Immigration Minister Marc Miller says he’s confident Ottawa will be able to hit its much-higher francophone immigration target of six per cent by the end of next year even though it took almost two decades for the government to attain its previous target.

Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) reached its target of ensuring 4.4 per cent of all immigration to Canada consisted of francophones last year.

Now, the IRCC’s goal is to boost francophone immigration outside of the francophone province of Quebec to six per cent next year, seven per cent in 2025, and eight per cent in 2026.

“These are targets that we have never ever achieved before, so it’s new and – with everything that’s new – I think we have to be on the lookout and make sure that there is someone who does monitors it so that we are on the right track and not wait until the very end, even if it means apologizing for targets that are missed,” Miller told Francopresse in an interview.

Ahead of setting the new francophone immigration targets for Canada, outside of Quebec, IRCC officials consulted a wide range of organizations and looked at its internal resources to see how they had reached the previous target to determine if it was a model that could be reproduced.

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“What I asked the public service is to go beyond their way of thinking and to draw from the inventory of people who are French-speaking and see how we could realistically increase the targets from year to year,” said Miller.

With inflation woes and the housing crisis top of mind for many Canadians, immigrants have become the scapegoats for many who view their arrival in the country as fueling demand for housing and driving up prices. 

Boosting francophone immigration to the country even further is something that could become an election potato – but Miller said he’s not worried.

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“It was precisely because I did not want to be a politician making policy just to win elections that I wanted to be realistic with people,” he told Francopresse. “There is nothing worse than a politician who makes false promises, even if it means having to apologize the year afterwards for disappointing everyone.

“There were people who said to me on the sly, ‘Let’s set the objectives at 10 to 15 per cent, even if we are not going to meet them, because that will win us favour with certain people, especially in the French-speaking world outside the country. Quebec. I hate this kind of politics.”

Francophone Immigration Targets Are Needed To Restore The Demographic Weight Of Language

Although the immigration minister admits the francophone immigration targets are ambitious, he also maintains they are realistically achievable.

“These ambitious, realistic and achievable targets demonstrate Canada’s commitment to strengthening the vitality of francophone minority communities, supporting labour needs across the country and contributing to restoring the demographic weight of francophones,” he said.

Under its newly-released 2024-2026 Immigration Levels Plan, Canada is planning to welcome 485,000 new permanent residents in 2024, 500,000 in 2025 and then hold the line on immigration in 2026 with another 500,000 new permanent residents.

That’s a total of 1.485 million immigrants to Canada over those three years.