Official Languages Committee on Dec. 6th, 2011

[Jacques Gourde, Conservative, Lotbinière—Chutes-de-la-Chaudière, QC]

You spoke about economic projects, particularly regional tourism with the FADOQs. Some regions of Quebec set up a trip and promote it in other regions. There are exchanges between the regions for trips of one, two or three days, no doubt. Do you want to talk about this type of trip?

[Jean-Luc Racine]

Yes. We are currently working on twinning. Among others, it's being done between Ontario and the FADOQ for the regions of Quebec and Chaudière-Appalaches, and also between Saguenay and Nova Scotia. We are doing a lot of pairing up.

Naturally, this pairing up includes travel and exchanges, which enable groups of seniors to visit other seniors. This summer, seniors from Quebec went and met with seniors from Saskatchewan, Alberta and British Columbia. We are moving more and more in this direction, and we want to continue it.

[Jacques Gourde, Conservative, Lotbinière—Chutes-de-la-Chaudière, QC]

You also have the participation of the private sector.

[Jean-Luc Racine]

We are looking at those opportunities, exactly.

[Jacques Gourde, Conservative, Lotbinière—Chutes-de-la-Chaudière, QC]

There are means to do this pairing up.

[Jean-Luc Racine]

Exactly.

[Jacques Gourde, Conservative, Lotbinière—Chutes-de-la-Chaudière, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

[The Chair, Conservative, Michael Chong]

Thank you, Mr. Gourde.

Mr. Bélanger.

[Mauril Bélanger, Liberal, Ottawa—Vanier, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Madame Raeburn-Baynes, what date is this Caribbean festival?

[Gemma Raeburn-Baynes]

May 27, 2112, at Marché Bonsecours, in Old Montreal.

[Mauril Bélanger, Liberal, Ottawa—Vanier, ON]

Thank you.

I want to use the opportunity I have to congratulate you for winning the Sheila and Victor Goldbloom award this year—

[Gemma Raeburn-Baynes]

Thank you very much.

[Mauril Bélanger, Liberal, Ottawa—Vanier, ON]

—given out by QCGN. It's well deserved.

Mr. Chairman, I have to correct some of the information you gave this morning. I'm so sorry.

The Feuille de route started in 2008, and it goes to 2013. What was before was the Plan d'action. I want to highlight a couple of difference between the two, if I may, for the benefit of all our colleagues and our guests here this morning.

The Plan d'action had a committee of cabinet that dealt with these matters. I don't think that is reflected in the Feuille de route. The Plan d'action had the Secretariat at the Privy Council that handled these matters, and I don't think that's the case in the Feuille de route. The Plan d'action had increasing sums of money from year to year, so that at the end of the five years it was at $200 million, whereas the Feuille de route starts at the same amount, $200 million, and stays at that amount, and therefore it's not adjusting for inflation.

The Plan d'action had semi-annual consultations, once in the spring with the senior public servants and the entire communities, both anglophones and la communauté francophone, and once in the fall, with ministers. I don't believe you see that in the Feuille de route.

That's just to highlight a few of the differences, if I may be so bold, Mr. Chair.

I have a question that hasn't been raised. People might try to stop me, but we'll see. Members for the government party are submitting petitions to the House demanding that funding to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation be completely abolished.

Is the CBC an important institution for the communities you represent? A quick answer, please, because I have only one turn.

[Louise-Hélène Villeneuve]

Absolutely. There are communities where it's the only source in French that's accessible to people who want to get information or stay up to date on cultural news. I'd say yes, absolutely.

[Dorothy Williams]

I would say that CBC, because again you're talking about Montreal—

[Mauril Bélanger, Liberal, Ottawa—Vanier, ON]

I'm talking about CBC/Radio Canada—all of it.

[Dorothy Williams]

CBC/Radio Canada, okay. I would say that I think it serves its place, if I may be so bold as to say that.

[Mauril Bélanger, Liberal, Ottawa—Vanier, ON]

That's not bold at all.

Thank you, Doctor.

[Jean-Luc Racine]

I agree with my colleagues and would say that it's essential. I think it's our way of identifying ourselves. The CBC is an essential partner in our communities. For instance, often, when we issue press releases, I get calls from people at the CBC, and they are there to cover the news. Otherwise, we wouldn't be well known. There are not a lot of media outlets interested in us, aside from the CBC.

[Mauril Bélanger, Liberal, Ottawa—Vanier, ON]

Thank you.

Yes, go ahead, Ms. Beaulieu.

[Manon Beaulieu, Director General, Alliance des femmes de la francophonie canadienne]

I would just like to add, Mr. Bélanger, that I've had the opportunity to live in one territory and four different provinces. If there hadn't been the CBC for the minority communities, I would never have known what was really going on across Canada. So see how important it is? It is crucial for communication across our country.

[Mauril Bélanger, Liberal, Ottawa—Vanier, ON]

I want you to know that I fully agree with you.

One of the concerns that the people from the FCFA—the Fédération des communautés francophones et acadienne du Canada—have expressed here, through their president, who was here two or three weeks ago, is that, as a result of adopting the roadmap, departments and agencies have reduced their contributions using their own programs.

Did I hear correctly that you think that this might be what happened with Status of Women Canada?

[Manon Beaulieu]

As for Status of Women Canada, there were cuts in 2006, as we mentioned earlier. The reason we said that Status of Women Canada was not part of the roadmap was because it was not a sector identified as such as a partner from the start. This posed a problem for women's groups because we could seek funding only from Canadian Heritage.

As we have already mentioned, it's difficult to determine where the funding is coming from with Canadian Heritage. So it was more difficult for us to see how the roadmap would affect us. For Canadian Heritage and for us, we certainly do not want to end up fighting over where the funding is from. As you said, we do not want the money going from one pocket to another.

[Mauril Bélanger, Liberal, Ottawa—Vanier, ON]

Dr. Williams, you touched on the point that I think is pandemic throughout the entire federal administration. It's not just with this particular government; the case applied before. That is the dichotomy of project funding versus core funding. I have come to believe that the way to go is to provide core funding as opposed to project funding.

If the government were to go that route, however, and perhaps it will want to try it with the next edition of the road map, how do you suggest that the government then undertake a periodic review to determine that for the institutions or the groups that are receiving core funding it is still appropriate?

That may not be the right word, but you can't have a status quo forever. On that one, I would defend the government: that getting core funding one year doesn't mean you get it forever.

What kind of mechanism would you propose to have an ebb and flow, if we adopted a core funding method?

[Dorothy Williams]

I can only speak for my organization. For instance, I'll start off by saying that the Black Community Research Centre does not have charitable status, so we find it very difficult to raise funds. That is one of the issues. Even in getting support—from other foundations, certainly, and from non-profit organizations—to give us money, there's always a thought in the back of the mind: thank goodness that we can get the kind of funding we can get through the road maps. I'm going to say that.

I'll go back to what I said in my speech to the chair. You really need, before you do that, to set in place measurable indicators; you need to tell us. And it needs to be done together. We need to understand what you define as success, just as we will tell you how we see success in our community. If we are all on the same page about the steps we're meeting, then in terms of a partnership, once we've met those steps, we deserve and should continue, for the sustainability of our community, with that funding.

But I think there needs to be from the government a very strong, clear indication that they're working with us to understand. We have our own strategic matrix—I have it here—which we worked on. We have a five-year plan based on our own understanding of what is success in community.