On Monday, November 6, the Ghislain Dufour Business Forum welcomed Christine Fréchette, Minister Minister of Immigration, Francization and Integration, and Member of Parliament for Sanguinet. This was the Minister's first public appearance since the recent announcement of the Legault government's immigration roadmap.
Forum members were able to appreciate the magnitude of the government's work over the past few months, as immigration issues remain intimately linked to the protection of the French language and the labour shortage, two issues of great importance in Quebec's political and economic landscape.
The new approach described by Minister Fréchette has enabled us to better understand how the assessment of immigration candidates - based on French language skills—will help Quebec to ensure that immigrant candidates possess a level of French language proficiency appropriate to their profession. It would also prevent us from missing out on talent that we need, but which would be unable to contribute to our society due to insufficient knowledge of the French language.
The government's approach is also aimed at facilitating the integration of immigrants who have graduated from Quebec educational institutions, as well as providing the 471,000 non-permanent immigrant workers with an opportunity to perfect their knowledge of French to facilitate their recruitment by companies looking for workers.
Forum participants were able to see that the laudatory comments made by many journalists and experts about the reform presented by Minister Fréchette were well deserved.
From left: François Crête, Vice-President, Government Relations - Quebec, at NATIONAL Public Relations in Montreal; his colleagues André Bouthillier, Executive Vice-President, and Leslie Molko, Chief of Staff and Senior Director, Corporate Communications; Minister Christine Fréchette; and John Parisella, Senior Advisor, Strategy and Business Outreach, at NATIONAL.
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The Ghislain Dufour Business Forum allows business people to meet and engage in dialogue with Quebec and Canadian political and business figures, political advisors or high-level public administrators on an apolitical and non-partisan basis. For more information, visit the event page.
