that international francophone students follow are viewed as part of a plan for society in which ties are established among the educational institutions, community service organizations, employers and the community as a whole.

There are good reasons to invest in these efforts. The postsecondary institutions' international clientele forms a major pool of potential candidates for permanent residence, a pool that can contribute to the francophone immigration objectives of the communities and governments and meet our critical labour needs. Consequently, federal institutions must be called upon and encouraged to adopt various positive measures designed to support postsecondary institutions in their efforts to help expand francophone immigration.

This is why we we are making two recommendations today.

First, we recommend that Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, or IRCC, develop innovative positive measures to cooperate to a greater degree with minority francophone postsecondary institutions. This effort should expressly acknowledge, possibly in a francophone immigration policy, the role of the postsecondary institutions in achieving government and community objectives, as well as their shared responsibilities for the intake, success and support of the international clientele.

Second, we recommend that the federal government establish a permanent support fund for the francophone minority postsecondary sector the criteria of which should acknowledge the jurisdiction of the provinces, while allowing institutions to use the funding raised to develop foundational measures designed to consolidate and expand their activities.

The vitality of the francophone minority communities depends in part on postsecondary institutions that have the capacity to act in adequately meeting the needs and addressing any issues that arise. Permanent federal government support for postsecondary institutions is essential to ensuring that strong institutions can serve all communities, which have the resources to assist the federal government in meeting the targets it has set for itself, particularly with regard to francophone immigration.