Evidence of meeting #28 for Official Languages in the 39th Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was games.
A recording is available from Parliament.
10:35 a.m.
Chief Executive Officer, Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games
That's okay.
10:35 a.m.
NDP
Yvon Godin NDP Acadie—Bathurst, NB
The other one is this.
The Fédération des francophones de la Colombie-Britannique is supposed to get $160,000 from the federal government. The representatives of this group say that about half of this amount will be used for the Olympic Games, for national coordination activities. They think this will penalize them as regards future projects in their community. The impact will be dramatic.
Is the community required to spend the money it received from the government on the Olympic Games?
I think Ms. Bolduc would like to answer this question.
10:35 a.m.
Program Director, Human Resources and Official Languages, Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games
Yes. The federation gets funding from Heritage Canada for its annual projects. It applied specifically to hire and pay someone to be at the games and provide liaison with VANOC at the Olympics. This application was approved. This is the amount of $160,000 which you mentioned. These people understand that this amount came from—
10:35 a.m.
Program Director, Human Resources and Official Languages, Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games
Yes, that it came from the budget envelope they had already received for their projects generally. That is what they are referring to. They should discuss this with the people at Canadian Heritage. We cannot apply any pressure in this situation.
10:35 a.m.
Liberal
The Vice-Chair Liberal Pablo Rodriguez
Thank you very much. This is our fourth and last round. You can take five minutes once more if you wish.
Ms. Fry.
10:35 a.m.
Liberal
Hedy Fry Liberal Vancouver Centre, BC
I want to pursue this again. You've talked a lot about bilingualism, the language itself. I'm talking about the cultural component and I didn't really get an answer. You answered me about Granville Island, but I want to know if you've dedicated a percentage of your sponsorship money that VANOC got--not the government money, but the sponsorship money--toward a francophonie cultural sector for performance. And if not, why not? And secondly, is it a larger percentage than others? Because again we're back to the francophonie culture as well as the language. And I don't know if you've given that a lot of thought and if you have developed a substantial amount of money to make that happen.
10:35 a.m.
Chief Executive Officer, Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games
The answer is that we haven't. I'm not sure, given the way we're structured, that it would be practical to say this much goes for this, but I will say that the program will be organized to fully respect the fact that this is a dominant culture in our country. It will look that way, and funds will be spent that way, and they are now. If you were to take a look at the last edition of the Cultural Olympiad this February, in which there were 300 performances, you would say it was the way I think you were hoping for.
10:35 a.m.
Chief Executive Officer, Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games
Yes, but there is a substantial percentage dedicated to ensuring that the francophonie culture is represented in the Cultural Olympiad at the appropriate level, and I think that if you looked at it, you would get a sense of what that is. Breaking it out is not--
10:35 a.m.
Liberal
10:35 a.m.
Chief Executive Officer, Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games
Well, it'll be different each year, because it depends on....
The way we're doing it right now and the kind of engagement we have going on is that we want the best program. We wanted to represent the country properly, so I would say that the commitment is at the right level; but when I say we haven't set aside a specific amount of money, don't take it to mean we haven't set aside a lot of money for this. It's a very significant endeavour of the organizing committee to do this properly. I would say that based on the feedback we had....
We just started this. Most of these Cultural Olympiads only take place in the year of the games; we're in a three-year buildup to ours. I would say it was a pretty good representation this time, and growing.
April 29th, 2008 / 10:40 a.m.
Chief Executive Officer, Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games
Of course.
10:40 a.m.
Liberal
10:40 a.m.
Chief Executive Officer, Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games
Yes, sure. I'll try to break it out for you in such a way that you can use it.
10:40 a.m.
Conservative
Denis Lebel Conservative Roberval—Lac-Saint-Jean, QC
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Thank you very much for your presentation, Mr. Furlong and Ms. Bolduc.
I'm going to try to describe a process, and I would like you to tell me whether I am right or wrong.
The International Olympic Committee issues a call for cities or countries to bid to hold the games. At that time, it describes the context in which these cities or countries will be required to host the games. The City of Vancouver submitted its bid, together with Canada, in the full knowledge that the IOC would be handling the call for tenders and managing the issue regarding broadcast rights.
In our country's bid, through the City of Vancouver, we state that Canada is the most beautiful country in the world, that it is a bilingual country whose two official languages are French and English, which is also the case for the IOC. The IOC is not a Swiss organization: it is an international organization that deals with all countries in the world. Even the United States did not manage to interfere in the bidding process.
Is my description of the process accurate?
10:40 a.m.
Some hon. members
Oh, oh!
10:40 a.m.
Liberal
The Vice-Chair Liberal Pablo Rodriguez
The fire alarm is ringing.
Does that mean we have to go out? Do we agree? Are we adjourned?
Thank you very much, Mr. Furlong. Merci, Madame Bolduc. Thank you for coming.
The meeting is adjourned.