Official Languages Committee on Jan. 30th, 2007

[The Chair, Conservative, Guy Lauzon]

Ms. St-Laurent, do you want to start? No?

[Jean de Dieu Tuyishime, Coordinator, Réseau TNO Santé en français]

I would mainly like to deal with the field of health care in the Northwest Territories. It has to be said that we have managed to set up a network with several partners, including healthcare professionals, healthcare facility managers and people from the departments and healthcare administration. I think that the greatest challenge now is to ensure the network's sustainability. What is going to happen?

So far, it has been maintained thanks to funds allocated under specific projects. Now that we have built up a relationship of trust, we wonder whether we will always have to rely on small projects. How do we avoid violating the trust we have spent time building? Ensuring the network's sustainability in the territories is key to maintaining that relationship.

[Sandra St-Laurent]

I concur. We work with five partners: training institutions, healthcare professionals, the two levels of government and hospital managers. This is a large group of people we manage to bring to the same table in order to discuss health care. Honestly, I've got to say that if it weren't for this network, there would be nothing in the territories when it comes to healthcare services in French. Yesterday we calculated that in the Yukon, at any given moment, there is only the equivalent of 1.25 people working to offer bilingual services, which includes a person working from 8 a.m. to noon in the hospital to provide interpretation services. In the Yukon, you can only get sick in French in the morning. That gives you an idea of the situation.

There are no other services towards which you can direct these people. There are areas where the required percentage of services in French is not met. It is essential to maintain the network and even to increase its ability to act in the field. We have been mature and effective: we have managed to reach out to all of these people despite turnover of key people in the field. Without this network, people would not have access to services in French. We are offering these services until such time as the government assumes its responsibilities and takes care of it.

[The Chair, Conservative, Guy Lauzon]

You have a minute and a half left Ms. Boucher if you want to ask another question.

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

I would like Mr. Bélanger to answer this question. We have heard very little about the economic component of all of this.

[Pierre Bélanger]

They are fascinating topics, but unfortunately I specialize in economic development. As with anyone else, I'm engaged in many other activities, and this includes involvement with school boards.

Financially speaking, we have a huge organization, and it works well. The federal government as shown some willingness to support us. It is committed to ongoing funding through to next year, 2008. But not everybody seems to be singing from the same hymn book, despite attending the same service. You could call on the federal government to adopt an economic development framework policy. What I mean is that we have a joint committee comprised of representatives from 10 federal departments and agencies including FedNor, ACOA, Industry Canada and Fisheries and Oceans Canada. One way or another, these organizations are linked to the economic health of our francophone communities.

However, the fact that departments provide brochures and registration forms to programs in French is still considered by many people as being an official languages advocacy issue. Some organizations already go a lot further by incorporating active offer, for example Industry Canada and the Canadian Tourism Commission. We would appreciated if you would recommend other departments to adopt this approach. Community economic development really has to be targeted and also focussed separately on Quebec's anglophones and francophones throughout the rest of the country. This seems to be what happens some of the time in some departments, but it depends who is in charge at the time.

We have a joint roundtable, and all structure is there. I don't know if you understand the distinction I am making between those people who still believe that official languages in Canada is limited to the passive provision of services, and everybody else. We really focus on economic development because we want to ensure that everybody benefits.

[The Chair, Conservative, Guy Lauzon]

Thank you, Mr. Bélanger and Ms. Boucher.

We will now start a second round of five minutes. Mr. Jean-Claude D'Amours.

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

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I am going to proceed rather quickly because I have a lot of questions.

Mr. Provencher, you said that you went to court over a number of issues. Was that through the Court Challenges Program? Without it, would you have had the money to do what you did?

[Léopold Provencher]

No, not at all.

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

You won some court cases. Could you tell us what you won in concrete terms? You mentioned a gymnasium, but what concrete results were achieved with respect to infrastructure?

[Léopold Provencher]

The first thing we got was primary and secondary schools in Yellowknife and Hay River. The second was the expansion of Alain-St-Cyr school, which will take place in 2007 and 2008.

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

When was that announced?

[Léopold Provencher]

The budget commitment was confirmed in December.

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

You just made the connection.

Government members said earlier that they understood. I do not know what they understood, because the Court Challenges Program has been cut. I hope there will be an announcement today that the program has been reinstated. They announce that the program was abolished, and yet they say they understood. They give themselves the credit for expanding a school, and this was only possible because you were able to take the case to court and because you won.

It is shameful that the government is trying to take the credit for expanding this school at the expense of francophones outside Quebec who find themselves in similar situations. It is shameful that the government dares take the credit for that, when it was because of this program that you were able to defend yourself. And yet they say they understand.

[Léopold Provencher]

I think they will have an opportunity to make up for this in the very near future, because there are many things that need to be done to improve the offer of services in the Northwest Territories. There are other steps to be taken with respect to education. We are demonstrating openness in the discussions we are having at the moment on increasing the offer of services, in particular by combining community matters and education matters. The proposal is being quite favourably received and active discussions are under way.

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

Beyond these possibilities, Mr. Provencher, if you could take other steps to enhance the rights of francophones in your region, what would you do?

You said that there were 99 students in one high school, but the capacity was about 250 students. Is it not true that the cancellation of the Court Challenges Program gives the government an opportunity to disregard its obligation with respect to official languages services?

[Léopold Provencher]

If there were nothing to replace it, some procedure ordinary people could use to defend their rights on issues that are important for the community, then definitely, we will have miss the boat.

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

The future of education services in French is in jeopardy, because you have no recourse at the moment.

I agree with my New Brunswick colleague, Mr. Godin, when he says that perhaps you should bark a little louder if you want government representatives to understand—the very people who say they do understand. If they hadn't said this morning that they understand, I might have let it go. But how can we accept their saying that they understand, when they cut this program on the one hand and give themselves credit on the other? Had it not been for the court challenges program, you would not have won your case, because you could not have afforded to take it to court. You said that earlier.

They're taking the credit for a program that existed under the previous government.

[Léopold Provencher]

There is a definitely a danger, and it has been around for a long time. We have demonstrated that the level of services and communications in French was very much inadequate in the community. It is true that the role played by the federal government with the territorial government was too understated. The laisser-faire policy of trusting the other level of government did not work, as the courts have shown and as the Supreme Court will demonstrate in a few years.

There is a problem. Very little or no progress is being made in developing communication and services in French. We are facing a great threat: assimilation is growing at the rate of 63%, and we have no effective plan in place to counter this phenomenon.

[The Chair, Conservative, Guy Lauzon]

Thank you, Mr. Provencher. The five minutes are up already.

I'm going to ask Mr. Lemieux, a Franco-Ontarian member of Parliament to ask the next question.

[Pierre Lemieux, Conservative, Glengarry—Prescott—Russell, ON]

Thank you very much and good morning.

I am the member of Parliament for Glengarry—Prescott—Russell, which is located right next to Ottawa. Sixty-five thousand Franco-Ontarians live in my riding.

I would like to ask a question of the coordinating group on economic development and employability, the RDÉE. I know you represent RDÉE Canada, but there is also an RDÉE Ontario, whose office is located in my riding. I also noted in your annual report that you make a few references to programs in place in my riding. This is a rural constituency where francophone companies are really important, particularly the small- and medium-sized enterprises.

I would like to know if you could tell us about the success you have had in other provinces that you would like to repeat in the provinces where there are no such success stories. Can you tell us about some projects that were very successful?

[Pierre Bélanger]

Yes.

You are right, I do represent RDÉE Canada, but I will ask Roger Lavoie whether he can provide some details about what we have done in your region.

While he is collecting his notes, I would just say that generally speaking francophones live more in rural communities than in urban centres, and the figures are almost inversely proportional to those for anglophones.

A large percentage of our work has to do with regional disparity and regional economic development both in Acadia and in northern Ontario, where we work with FedNor.

Roger, could you talk about some of the projects in the region around Ottawa?

[Roger Lavoie]

In this region, RDEE Ontario worked with people from the community to build a slaughterhouse. RDEE Ontario works closely with communities to develop plans which we called Vision plans. Several communities were consulted on that matter, but compare to what happened in Manitoba, there really was no follow up in Ontario, because there was no federal economic development organization at the regional level in Ontario. There is FedNor in the North, but there is no other organization to look after the rest of Ontario. As a result, RDEE Ontario cannot really work directly with business people today. It does not have the authority to do so because of the funding it receives from Human Resources Canada. So that's a problem for us.

A little earlier, there was talk of a framework economic development policy for all communities. There are regions throughout the country. In western Canada, for instance, western economic diversification funds the four RDEE. Agreements were also reached with the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency, or ACOA, for Prince Edward Island and Nova Scotia. These organizations and provinces can therefore work directly with companies, but other provinces, such as Ontario, Newfoundland and the three territories, do not have the right to do so for now.

We are therefore continuing to work with Industry Canada, among others, to bring the department to the table, so that it can find solutions with us. Unless I am mistaken, Industry Canada is responsible for economic development in the rest of Ontario. There is FedNor—

[Pierre Lemieux, Conservative, Glengarry—Prescott—Russell, ON]

As for the rest, there is the Community Futures Development Corporation.

[Roger Lavoie]

Yes. There are development corporations, the Community Futures Development Corporations, or CFDCs, which operate in rural areas.