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First
Objective |
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To
facilitate the integration of immigrants into Official Language Minority
(OLM) communities. |
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Principal
Measures
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Progress
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Integration
Branch
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Promote consultation of OLMC in the regions, thereby assisting them
to better integrate new arrivals. |
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Within the context of the Interdepartmental Partnership with Official
Language Communities (PICLO), Integration Branch has mandated the
Fédération des communautés francophones et acadienne
(FCFA) du Canada to evaluate the capacity of Francophone communities
in Vancouver, Edmonton, Winnipeg, Sudbury, Ottawa and Moncton to welcome
and integrate new arrivals. The report will be tabled in the fall
of 2002. The results of this evaluation will serve to develop strategies
to sensitise Francophone minority communities to immigration issues
and to support their absorptive capacity.
- Integration
Branch, in partnership with the CIC - Francophone Minority Communities
Steering Committee, are developing strategies to facilitate the
promotion of the communities abroad thus encouraging the recruitment,
selection, and integration of newcomers within these communities.
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- Examine
CIC's commitments with regard to Official Languages at key meeting
with headquarters and the regions. |
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An information session and official languages workshops took place
during the National settlement staff conference in October 2001. The
Integration Branch employees and representatives from the CIC regional
offices participated in the meeting. |
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Update the sections on official languages in the settlement guide
and the national and regional training guides. |
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The sections of the guidelines on official languages in the settlement
manual were revised. |
- Emphasize
the clauses relating to OL in the national contribution agreement. |
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The last amendments made to the official languages contribution agreement
will be included in the next revision of the settlement officers'
training manual during 2002-2003. In the mean time, CIC regional offices
have been notified of the new official languages provisions in the
new contribution agreements. |
- Evaluate
the ability of service providers to deliver services in both official
languages. |
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Official languages clauses have been reviewed. An action plan and
an information package on official languages to support CIC regional
offices and services providers are being prepared. Under the new official
languages clauses, the service providers must consult Francophone
communities to define settlement needs.
- Integration
Branch has carried out an evaluation of the implementation of the
Official Languages Act with regards to CIC service providers.
Twenty-five services have been evaluated.
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Ontario
Region
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- Follow up
to the consultations with OLMC in Ontario focussing on Settlement
issues.
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- Ontario Region
has signed one agreement for the development of material addressing
needs specific to immigrant elders to use in the LINC classes in
French. It has also contracted out the translation into French of
15 products/materials related to settlement.
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British
Colombia / Yukon Region
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- Ensure all
points of entry have brochures and pamphlets that promote services
provided in French as well as contact information for French services.
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- All materials
distributed to offices are in both official languages.
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Encourage staff to promote services offered in French through the
department and external contacts. |
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There has been ongoing communication to staff to ensure this deliverable
is met. |
- Offer services
in both official languages to the Public.
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- This project
is ongoing.
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Atlantic
Region |
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French Language Training services actively promoted by all NGOs and
Service providers and included in all Contracts in Fredericton, Saint
John and Moncton, New Brunswick. |
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This measure has been fully met. |
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Second
Objective |
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To
encourage OLM communities to participate in CIC activities. |
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Principal
Measures
|
Progress
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Department-Wide |
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All Citizenship ceremonies will reflect Canada's linguistic duality
and OLMC will be invited to participate either as hosts, guest speakers,
or by assisting in the organization of special receptions. |
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Both official languages are used and encouraged during all-Branch
staff meetings and ceremonies (i.e. Awards Ceremony). |
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Integration
Branch |
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Study the means to encourage OLMC to take part in Citizenship Week
activities. |
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The Promotion Division offers free educational products to promote
Canada's Citizenship Week to educators and to youth group leaders
to encourage them organize activities during this week. Among these
products are an activity package, a reaffirmation ceremony package,
and posters. An order form is being sent to schools throughout Canada. |
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Support the establishment of an organization/national advisory working
group made up of OLMC representatives. |
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CIC established the CIC - Francophone Minority Communities Committee,
in March 2002. It is composed of representatives from CIC and various
communities. The Committee's mandate is to facilitate the promotion
of these communities overseas as well as encourage recruitment, selection
and integration of newcomers within these communities.
- The FCFA
of Canada was selected to carry out the first phase of the development
of an action plan to increase the capacity of the OLMC to accommodate
and integrate newcomers within the framework of a PICLO project.
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Regional
Offices: |
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Support OLMC projects by participating in the Interdepartmental Partnership
with Official Language Communities.
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- CIC Regional
offices were invited to develop initiatives with the Francophone
OLMC within the framework of a PICLO project. CIC regional office
representatives participate in the Orientation Committee to evaluate
the capacity of Francophone communities in Vancouver, Edmonton,
Winnipeg, Sudbury, Ottawa and Moncton to welcome and integrate new
arrivals. Proposals for a project could arise from the recommendations
of this evaluation.
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Metropolis |
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Ensure that members of OLMC are invited to actively participate in
Metropolis conferences and workshops. |
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At the 5th Metropolis conference (Fall 2001), several of the speakers
were selected within the Official Language Minority Communities. All
conference papers and plenaries were available in English and French. |
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Quebec
Region |
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Continue to collaborate with organizations that represent the linguistic
minority in Quebec and convey information on behalf of the Department. |
- The Quebec
Region spokesperson regularly grants interviews to the anglophone
media on various subjects.
- In addition
to holding citizenship ceremonies in OLMC, Quebec region regularly
invites representatives from the Anglophone community to assist
at citizenship ceremonies as well as participating at other activities
organized by CIC in order to exchange information.
- All events
surrounding the rural Partnership (meetings between representatives
of the rural community and those of the various ministries or agencies
of the area) proceed within a bilingual envornment in order to encourage
the participation of the Anglophone linguistic minorities to take
part in these meetings.
- Quebec Region
has developed information on CIC in the two official languages and
made them available to clients.
- For the first
time this year, the anglophone print media outlet covered the July
1st 2001 citizenship ceremony in Quebec.
- Within the
framework of the "Missing Children" program, Quebec Region
held bilingual identification clinics as well as bilingual information
kiosks.
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British
Colombia / Yukon Region |
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Ensure staff promotes ceremonies availability in both official languages. |
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Ongoing through the Admissions and Facilitation Office - Citizenship. |
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Contact the Francophonie associations in British Columbia and the
Yukon to establish dialogue on CIC services. |
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Two meetings were arranged with La Federation des francophones de
la Colombie-Britannique to explore opportunities and provide information
regarding mandates from both parties. |
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Ensure telephone listing are published in the Telus Blue Pages and
Annaire (French Telephone directory). |
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Yearly submissions to Telus and Annaire to update CIC call centre
number is reflected for all CIC services. This year we also placed
an advertisement in the promotional 60 page souvenir guide for La
Societe francophone de Victoria. |
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Ensure dissemination of information through the French language papers
both in British Columbia and the Yukon. |
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All external communications are coordinated regionally through the
communications branch. |
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Atlantic
Region |
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Increased participation of Francophone communities in Citizenship
ceremonies in the Atlantic Provinces. |
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This measure has been fully met. |
- Participation
of CIC management at the Atlantic Symposium on Official Languages
in Charlottetown, PEI in October 2002.
|
- This measure
has been fully met.
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Third
Objective |
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To
promote awareness among CIC's clients and the general public of Canada's
bilingual character and the presence of OLM communities in every province
and territory. |
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Principal
Measures
|
Progress |
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Integration
Branch |
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- Promote
status equality of English and French in Canada.
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Document prepared for the benefit of CIC clients, is produced in French
and English. In addition, the guide Welcome to Canada: What you
should know, Canada and New Arrivals and A Look at Canada
promote the linguistic duality of Canada. |
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Promote the bilingual character and the existence of OLMC within the
framework if the Canadian Orientation Abroad program abroad. |
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In collaboration with the CIC - Francophone Minority Communities Committee,
Integration Branch will participate in developing a strategy to make
the employees, service providers and CIC clients in Canada and abroad
aware of the bilingual nature of Canada and the existence of OLMCs.
The Canadian Orientation Abroad Program curriculum has activities
that promote Canada's bilingualism. |
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Enforcement
Branch
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Promote the use of English and French by providing simultaneous interpretation
services at conferences and by ensuring that the national publications
and web pages of CIC and some of our national partners are bilingual. |
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The Enforcement Branch has held conferences where simultaneous interpretation
services have been offered (i.e. National Port of Entry Conference
held in Ottawa from March 11 to 13, 2002). |
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International
Region
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OLMC information will be included in the annual Program Manager Course.
Include in the delivery of the Acts and Regulations Course as well
as the Acts and Regulations refresher course modules on Part VII of
the Official Languages Act.
|
- Training
on Official Language minority communities has been included in all
our operational training courses: Programme Manager course, Basic
Visa officer course, Locally Engaged officer course and refresher
course for experienced officers.
The objective
of this training is to:
- Locate the
regions where the main linguistic minorities are;
- Understand
the purpose of the Official Languages Act (OLA) and its
impact on the operations of federal institutions; and
- Discuss
the CIC Action Plan for the implementation of Article 41 of the
OLA for the support of OLMC and the linguistic duality of Canada.
Official language
objectives reviewed and emphasized at each Program Managers Conference. |
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Quebec
Region |
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- Continue
to collaborate with organisations that represent the linguistic
minority in Quebec and provide them with information from the Department.
|
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Quebec Region contributes to the projects of a overseen by the Federal
Council of Quebec (CFQ) and on which the Director General of CIC Quebec
sits.
- Quebec Region
has continued to participate in the different committees made up
of CIC representatives and non-governmental organizations and Issue
Table members.
- Quebec Region
has addressed a list of different linguistic minority associations
in the province in order to be able to establish communications.
- Once again
this year, Quebec Region has participated in Townshipper's Day
(an OLMC in the Quebec Eastern Townships) in order to inform the
population and to promote services offered by CIC.
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British
Colombia / Yukon Region |
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- Continue
to build a relationship with the Francophone comuninity in British
Columbia and the Yukon to establish dialogue on CIC services as
well as work collaboratively to promote CIC services.
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Meetings were arranged with La Federation des francophones de la Colombie-Britannique
to explore a possible partnership and to provide information regarding
mandates from both parties. The Federation has expressed an interest
in collaborating on settlement service delivery with both federal
and provincially funded settlement Service Provider Organisations. |
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Atlantic
Region
|
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- Involvement
of operations management in OL activities in their area /province
through involvement in Federal Council Official Language sub-committees
and initiatives.
|
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This measure has been fully met. |
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Improve knowledge and understanding by OLM communities of global migration
issues and research into rural /small city immigration data. |
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This year, the Metropolis Atlantique conference took place
June 14-16 in Halifax. The purpose of this conference was to define
the research direction for the Atlantic center. A meeting of l'association
des Acadiens et des Acadiennes du Nouveau-Brunswick took place
in Dieppe on 15 June. Recent immigrants were invited to share their
experiences. The goal of the meeting was to help the province of New
Brunswick develop settlement facilities for new French-speaking immigrants. |
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Fourth
Objective |
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To
consider the interests of Official Language Minority (OLM) communities
when developing policies and programs. |
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Principal
Measures
|
Progress
|
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Selection
Branch |
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Propose selection criteria that give greater weight under the Independent
Category to applicants possessing abilities in an official language. |
- The selection
grid for qualified skilled worker immigrants has been modified under
changes to the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act to
reflect the importance of official language skills.
- The total
number of points allocated for knowledge of official languages
will increase;
- A fourth
level of evaluation, such as basic language knowledge, will be
added (as well as levels for no knowledge, average knowledge and
fluency);
- Additional
points will be granted for knowledge of the first official language;
- Points will
be granted for knowledge of the second official language.
The Provincial
Nominee Agreement with Nova Scotia that is currently being ratified,
will include provisions recognizing the importance of encouraging
the development of the French-speaking community of the province
and to the need consult its representatives in pursuit of immigration
objectives. This agreement is the first of its kind to include such
provisions.
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Communications
Branch |
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- Ensure that
"A Scattering of Seeds", a documentary series highlighting
the experiences of various immigrant groups on OLMC, features more
stories of francophone immigrants.
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- The fourth
season of "A Scattering of Seeds: The Story of Canada"
featured three stories that illustrate the experiences of OLMC in
Canada:
- The story
of the Pioneer Priest Monseigneur Bourdel who left France in 1904
and settled in Saskatchewan, founding the first parish in Prud'homme.
- The story
of Henry de Puyjalon: Lone Wolf of the North Shore. This story
of a naturalist who came to Quebec in 1872 was produced entirely
in French, with an overdubbed narrative for the English language
version.
- The story
of "The Furthest Possible Place: The Journey of Ana Maria
Seifert" presents the story of a refugee from Bolivia who
settles in Montreal during the 1970's and embraces the culture
of Montreal.
|
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Encourage the French broadcast of "A Scattering of Seeds." |
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The thirteen French language episodes of the four season of "A
Scattering of Seeds" were broadcast by Société
Radio- Canada's RDI, running one episode per week for 13 weeks.
The broadcast of the series reached hundreds of thousands of Francophone
viewers across Canada.
- Citizenship
and Immigration Canada assisted the producer of the series to translate
the contents of their educationally oriented website to ensure that
the on-line information on this series was available to the OLMC.
|
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Metropolis |
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The provision of a list of Metropolis Project research papers, highlighting
those of potential relevance to the vitality of OLMC. |
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A list of policy-research papers relayed to Official Languages issues
(and migration / integration issues) was provided to the Metropolis
federal partners (9 Other Government Departments) and to the appropriate
managers and policy advisors within CIC. |
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Quebec
Region |
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To consider the interests of Official Language Minority Communities
when developing policies and programs. |
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With the aim of ensuring the respect and the integrity of the programs
of the Department, official languages were added to the regional priorities.
- Managers
were invited to set precise objectives with regards to official
languages in their management contracts.
- Representatives
of the anglophone media were invited to a presentation, in both
official languages, demonstrating modifications with the new law.
- CIC Quebec
has established communications with representative of the Office
of the Commissioner of Official Language of the Quebec region and
the report "Cooperation Between the Government and the Communities:
New Models for Service Delivery" was analyzed.
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Prairies
and Northern Territories
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Alberta |
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- Invite representation
from the Association Multiculturelle Francophone de l'Alberta (an
organization that represents the majority of francophone immigrants
in Edmonton) to participate on the CIC Community Advisory Committee.
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- The Association
Multiculturelle Francophone de l'Alberta participates actively in
CIC Edmonton's Community Advisory Committee. There is an understanding
between CIC and local communities the needs of OLMC can be raised
and addressed during these meetings.
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- Establish
a CIC Community Advisory Committee in Calgary that will include
representation from OLMC.
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- A Community
Advisory Committee has been established in Calgary.
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Manitoba |
|
- As co-chair
of the Community Advisory Committee established with the Province
of Manitoba, CIC will continue discussions with members (which includes
representation from OLMC) on the provision and delivery of settlement
services.
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- This is
a work in progress, and the province has taken the lead by funding
a dedicated Settlement Counselor to OLMC.
|
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CIC will continue discussions with the Province of Manitoba, the Societé
Francophone Manitobaine and francophone school divisions regarding
integration difficulties for immigrant children into the francophone
school system. |
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This responsibility has since been transferred to the Manitoba government.
The provincial government has been investigating the Francophone school
system and CIC Winnipeg has yet to be updated on their findings. |
Saskatchewan |
|
|
- Establish
a CIC Community Advisory Committee in Regina and Saskatoon that
will include representation from OLMC.
|
- There has
been no further progress in creating a Community Advisory Committee
in Regina to date, however, a Committee has been created in Saskatoon.
|
Nunavut |
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- CIC will
contact francophone organizations within the territory and if interested,
initiate discussions regarding CIC policies and programs.
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- There is
no progress to report.
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Yellowknife |
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- Encourage
dialogue between CIC and OLMC.
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- There is
no progress to report.
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Fifth
Objective |
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To
ensure that CIC policies and programs foster the recognition and use
of both English and French in Canadian society. |
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Principal
Measures
|
Progress |
|
Integration
Branch |
|
- To communicate
to citizenship judges, documents to help the public gain a better
understanding and appreciation of the values inherent in Canadian
society, one of which is equal status of English and French.
|
- Documentation
was made available to citizenship judges.
|
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Refugees
Branch |
|
- Destining
and matching refugees through the use of tools such as community
profiles.
|
- Refugees
Branch continued to destine refugees selected overseas to specific
communities in Canada using community profiles and criteria such
as, family members and/or similar cultural groups present in the
community and capacity of the community to receive and integrate
refugees. The Branch also continued to match refugees with private
sponsors using similar criteria.
|
- When selecting
refugees, consideration is given to the ability of refugees to speak
French in conjunction with other settlement factors such as the
presence of other family members in Canada.
|
- Missions
overseas continued to evaluate refugees' official languages knowledge
and this information was used to destine refugees to communities
where they would be most likely to successfully establish.
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Enforcement
Branch
|
|
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Encourage staff to promote services in French throughout the Department
and with external contacts. |
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The Enforcement Branch continues to ensure that all public documentation
is provided in both official languages (i.e. information on the Permanent
Resident Card). |
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Communications
Branch
|
|
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Develop and provide all CIC publications, fact sheets, brochures,
posters, new releases, and press kits in both official languages. |
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All client and public information is available on the web or in print
in both official languages at the same time. |
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Maintain web sites in both official languages. |
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Media spokespersons in Communications can speak to the media in the
official language of the caller's choice.
- Web site
links have been modified to reflect the official languages.
- Web users
can move from the French to English version of the text on the web
through the mechanism called for in the TBS "common look and
feel" guidelines.
|
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Consistent written communications through the development of a CIC
Style Guide in each official language for use in all departmental
documents. |
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A style guide exists for the use of each official language. |
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Formal electronic messages are sent to clients and staff in both official
languages. |
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Staff messages sent by Communications are always dispatched in bilingual
format. |
|
Quebec Region
|
|
- To ensure
that CIC policies and programs foster the recognition and use of
both English and French in Canadian society.
|
- The Director
General regularly conveys to employees the importance of actively
providing internal and external communication in the two official
languages. In certain offices, a standard of service was established
and distributed to the employees with an aim to ensure that telephone
reception was in the two official languages.
- Officers
who are in direct contact with the public hold bilingual positions.
- Press kits
are provided in both official languages.
- Clients have
access to all documentation and packages in both official languages.
Appropriate signage has been posted in CIC-Quebec buildings, and
the public is greeted in an environment which clearly indicates
Quebec Region's capacity to offer services in both official languages.
Services available in person as by telephone are available both
two official languages.
- To answer
to the needs of the French population and to support the needs of
the service providers with regards to official languages in the
Toronto area, the transfer of the French-speaking phone calls was
made to the Montreal call center.
|
|
Prairies
and Northern Territories |
|
Saskatchewan |
|
-
Initiate further discussions with Conseil de la cooperation de la
Saskatchewan and the College Mathieu in Gravelbourg regarding the
admission of foreign French speaking students. |
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There is no progress to report. |
Manitoba |
|
-
Prepare an information package about College St. Boniface by the Société
Francophone Manitobaine. |
-
College St. Boniface has taken the initiative and recruited students
in a very successful promotional campaign. CIC has expressed its willingness
to assist in the recruitment of students. |
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