They just invited 5,000 French speakers at a human capital score of 382. The day before, people already working in Canada needed a 523. IRCC invited only 1,000 of them. 382 is also an inflated score because anyone in that category automatically gets a 25 pt handicap. So more like 357. I keep asking myself what the point of these consultations is if the government has already decided what it wants to do. Every year IRCC sends surveys to thousands of organizations asking what Canada actually needs. Which categories are a “great need”? Should we prioritize people already working in Canada? Should Francophone immigration remain an economic priority? They hold consultations, collect submissions, pay people to analyze the results, write the reports, translate them, publish them, and call the whole exercise “What We Heard.” Then they ignore what they heard. I sat in the committee room on February 9 with the brief in front of me. I’ve read these reports. These are their numbers. In 2024, when IRCC asked which categories represented a “great need,” healthcare came back at 55.8%. Trades were 38.8%. STEM was 32.4%. French was last at 14.6%. About half said prioritize skilled workers already in Canada. Only a small minority preferred new workers from overseas. Only 19% gave Francophone immigration a lot of support as an economic priority. More than half gave it little or no support. Canadians answered the questions. Then 2025 happened and now 2026 is shaping up to be even worse. We’re not even done the year and the French category has blown past the 2025 numbers. In 2025, French-language candidates received 49.2% of all Express Entry invitations. 78% of them were overseas. STEM went from 28.7% of the system in 2023 to 5.8%. There has not been a dedicated STEM draw since April 2024. Healthcare, the thing respondents said Canada needed most, got 18.6%. Trades got 4.4%. And this is not even Quebec. Quebec runs its own system. The only distinctly French province is not in these numbers. This is Ottawa stuffing overseas French speakers into the rest of the country, while hollowing out the high-skilled pathway Express Entry was supposed to be. The message to candidates is getting absurdly simple: We don’t care what you do. We don’t care what you earn. We don’t care how long you’ve been here. We don’t care whether your occupation is supposedly one of the ones Canada desperately needs. Just learn French. And you’ll get a 50 pt handicap if you can speak basic English. Apparently this is the economic class? That is the precedent we are setting. Meanwhile someone who has spent years building a career here, paying taxes, and getting Canadian work experience can look at a 523 and be told they are not competitive enough. An overseas candidate gets in at 382 because the French-language target matters more. Pay public servants and consultants to run the process, write the PDF, and put “What We Heard” on a government website. Then do what you were going to do anyway. That is consultation theatre and a government grift. Not because somebody is stuffing cash in their pocket. Because we have built a taxpayer-funded machine around pretending to ask. Salaries. Contracts. Meetings. Reports. God knows how many hours of public-service time. All of that costs money. What are Canadians getting for it if the answer cannot change the policy? Makers and builders get a 500+ score and a closed door. The people running the survey get another report, another budget line, and another year of doing whatever they already decided. If Ottawa has already decided that Francophone targets override labour-market demand, Canadian work experience, earnings, and the answers in its own consultations, then have the courage to say that. Just say it’s performative, admit you are liars, thieves and grifters. Stop hiding behind “What We Heard.” Now we’re in 2026, and they still are not listening and it’s getting worse. The charts are their numbers.