Immigration Minister Lena Metlege Diab speaks during question period in Ottawa on Nov. 7, 2025.Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press
Immigration Minister Lena Metlege Diab proudly announced earlier this month that the federal government had exceeded last year’s “ambitious” immigration target for francophones outside of Quebec. What she didn’t say, however, is that this strategy of passing over better-qualified applicants who don’t speak French will likely harm Canada’s economic growth.
It’s one in a series of policies that has upended Canada’s successful economic immigration program by watering it down to meet other objectives.
As recently as 2019, most invitations for permanent residence through Express Entry, Canada’s main system for selecting economic immigrants, were through general rounds for applicants with the highest points based on factors that made them likely to succeed in the job market. Last year there were no general rounds, and no rounds for the broad-based federal skilled worker or skilled trades programs.
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Francophone applicants are already awarded points for speaking French, but they now get priority in special rounds. A whopping 42 per cent of people invited last year for permanent residence through Express Entry were given priority because of their ability to speak French, compared with 23 per cent in 2024. Francophones are now the highest priority group of skilled workers, with their numbers surpassing those with Canadian work experience, or expertise in health care, education or trades. They made up 8.9 per cent of all new permanent residents outside Quebec last year, with the target set to rise to 10.5 per cent by 2028.
With many pathways to immigrate to Canada narrowing or shut, some temporary residents are learning French to get an edge. If you’re a highly skilled worker outside the country who doesn’t speak French – even if you’re a senior executive – immigration lawyers such as Shoshana Green say it’s now virtually impossible to get selected through the federal Express Entry program unless you are in health care or education.
The cut-off scores for francophone immigrants, based on factors such as age, education and work experience, are substantially lower than those for other skilled workers offered permanent residence. The lowest cut-off score for French speakers last year was 379; it was 462 for health care workers and 515 for applicants with Canadian experience. According to research from C.D. Howe’s Christopher Worswick and other economists, lower-scoring workers are more likely to struggle economically and make less money. Bringing them in over more highly skilled workers hurts productivity and reduces tax revenue.
The government’s rationale, according to last year’s policy paper from Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, is the “urgent need” to address the decline of francophone and Acadian communities. The government aims to restore their demographic weight to 1971 levels, when it was 6.1 per cent of the population outside Quebec, from 3.5 per cent in 2021.
As a result, IRCC has developed a “francophone lens” to guide its actions, aiming to maintain the country’s bilingual character. It boosted the number of francophones who can be brought in under provincial immigration programs, and loosened rules for francophone temporary workers, who only need a “moderate” command of French.
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Francophones are an important part of Canada’s culture and heritage – both inside and outside of Quebec. However, the idea of freezing their demographic weight based on an arbitrary date in the past is misguided. The Liberals may believe that boosting French will get votes, but the measures are unlikely to do much to increase the vitality of historic francophone communities in northern Ontario or New Brunswick. Permanent residents can choose where they live, and francophones may move to Toronto or Vancouver, where they won’t necessarily use French in daily life, or to Montreal, for increased job opportunities.
The immigration system needs to be reset back to where it was in 2019, before the Liberal government started moving away from selecting economic immigrants through general rounds.
The Liberal government has taken some big steps to reverse poor decisions it made on immigration. It should scrap category draws for specific groups, and return to a system that selects people based on skills and the ability to succeed. Our economic future depends on it.