Official Languages Committee on Feb. 9th, 2011

[The Chair, Conservative, Steven Blaney]

Thank you, Mr. Galipeau. Your time has unfortunately run out.

We'll now move to Mr. Godin prior to concluding.

[Yvon Godin, NDP, Acadie—Bathurst, NB]

My question is directed at Ms. Jerome.

You said that in your community, where you live, there are how many people? It was 800 or so, and 85% speak English.

[Sarah Jerome]

Yes.

[Yvon Godin, NDP, Acadie—Bathurst, NB]

Through the regulations or the law of official languages in the Northwest Territories, I saw that you have a big budget of $240,000. That's not big. You're talking money.... You're saying that you're not getting any complaints from the aboriginal people, but do they know what it all means--their rights, the law--and what they have the right to have? Is there any promotion of it in every community so that they understand what is there for them and what should be there for them? Is there education of the population on what, by law, they are supposed to get?

[Sarah Jerome]

On promotion, because I speak the language--it's my first language--I promote it. I walk it; I talk it. At the office in Inuvik, right now, I teach Gwich'in language lessons to people who are interested. I have two little grandchildren at home who I speak my language to, because I feel that maybe the only way we can bring this language back is to teach it to our preschoolers in our head-start programs.

[Yvon Godin, NDP, Acadie—Bathurst, NB]

That's in your village. But there are more villages in the Northwest Territories. How do you promote it in the other villages?

[Sarah Jerome]

I usually contract an individual from here in Yellowknife to deal with all the aboriginal language speakers who are interpreters and translators. I get them to do little blurbs on the radio in their languages. There are possibly four different blurbs this year. One has to do with Aboriginal Languages Month, which is March, and it tells people to continue to speak their language and to promote their language. There's another one for a greeting at Easter time. Aboriginal Languages Day is in June, and there's one again at Christmas.

Those are some of the things I do. I try to promote it through our interpreters and translators.

[Yvon Godin, NDP, Acadie—Bathurst, NB]

If you do have 11 official languages, there has to be not only teaching but also services that come with them too, right? We're talking about the hospitals, for example. Are there 11 translators there?

[Shannon Gullberg]

Yes, at Stanton there are. There are still issues with accessing them 24 hours a day, but they can do that.

I just want to add—

[Yvon Godin, NDP, Acadie—Bathurst, NB]

But when you're sick, sometimes you cannot wait 24 hours.

[Shannon Gullberg]

No, but they are on call. The hospitals can access the translators in the 11 official languages. It's not a perfect system, but it's not bad. Again, if you look at the report, you'll see that it talks about some of the issues with that.

I just think Sarah is downplaying a little bit or maybe isn't quite understanding the nature of the question. Sarah will also do things such as going to council meetings and doing a brief presentation on the office, what it means, and what to do if you have complaints. I would do the same. We would try to get the invitations to make those little presentations so that people would know what is going on...the radio posts, the website, and things like that.

[The Chair, Conservative, Steven Blaney]

Thank you very much, Mr. Godin.

Thank you. I have just one question.

Madam Commissioner, do you attend a national forum with other official languages commissioners throughout the country? Is there a national forum that you attend?

[Sarah Jerome]

I did go to the meeting in Sudbury last fall. That's the only one I can think of right now.

There are regional councils. There are five regional councils here in the Northwest Territories for the different groups of aboriginal people. I try to make it my business to attend. At that time, I usually talk about the laws of the official languages.

[The Chair, Conservative, Steven Blaney]

Thank you.

Madame Zarac.

[Lise Zarac, Liberal, LaSalle—Émard, QC]

Yes, please. Since I wasn’t given the opportunity to ask any questions, I do in fact have a question for Ms. Jerome.

Aside from the meeting that you referred to with Commissioner Graham Fraser in Sudbury, what relationship do you have with the federal Commissioner of Official Languages?

[Sarah Jerome]

It's through e-mail.

[Voices]

Oh, oh!

[Lise Zarac, Liberal, LaSalle—Émard, QC]

What kind of relationship do the two of you have? Have you only exchanged two e-mails? So you don’t really work together? There is no collaborative working relationship between you and the Commissioner of Official Languages?

[Shannon Gullberg]

I think that trying to get this group together, as Mr. Fraser did, was a really good start in that direction, because I think that more cohesive approach had been lacking.

That being said, when I was languages commissioner, he did come up here. The former federal commissioner came up as well. So there has been some connection, but I think that needs to be pulled closer.

[Lise Zarac, Liberal, LaSalle—Émard, QC]

Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Steven Blaney]

Thank you very much, Ms. Zarac.

We will now conclude the first part of our session.

I would really like to thank you for coming to our committee this morning.

We heard in Whitehorse that “there is no language without culture”. Through your testimony, Ms. Jerome, you remind us today that language is also a way of living. Thank you for promoting this linguistic diversity and therefore richness in the Northwest Territories. Thank you for showing that side of this.

We'll resume in five minutes.

[The Chair, Conservative, Steven Blaney]

We will resume immediately as we have a full agenda.

We now have before us representatives from the Fédération franco-ténoise, the FFT. Thank you for being here this morning. We are delighted to see you again. I’d like to take this opportunity to thank you for your hospitality yesterday at the maison franco-ténoise.

Without further ado, I will introduce the witnesses. We have with us this morning Mr. Létourneau, president of the FFT, accompanied by the Executive Director, Mr. Léopold Provencher.

Welcome, Mr. Provencher.

We also have the coordinator of Jeunesse des Territoires du Nord-Ouest, Ms. Rachelle Francoeur.

Welcome.

The immigration coordinator at the FFT is Mr. Émos Dumas.

Welcome to the committee, Mr. Dumas.

And finally, allow me to introduce, Mr. Jean de Dieu Tuyishime, director, Réseau Territoires du Nord-Ouest Santé en français.

This is an extremely important hour for the committee. So, without further ado, I invite you to begin your presentation.

[Richard Létourneau, President, Fédération Franco-Ténoise]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I would like to begin by welcoming everyone, in particular the members whom I did not have the opportunity to meet yesterday, Messrs. Lauzon and Galipeau. I think that I had an opportunity meet the other members yesterday.

I shall begin without further delay. A copy of the brief, of which I shall read you an abridged version today, will be submitted to the committee.

According to the 2006 census, over 3,720 residents of the Northwest Territories are currently able to speak French, which is 9.1% of the total population; 2.6% the population of the People of the North have French as their first official language out of a total of approximately 41,055 residents; 8 out of every 10 Franco People of the North were born outside the Northwest Territories; a little over 9% of French speaking People of the North were born abroad. Yellowknife has a population comprising over 110 nationalities from all corners of the globe.

There is still work to be done when it comes to the federal government’s role in affirming and promoting francophone communities in the north under Part VII of the Official Languages Act. Allow me to elaborate.

Our community infrastructures, as you perhaps noticed yesterday, are the poorest in Canada. We still lack a physical space where the dynamic forces of community development can gather in one place. These resources are currently scattered throughout the capital, by sheer necessity.

Regretfully, the federal government missed an opportunity to largely resolve our infrastructure problem by failing to purchase the post office in 2009.

A declared surplus space managed by Public Works and Government Services Canada was sold to a third party for $100,000 less than what was offered by our federation. Five federal departments and organizations were involved in the part VII process prior to us losing the bid. We sought redress in the matter and the file is still before the Commissioner of Official Languages.

On February 15, 2008, we conducted a small in house inquiry into Part VII and the federal institutions. We wrote a letter to every federal NWT official for a total of 22 letters to members of the federal Council. Our intention was to secure a face to face meeting in order to exchange information on the programs and services offered by each institution. Moreover, our application was explicitly based on part VII of the act and called on the responsible authorities to establish what amounted in many cases to initial contact. The objective was to get a better understanding of their policies and programs. The response spoke volumes: 25% of the officials scheduled appointments and met with us; 25% opted instead for a group meeting with us and their counterparts thereby giving stakeholders an opportunity to get to know each other better and submit documentation. There was no response from the remaining 50%.

As far as the implementation of the 2008–2013 Roadmap for Canada’s Linguistic Duality is concerned, we are very proud to note Justice Canada’s encouragement of our youth; Canadian Heritage’s support for the establishment of our Collège des T.N.-O., the first ever francophone post secondary institution in Canada’s North; ongoing backing by Health Canada; the development of a start up project to support francophone immigration in the Northwest Territories; Canadian Heritage’s financial contribution to our community organizations’ minimal operational expenses; the support of the Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages and of Canadian Heritage for a research project on the revitalization of the three Canadian Territories in conjunction with the Canadian Institute for Research on Linguistic Minorities in Moncton; the clear expression of support from the Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development for closer cooperation between the three territories’ economic and community development collaborative bodies.

The standards governing the management of federal policies and programs are nevertheless generally applied to the letter. For example, certain projects targeting youth require the participation of at least 400 young people. If our federal institutions do not relax the rule regarding the number of participants, and take into account our northern experience and the ways in which we are different, we will not qualify for funding. Although our population is comparable percentage wise to that of the other Canadian provinces, we may end up marginalized if certain program application rules are not adjusted.

Part VII of the Official Languages Act is nevertheless clear about the obligation of result. The right to fair and equitable treatment is perhaps different because different needs justify different treatment. The CALDECH decision clarified this issue. Here are our demands. We want all forms of communication and services to be adapted to our northern experience. The constraints that we face in many areas accentuate the impact of any budget cuts, administrative delays, or lack of awareness about how we live and the major issues that affect us.

It is worth recalling the federal government’s undertaking in 1984 when the NWT government adopted its official languages act, which was based on the federal act. The Canadian government committed at the time to covering the cost of services to the francophone community. The court demonstrated that negotiations with the federal government had, for many years, been financially disadvantageous to these communities due to a policy of confident delegation, in spite of the obvious lack of a plan to implement the Official Languages Act. Part VII sets out an obligation of result and ensures that positive measures are taken in order to effect change.

I will now discuss the federal territorial consultation mechanisms to promote dialogue concerning the development of the francophone community.

According to the territorial budget, the territorial government is financially incapable of supporting our community in the same way that the Albertan and Manitoban governments support their communities. The Northwest Territories needs more support from Ottawa. The public is chronically misinformed in the NWT. In fact, the Legislative Assembly and the government claim that there are 11 official languages for which services are provided, however that is clearly not the case. Aboriginal communities do not have access to language related services as we are led to believe. Furthermore, these communities have neither the same demands nor constitutional rights. We respect their approach, but it is clear that they put other objectives first.

The government is in favour of Canadian Heritage, the President of the Treasury Board and Justice Canada encouraging federal institutions to cooperate with provincial governments in order to guarantee the implementation of part VII. However, in our opinion, the language provisions in the agreements lack teeth. This was particularly evident to us when we missed out on the purchase of the Yellowknife post office. There is a lack of consistency among federal departments and no clear Treasury Board policy on the matter.

We put a request in writing to the departments of Canadian Heritage, Justice Canada, Indian Affairs and Northern Development, Public Works and Government Services, and the Treasury Board calling on them to intervene. The correspondence dates back to March 2009. We referred to their obligations under part VII, the community’s dire and urgent infrastructure needs. In spite of this, we missed out on the opportunity to purchase the post office premises after offering $1.2 million at stage two of the bargaining process, the list price. The building was ultimately sold for $1.1 million. And yet, it met the majority of our community’s needs and was situated at a strategic and central location in the community. We lodged a complaint with the Commissioner of Official Languages and have waited two years for a response.

In closing, we would like the federal government to consider a different operating model that takes into consideration the northern experience. The consultation and cooperation committee was created by the government and the Fédération franco-ténoise to establish, promote, evaluate and adopt a plan to implement the Official Languages Act of the Northwest Territories and guarantee the provision of information and services in French. As a member of this committee, we are proposing an innovative and economical solution that promises to be effective.

Rather than adopting a cookie-cutter approach to the federal model of bilingual and unilingual positions, which was clearly not as successful as expected, we favour the establishment of service teams. We are proposing a French language one stop shop for the community in which the federal government could set the tone and consolidate a number of federal services within a bilingual service centre, supported by the community. Territorial, and even some municipal services, could be incorporated. The centre would be loosely based upon the Manitoban model, only improved and tailored to the northern experience. The federal model of designated bilingual positions was not very effective at meeting the objective of guaranteeing services of equal quality, and was costly, thus the need to adapt it. The model is even less suitable for northern Canada largely because of the region’s high employee turnover. We may end up training bilingual employees only to lose them one by one. We would constantly have to start from scratch and, in the meantime, would fail to provide quality services.

If the government were to create a sufficient number of positions as part of a bilingual team, there would be a greater likelihood of consistently providing quality services. This would not preclude the strategic allocation of a number of bilingual positions in departments and agencies. Our community has expressed an interest in prioritizing services, and responding smartly and flexibly to support the gradual and systematic introduction of services. The expert panel reviews the development of this concept, its underlying principles, the rules governing its implementation, and the legal grounds that underpin it. The panel is comprised of high level outside experts, but is not currently sitting due to a lack of funding.

[The Chair, Conservative, Steven Blaney]

You have one minute remaining, Mr. Létourneau.

[Richard Létourneau]

That is all the time I need.

These efforts will have a major impact on the francophone community and will help it gain recognition and status. The model is original, creative, less costly, more suitable for Canada’s north and far more likely to succeed. For it to work, we need to continue to work alongside experts, such as Dyane Adam, the former Commissioner of Official Languages, Mr. Michel Bastarache, former Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Canada, and our executive director, who attended the court case from 2003 to 2010. These three individuals support our federation’s representatives. A budget of approximately $100,000 per annum for the next two years is required to guarantee the implementation of a rigorous, well thought out and intelligible plan to meet the needs of our northern community.

We would like to thank you for your interest and look forward to answering your questions. Thank you very much.