Lena Metlege Diab, Canada’s Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship, joined Sudbury MP Viviane Lapointe on Friday to announce $1.5 million for the Francophone Immigration Support Program. Funding for three programs aims to attract francophone workers to Canada to meet labour market needs. One program offers a pathway for students at Université de Hearst to settle in Canada, another is for post-secondary studies, and the third is for a program to help inform and prepare francophone immigrants. Lapointe said Sudbury is one of 13 communities in Canada named a “welcoming community” for francophone immigrants. “Which means that we attract and get special programs for French-speaking ‘nouveau arrivant’ -- French-speaking, newly arrived Canadians,” she said. Thomas Mercier, director of Réseau du Nord, said the city has seen “decent growth” in francophone immigration in the last few years. “Both in terms of services available to newcomers and in terms of the number of newcomers,” Mercier said. “In 2025, there were 480 new permanent resident francophones in Sudbury.” In total, 26 per cent of all newcomers arriving in Sudbury last year were able to speak French. The three programs fall under the Francophone Immigration Support Program, with a goal of countering the decline of francophone minority communities outside of Quebec. “We know that, especially in rural areas of northern Ontario, that immigration is linked to prosperity,” Lapointe said. “You have communities of mayors that want to grow the population. They want to address skill shortages and gaps in that workforce. So immigration is key to that.”
