Official Languages Committee on Nov. 7th, 2006

[Jean-Claude D'Amours, Liberal, Madawaska—Restigouche, NB]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

[The Vice-Chair, NDP, Yvon Godin]

I'd like to tell you what we're going to do. Around 11:50, we'll sit in camera to discuss matters concerning our trip and what we're going to do this afternoon.

[Jean-Claude D'Amours, Liberal, Madawaska—Restigouche, NB]

Thank you for allotting me an additional 30 seconds, Mr. Chair.

Mr. d'Entremont, you mentioned the matter of the Community Access Program, the CAP. You used the term “community access centre” a number of times. Let's look at the actual situation. In the past few weeks, we've discussed certain budget cuts that have been announced and that were easier to identify.

We currently have a situation where funding for community access centres won't be renewed by the present federal government. This program should be terminated on March 31. However, based on information I've received, it has been requested that the program be terminated on December 31 so that we can finalize the funding that has been allocated, so that March 31 will really be the end. That indicates that it's really the end of this program.

We could also talk about literacy and many other things, but this community access centre program enabled people in isolated rural areas to get training and to use computers and other services to prepare their CVs and job search documents. These things existed, but few people were aware of them, except those who used the services of the community access centres.

Federal government funding is expiring, and no renewal is in sight, no plan for the future. That means that we're leaving these community access centres to their own devices, or virtually so, because the federal portion of their funding will be stopping. I'd like to have your opinion. I think this is a contradiction. The federal government is investing in a partnership with Aliant Telecom and the provinces to make broadband available in virtually all the regions of our provinces, so that all citizens, regardless of the region where they live, can use high speed. But what will broadband be used for when the community access centres no longer exist in their present form to provide these people with training and the necessary tools to help them develop?

I'd like to hear what you have to say on this point because I know that the budget cuts will have a dramatic impact on the community access centres. Some people may not realize that right now, but when the centres have ceased to exist in a few months, it will be too late to stand up and say it's a mistake for the federal government to stop funding the Community Access Program.

I'd like to hear what you have to say on that subject.

[Paul d'Entremont]

You're perfectly right. Mr. Lemieux said earlier that the government wanted to know how it could do things better. Who did it listen to before deciding to make these cuts?

It didn't consult the communities or CAP site users. What are we going to do? In some communities, the member organizations of the Canadian federation are wondering if their offices will have the necessary equipment for their operations. They're looking for ways to continue operations after March 31.

These people can't afford a home computer. The poverty rate across the country is quite high, and that affects the urban areas as well as the rural ones. They'll have to find other ways, but which ones? Perhaps the government could send every citizen $1,200 so they can buy a computer?

[Jean-Claude D'Amours, Liberal, Madawaska—Restigouche, NB]

Mr. d'Entremont, don't you think everything is being done to keep the public in the dark and not give it the necessary tools to develop and grow?

I have an 18-month-old daughter. When my wife isn't sure what's wrong with her, she gets on the Internet to try to find out what it is.

[The Vice-Chair, NDP, Yvon Godin]

Your five minutes are up. Your daughter won't be able to get on the Internet.

Ms. Boucher.

[Sylvie Boucher, Conservative, Beauport—Limoilou, QC]

I'd like to thank you for travelling here. It's very important for us in the government.

Before anything else, I'd like to say that our government has an unshakable commitment to official languages and issues relating to La Francophonie. Ms. Verner, our minister, is working very hard to that end with all the committees concerned.

You talked a lot about the challenges you're facing, and we understand them. What is your biggest challenge right now?

I'm speaking to Ms. Saulnier or Mr. d'Entremont. We see you've worked very hard. What is your biggest achievement, the one that makes you proudest after all that work?

[Paul d'Entremont]

In Nova Scotia, our biggest success is the partnership we've achieved with the province. We often talk about the influence of policies.

Mr. Lemieux, we hope that what you hear today will help you and that perhaps you'll talk to the government. I hope that that “perhaps” becomes a “yes”, that you'll convince your government after hearing the communities.

The provincial partnership is a major success. We're increasingly recognized and we're consulted because we work with them in good faith. We want to work in good faith for the community's vitality. Our Acadian and Francophone community is, for the vast majority, rural. So this is a major success.

The challenge is to do it. At the end of my presentation, I talked about distances and support from governments. We often hear employees, politicians and federal government officials ask what the province is investing in this area. The Health Department was the first department to hire a person whose one and only responsibility is the provision of services in French. Other departments will imitate it.

With the little funding we have, we've managed to introduce health initiatives for the Francophone Acadians of Nova Scotia.

The persons responsible for providing services, 99.9% of whom are Anglophones, told us they would cooperate with us in developing projects. They also told us that they had been given permission to rethink the programs and that they were copying our models in order to implement them in the majority language communities.

With support, we can get there. We aren't just little guys and girls who are fiddling around with little projects. We're doing our best to promote the vitality of our communities. We want people to be able to live healthy lives in French until their dying day. We also want them, regardless of their employers, to be able to work in French in their communities, to be educated and have services in their language.

The challenge is to maintain infrastructures and programs that will make it possible to create the community that we want. You don't do that overnight.

[Sylvie Boucher, Conservative, Beauport—Limoilou, QC]

Thank you.

[The Vice-Chair, NDP, Yvon Godin]

There's a little time left.

[Sylvie Boucher, Conservative, Beauport—Limoilou, QC]

In health, you've made a lot of progress, and you still have a lot of work to do. I thought you said that the biggest challenge in health was retaining health professionals.

Have you developed an action plan for that purpose?

[Alphonsine Saulnier]

Our plan is to implement programs. That's why I referred to creativity. We won't have a faculty of medicine in our province. How do we go about ensuring that our young people can study medicine in French and then come back home?

The organization of practicums is also important because that's what encourages them to come back home. If they see what it means to work in Nova Scotia, they'll be much more inclined to come back than if they do their practicum in Ontario or New Brunswick. They'll be much more attracted to home.

Medical training takes seven years. When you send a young person to study outside the province, we know it'll be seven years before we see them again. That's just an example. The introduction of French-language services is a long-term project. So program continuity is important. Having to restart programs and projects every year or two slows us down. In every case, we have to wait six months to a year before another program is implemented.

Long-term programs are extremely important in health.

[The Vice-Chair, NDP, Yvon Godin]

Thank you.

Mr. André, it's your turn.

[Guy André, Bloc, Berthier—Maskinongé, QC]

I'm going to continue talking about health because I worked in that field for a number of years before going into politics. I'm a social worker by training, somewhat like you; so we sort of come from the same world. I worked at a CLSC. The issue of recruiting doctors is virtually a national issue. I even wonder whether it isn't international. The Americans are coping quite well with this problem because they're doing a lot of privatizing. We know a little about this file. It's nevertheless an important issue.

I have a very brief question about delegating tasks. We're short of doctors, that's true, but we have nurses. I'm one of those people who believe that nurses should have more delegated duties. We're short of doctors, but nurses are competent. We know we're short of doctors and there's an aging population. Where does this debate stand in Nova Scotia?

[Alphonsine Saulnier]

Nurse practitioners are increasingly being recognized in Nova Scotia. I know that 23 nurses are currently doing their master's degrees at Arthabaska University in order to become nurse practitioners. There are some Francophones among those 23 nurses. Others want to register for the program. Nurse practitioners are increasingly in evidence in Nova Scotia. There remain some details and agreements to be finalized with the doctors, but we are putting a lot of hopes—especially in the rural communities—in nurse practitioners. I entirely agree with you—I'm also a nurse by training—that nurses can do a lot of things. That would free up doctors and enable them to manage their time better.

[Guy André, Bloc, Berthier—Maskinongé, QC]

We're experiencing the same things, and that's why I ask the question. There's nevertheless a division of power.

I'd briefly like to hear what you have to say on the question of culture. How is Francophone culture experienced in Nova Scotia? Are any resources made available to the Francophone communities to promote that culture? How does that work?

Do you have any projects? You mentioned development projects and administrative foot-dragging. You also said you often submit projects, but that the administrative process is slow. We understand that. We have a technocratic system that sometimes takes a very long time. What is the impact of this administrative foot-dragging on projects in the field? Do you see any ways of expediting the process of responding to projects that would reinforce the communities' capabilities? They would be able to have budgets and to manage them, take concrete actions without having to go through the administrative machinery or expose themselves to rejections, and to put those projects forward.

[Alphonsine Saulnier]

Culture isn't my field, but you've probably heard of the 2004 World Acadian Congress. Perhaps you know Grand Dérangement, Blou, La Baie en Joie, visual artists like Denise Comeau and many others in the province. I know there's an association of artists in all disciplines in Nova Scotia and that it's blazing trails. But, from what I hear, they're experiencing the same thing as we are: foot-dragging. After getting a response to a project, there's only five months left, instead of a year. So you have to spin the wheels and turn them as fast as possible to achieve the maximum. The artistic and cultural vitality in Nova Scotia is incredible, among the author-composers, among others. I think, I guess, they'd say more or less the same thing as we're saying about support and slow decisions. As a result, the wheels don't turn quickly.

[Paul d'Entremont]

I'm aware of one case in particular concerning support for cultural development, entertainment and so on in the schools. From the public's standpoint, the average person has to bring in and pay artists. Ms. Thorne talked about that: there are challenges that must be met. But I can talk about the operation within the schools, because I was on the province's Acadia School Board until 1988. I took early retirement. At that time, we were working to create a federal student cultural development support program. We brought in artists from the outside, but the costs became increasingly exorbitant. We wanted to find support to do this more with artists and crafts people from the community, who were working with the students. Eight years later, after filing a lot of applications, a program will be starting soon. We're talking about foot-dragging, aren't we? This came from the community, which will be working with the students. We can't afford to bring in well-known artists. So we have to work in the other direction, with them, but with programs integrated into the schools.

[The Vice-Chair, NDP, Yvon Godin]

Thank you, Mr. d'Entremont and Mr. André.

I'd like to ask you a brief question, but I'd like to turn the floor over to Mr. Petit for the rest of the time, three or four minutes.

You referred to the little “Bonjour”. I think that's really fantastic. I went to Sault Ste. Marie, and the Francophone committee had decided to make an identical little pin. When I arrived at the airport, a woman spoke to me in French. I asked her how she had guessed I was a Francophone, and she answered that it was because of the pin bearing the word “Bonjour”. That's incredible. In fact, they say a lot of people in Sault Ste. Marie have met and recognized each other as a result of this identifying pin.

I would like one thing to be noted in our report. You say that the important thing is not only for us to invest money here and to fight with the federal government and so on, but also to give the Francophone community the opportunity to take charge of itself and for the province to decide that someone is there to hear you. That gives you the opportunity to communicate with the provincial government so that it can see all the work you're doing to find solutions. That's what I understood. However, there has to be money for the organizations. They're doing a good job, and I congratulate you on that, because that's important.

I'm going to turn the floor over to Mr. Petit. There's about three and a half minutes left.

[Daniel Petit, Conservative, Charlesbourg—Haute-Saint-Charles, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Good morning, Ms. Saulnier and Mr. d'Entremont.

My question is mainly for Mr. d'Entremont because he has an overview. First of all, I'm a new Conservative Party member. You see that we've travelled to meet you. We haven't been here for 25 years. So, bonjour la visite, as we say back home.

I've had legal training and I'm still a lawyer. The fact that you have a partnership agreement that seems to be a very strong one with the provincial government, as madame has confirmed, attracted my attention. You even talked about an act that's apparently a sign of openness. Will that act cover all the fields we're talking about today, such as health, education and early childhood? Could you tell me about the origins of that act? You had to work on its development. That's very interesting because your province isn't officially bilingual, as New Brunswick is, for example. However, you have an act that seems to say something in particular. Could you tell me about it?

[Paul d'Entremont]

The act we referred to a little earlier is the Act Respecting the Office of Acadian Affairs and the Delivery of French-Language Services by the Public Service, which used to be called the Bureau of Acadian Affairs. Despite its official title, it has the status of a department, and has for a number of years. Minister d'Entremont, and the current government, introduced the bill in the House, a bill on government services in French.

[Daniel Petit, Conservative, Charlesbourg—Haute-Saint-Charles, QC]

We're talking about the province's government services.

[Paul d'Entremont]

That's correct.

The act was unanimously passed in October 2004 and came into force on December 9.

We've seen the regulations establishing the way we'll be proceeding. It clearly states that all departments are targeted. Designated departments, commissions and government agencies are targeted. For example, the Workers' Compensation Board is an agency governed by the labour standards code. That agency will have to work and provide services in French.

[The Vice-Chair, NDP, Yvon Godin]

You have 30 seconds left.

[Paul d'Entremont]

The department is responsible for health. It mandates regional authorities, which can then hire contract employees. The department is responsible for continuing care. For that, it hires contract employees, who are third parties. They will all have to provide services in French.