Official Languages Committee on Dec. 8th, 2011

[The Chair, Conservative, Michael Chong]

Welcome to the Standing Committee on Official Languages. Today is Thursday, December 8, 2011, and this is our 19^th meeting. We are here pursuant to Standing Order 108 to study the evaluation of the roadmap, to improve programs and service delivery.

This morning, we have representatives from three groups. We have with us Mr. Arsenault and Ms. Cohen, from the Société Saint-Thomas-d'Aquin, then Ms. Doucet and Mr. Dubeau, from the Fédération culturelle canadienne-française, and Ms. Lavergne and Mr. Diallo, from the Société franco-manitobaine.

We'll begin with the presentation by the representatives of the Société Saint-Thomas-d'Aquin.

[Costas Menegakis, Conservative, Richmond Hill, ON]

If I may--

[The Chair, Conservative, Michael Chong]

Before I begin, did I hear somebody has a point of order?

[Costas Menegakis, Conservative, Richmond Hill, ON]

I do. I would like to move that we put aside the last 15 minutes of today for committee business, Mr. Chair.

[The Chair, Conservative, Michael Chong]

We are going into committee business--

[Costas Menegakis, Conservative, Richmond Hill, ON]

In the last 15 minutes?

[The Chair, Conservative, Michael Chong]

--in the last 15 minutes of today, yes.

[Costas Menegakis, Conservative, Richmond Hill, ON]

And I would like that to be in camera, please.

[The Chair, Conservative, Michael Chong]

We'll deal with that when we get to that portion of the meeting.

Mr. Godin, do you have a point of order?

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

Yes, Mr. Chair. I was wondering why the matter of the letter that was supposed to be sent to the Yukon, to school board No. 23, if I'm not mistaken, was not on the agenda.

[The Chair, Conservative, Michael Chong]

No, I didn't put it on the agenda, but we could discuss it again if you so wish. I assumed we had exhausted discussion on this. If you have anything in particular that you would like to---

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

I'd still need two or three hours to discuss it.

[The Chair, Conservative, Michael Chong]

If you want, I can cancel the next meeting and--

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

No. It's just that I didn't see it. I think we should move forward with that.

[The Chair, Conservative, Michael Chong]

Yes, we will discuss Mr. Bélanger's two motions.

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

That may be.

[The Chair, Conservative, Michael Chong]

It's on the agenda. We'll discuss Mr. Bélanger's two motions. If we have time, we'll discuss the letter. Otherwise, I'll add it to the agenda for next week's meeting.

Let's move on now to the Société Saint-Thomas-d'Aquin.

[Gabriel Arsenault, President, Société Saint-Thomas-d'Aquin (Société acadienne de l'Île-du-Prince-Édouard)]

Mr. Chair, committee members, thank you for the invitation.

As the chair just said, with me is Aline Bouffard Cohen, the director general.

The Société Saint-Thomas-d'Aquin was created in 1919, and the organization is the official ambassador for Prince Edward Island's Acadians and francophones. Its mandate is to work on behalf of all Acadians and francophones so that they can live and grow individually and collectively in French on Prince Edward Island.

In 2010, the Island's Acadian and francophone community developed the 2011-2016 global development plan, which proposes a common vision that would be used to guide the action of community partners and governments, while making everyone's efforts cohesive.

What is interesting in the process that the community undertook in creating its global development plan is that the Société Saint-Thomas-d'Aquin also approached the provincial government to establish a joint development plan. It defines what the Acadian and francophone community and the provincial government hope to accomplish in the future and how they intend to do it. The process and the planning support are both as important as the planning document itself.

The reason we are talking to you about this process is that this collaboration is a first in Canada. We would hope that, when the federal government sets out the next roadmap, it takes into account this kind of model, where minority communities and the government work together to attain common goals. But each development plan needs support. Creating a dynamic is necessary to coordinate, create partnerships and produce results. On the Island and in all Acadian and francophone communities, we need support from Canadian Heritage to help us implement our development plans.

If this idea is used, it will be extremely important to work with the government on performance indicators and for the roadmap to strengthen the community's ability to gather results better.

A very important objective for the Island's Acadian and francophone community that stems from the roadmap is the improvement of access to services for official language minority communities.

On April 1, 2000, the Government of Prince Edward Island enacted in part the French Language Services Act. The legislation, overdue since the 1990s, marked the start of a new era in relations between the provincial government and the Acadian and francophone community. Although the act guarantees services in French, the act is being implemented little by little. For example, it sets out that government agencies offer a minimum of services in French.

Although notable progress has been made since the early 1990s, particularly with respect to services in French in certain provincial departments and bilingual road signs on the Island, there is still far to go before the French Language Services Act is fully implemented. This seems to be the case in the areas of health care and justice, among others.

Providing services in French on Prince Edward Island is an important issue, which is why it is absolutely important to continue making it a priority of the roadmap. The provincial government is facing the same challenges we are: finding a sufficient number of qualified, competent human resources in the right places, and who can provide the service in relation to the needs. Promising a service is one thing; finding the human resources to provide it is another.

The roadmap enabled us to create an important agency: the Réseau des services de santé en français de l'Île-du-Prince-Édouard. It's an initiative of the Société Saint-Thomas-d'Aquin, in collaboration with the province.

As we know, access to health care services in a person's own language is a matter not only of respect, but also of health and safety. This is why we feel it is essential that Acadian and francophone users be able to benefit from services in their own language because we know very well that a population that does not have access to services in its own language will perceive itself as less healthy than the rest of the population.

People age 65 and older make up a particularly large segment of the Island's Acadian and francophone population. It is more important for seniors to be able to communicate in their own language. The lack of bilingual staff working in retirement residences, among other places, is glaring.

These people say they aren't as healthy as the other residents on the Island. Not having health care services in French or services in French in all areas of intervention, whether it involves a loss of independence or human services, adds considerable stress to the elderly francophone population, which just adds to the stress of becoming less independent, aging and the lack of resources.

In addition to services in French, there are a few other issues that are priorities under the roadmap that are able to rise to some of our challenges and for which support through an initiative like the roadmap is still necessary.

Among other things, the aging population, the declining birth rate and the exodus of young people are growing phenomena in the Acadian and francophone community. We have noted the results of statistical studies on the lower literacy level among francophones and the limited participation in postsecondary studies that, of course, compromises sustainable employability. Since the median age of Prince Edward Island's Acadian and francophone community is 48 years, basic renewal is a challenge, and the rapid decrease in the number of workers available on the labour market is creating a vicious circle.

To change this trend, the community has taken measures that need to be sustained. We are targeting individuals, such as newcomers and francophiles, to strengthen the Island population. The demographic challenge is an issue that is far from being resolved, which is why it's important to continue to invest in the immigration of French-speakers. However, it is important to ensure that the provinces are not all treated in the same way. It's difficult for Prince Edward Island to compete with the much larger provinces, which is why we would like strategies put in place that are specific to each province.

The school-community centres are essential in our communities to ensure that our culture and our language grow. It's through the language that a culture expresses itself best. It remains the cornerstone of each person's identity. These centres are places for French education, with high-quality programs, and places to spread our culture.

Since 2002, Prince Edward Island has increased its number of francophone school-community centres from two to six. We are very proud of the official opening of the sixth centre, which will take place tomorrow, December 9, in Rustico. We would never have been able to do it without the federal government's funding and support through the roadmap. But it's important to note that the school-community centres don't all offer education from nursery school to grade 12. It's also important to note that it's still very difficult to obtain funding for community infrastructures because the concept of a school-community centre is not recognized.

The daycare centres in each of these school-community centres are growing rapidly and do a very good job of welcoming our children all over the Island. However, the lack of trained teachers is glaring.

So far, the roadmap has enabled us to organize ourselves and, today, it is allowing us to grow. Tomorrow, it will enable us to live in French. The idea of a roadmap like the one currently in place is absolutely essential to ensure the spread of linguistic duality. We cannot say enough just how important it is that the roadmap be renewed in 2013 by the federal government.

However, it is necessary to ensure that the priorities of the provincial and federal government are established and worked on together, in connection with the priorities of the minority communities. It is also essential to ensure that a clear, specific, transparent and responsible implementation process is established.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Michael Chong]

Thank you, Mr. Arsenault.

We will now hear from the representative of the Fédération culturelle canadienne-française.

[Marie-Claude Doucet, President, Fédération culturelle canadienne-française]

Good morning, Mr. Chair and members of the committee. Thank you for inviting the Fédération culturelle canadienne-française to speak before the Standing Committee on Official Languages as part of the midterm report on the Roadmap for Canada's Linguistic Duality 2008-2013.

I would first like to give you an introduction to our organization. The Fédération culturelle canadienne-française is a national organization whose mission is to promote the artistic and cultural expression of francophone and Acadian communities. As the president of the FCCF, I am speaking to you today on behalf of our 21 members, some 3,000 artists and 150 arts and cultural development organizations, working in the francophone and Acadian communities across Canada. I have been active in the FCCF since 2006, and I also serve as the executive director of the largest francophone cultural centre in Ontario, MIFO in Orleans, which runs a number of programs including professional artist residencies and an art gallery that features local artists, as well as a music school and summer camps that promote arts learning.

I would like to take the next few minutes to outline how investments in arts and culture that are included in the roadmap are significant, to demonstrate that the projects they have generated have had direct impacts in our communities, and to discuss why the next roadmap should include a specific arts and culture component.

We would like to thank the government for identifying the arts and culture sector as one of the five priorities in the current roadmap. Recognizing the priority was a step in the right direction. Moreover, there seems to be consensus on the importance of arts and culture in the roadmap, since several groups that have appeared before this committee over the last month have identified this sector as being one of the most important ways to promote the learning, practice and visibility of the language, as well is the rootedness of the people of our communities in a pan-Canadian francophone space.

With the roadmap, the arts and culture sector has obtained $14 million through the Cultural Development Fund, $4.5 million through the Music Showcase for artists from official language minority communities, and $5 million through the National Translation Program for Book Publishing. In short, a direct overall investment of $23.5 million. The Canadian francophonie arts and culture sector has also benefited from indirect impacts of the roadmap, which we will return to a little later in our presentation.

Let us take a brief look at each of these programs. The Cultural Development Fund has several objectives, one of which is to promote the contribution of arts, culture and heritage to the sustainable development of communities in Canadian society. As part of the evaluation process for applications to this fund, 110 community projects have been funded. The Cultural Development Fund has also funded priority projects in collaboration with the provincial governments of Ontario, New Brunswick, Saskatchewan and Manitoba. The fund's leverage effect is significant. Indeed, it can be said that one of the fund's many success stories is the creation by the Ontario Arts Council of two new pilot programs in visual arts and media arts at the Franco-Ontarian Arts Office, which involved total funding of $500,000 from the CDF and the OAC. The projects funded by the CDF have also made it possible to establish interesting partnerships, increase professional development activities and develop new audiences, in addition to providing Canadians with access to the richness of the artistic, cultural and heritage expression of the artists in their communities. We repeat that this additional injection of $14 million was greatly appreciated, but our task here is to evaluate the roadmap and therefore to look at aspects that could be improved should the roadmap be renewed.

In this sense, we would like to draw your attention to two weaknesses in this program. The CDF is a fund that finances one-time special projects. This type of funding does not allow for the creation of lasting real benefits. The fund the arts and culture sector really needs is a fund that strengthens existing arts and culture organizations by providing them with stable and ongoing multi-year operating funding and by making it possible to support all the stages of the cultural continuum. As mentioned by the representatives from the Fédération des communautés francophones et acadienne du Canada regarding the roadmap as a whole, there also exists a challenge in terms of transparency with respect to the CDF. Indeed, it is difficult to obtain access to clear and complete data about the fund.

As for the Music Showcases for artists from official language minority communities program, it was designed to respond to the following two main objectives: promote the artists' career development, and promote access for communities to musical performances in their own language. The program is greatly appreciated both by the Alliance nationale de l'industrie musicale and by the artists working in the song and music industry. Since 2008, it has funded 171 projects for a total amount of $1,623,404. Without a shadow of a doubt, this success is due to the fact that the program criteria were developed with representatives of artists from official language minority communities. The criteria therefore reflects the needs of the community.

The program has fulfilled its mandate in all respects. A portion of the funding is allocated to events enabling artists from francophone and Acadian communities to offer a showcase of their work. The result is clear and measurable: the number of shows by our artists has seen a marked increase. Several of the artists are currently developing national or international careers, among them Damien Robitaille in Ontario, Surveillantes from Manitoba and Radio Radio in Acadia. This increase in artist tours has also ensured that the people of our communities have more access to music performances in their language, facilitating the emergence of the strong and necessary cultural identity that Ms. Pilon of the Commission nationale des parents francophones spoke to you about on December 1^st.

Unlike the previous two programs, the National Translation Program for Book Publishing was not designed in response to the development challenges facing the publishers in our communities, but in order to promote linguistic duality. Even though it could be helpful, it does not meet the priority needs of small businesses like French-Canadian publishing houses and indeed very few of them have benefited from this program. The ecosystem of the book is fragile. This ecosystem has to be supported for books to be able to properly reach their audience. It is our hope that the next roadmap will offer a program based on the real needs of publishers, following exhaustive consultations with the community.

As promised, I will touch briefly on the roadmap's indirect impacts on the arts and culture sector. As you are no doubt aware, schools and school-community centres are at the heart of the development of French-Canadian communities. Schools and our communities have a double mission, namely to foster academic success, and to protect, promote and convey the language and the culture of the communities that they serve. The art-culture-education link is of paramount importance for ensuring the demographic renewal of our communities.

As mentioned by Mr. Paul from the Fédération nationale des conseils scolaires francophones, the roadmap made it possible to implement several projects from the federation's action plan, including the Table de l'axe action culturelle et identitaire, better known as TAACI. It is due to the cooperation made possible by this table that the spheres of education and culture jointly led the project Trousse du passeur culturel, a project that documents and catalyzes the contribution of arts and culture to identity building. This nationwide project has made it possible to offer training to all francophone school principals across Canada, thus enabling them to better integrate arts and culture into their educational projects.

We could continue for a long time sharing with you other success stories of projects funded by the road map that have had an impact on the arts and culture sector, but we would also like to use this time to talk about the roadmap's future. I believe we have been clear: the FCCF would like the government to renew the roadmap and even expand it to include an arts and culture component. During the forum "Être artiste dans la francophonie canadienne: Forum sur les pratiques artistiques de la francophonie canadienne", presented in June 2011, the participants took the time to report on the current state of the sector.

It is clear that over the last 40 years, the institutions that the communities have set up ensure that we can continue to build. The roadmap's programs have provided new funding, which continues to build and strengthen fragile but important and necessary gains. In short, these investments contribute to the profitability of previous investments and ensure that they remain profitable for a long time to come, providing better returns. According to the FCCF, this arts and culture component could be expanded to support the following areas of intervention: cultural development, arts infrastructure, artists, cultural industries and access to the arts.

We know that the members of this community share our vision, namely that it be possible for all Canadians to flourish in French throughout the country thanks to communities being able to assert, show, reinvent themselves and innovate. The FCCF firmly believes that this could be made possible through dynamic cultural development, accessible artistic creation, professional and visible cultural products and constructive strategic links established with other sectors, thus allowing for the emergence of life in French. We believe that an arts and culture component in the next roadmap can make this possible since this funding complements existing programs.

Once again, thank you for your warm welcome and for your attention. Éric Dubeau, the executive director of the FCCF, and I are available to answer any questions you may have. We look forward to reading the report that the committee will publish following this study on the impacts of the roadmap.

[The Chair, Conservative, Michael Chong]

Thank you, Ms. Doucet.

We will now hear from the Société franco-manitobaine.

[Nicole Forest Lavergne, President, Société franco-manitobaine]

Good morning, Mr. Chair and hon. members.

My name is Nicole Forest Lavergne and I am the president of the Société franco-manitobaine. Let me introduce Mr. Ibrahima Diallo, who is here with me today and who is the past-president of the board of directors of the Société franco-manitobaine.

We are pleased to appear before you as representatives of Manitoba's francophone community, in order to give you as accurate an analysis as possible of the impact of the Roadmap for Canada's Linguistic Duality 2008-2013 on the Franco-Manitoban community. We are also going to provide you with a few solutions to make adjustments and improvements in anticipation that the roadmap will continue after 2013.

As you know, the Société franco-manitobaine is the official organization that represents the francophone population of Manitoba. The Société franco-manitobaine calls for the full respect of the rights of francophones, as well as the enactment of new legislation and government policies in order to help Franco-Manitobans thrive in French.

The Société franco-manitobaine, as a leader, facilitates communication and co-operation between Manitoba's various francophone organizations and is involved in all areas of activity in the community. Activities include: developing our economy, training our francophones, normalizing life in French in Manitoba, forging ties between our communities, promoting our arts and culture, enhancing the status of the French language, promoting French-language services, conserving our assets, and promoting our resources and our activities.

Through its continued support for community projects, the Société franco-manitobaine encourages dialogue and community development. In Manitoba, many participants contribute to promoting francophone vitality. Our community structure is complex and varied. In order to give you an overview of some of the actual benefits of the Roadmap 2008-2013, we have taken the time to briefly consult some of the players in the development of Manitoba's francophone community.

Let's take the Conseil communauté en santé du Manitoba, for example. This organization, via Health Canada and the Société santé en français, received funding under the roadmap to move projects forward. The funding was especially for setting up community wellness centres for francophones in Sainte-Agathe and La Broquerie—francophone villages in Manitoba where French-language programming is offered—in addition to providing weekly or monthly access to a doctor and other health professionals.

The roadmap has also contributed to building the Centre Albert-Galliot in Notre-Dame-de-Lourdes, Manitoba. This one-stop service centre seeks to improve access to primary health care and to French-language social services for francophones in the region. In addition, the construction of a new hospital has been approved. The hospital will be physically joined to the Centre Albert-Galliot.

Telehealth programming—or Télésanté—has also started, enabling the Conseil communauté en santé du Manitoba to bring various partners together and to develop French-language programming. This has also helped francophones across Manitoba to take their health in their own hands, without having to travel from rural areas to urban areas.

In addition, the roadmap has made it possible for the discussions of the Conseil communauté en santé du Manitoba with Manitoba's health minister and the Winnipeg regional health authority to come to fruition. It was confirmed that the new Centre de naissance de Saint-Vital—a district in Winnipeg—will be designated as bilingual and will provide services in French to the francophones in that community.

In terms of arts and culture, the Activités culturelles project in the Sculpture Garden allowed the Maison des artistes visuels francophones du Manitoba to develop an activity program in the sculpture garden in order to support and set up public art projects, as well as artistic and cultural projects in the community in order to stimulate the francophone, cultural and artistic vitality of French-speaking Manitoba. The project has also made it possible for the public at large to become familiar with sculptors in French-speaking Canada and to make the artists more known.

As part of the Cultural Development Fund, the money invested enabled the cultural community of French-speaking Manitoba to participate in organizing the very first celebration of Culture Days in Manitoba. Our province was in the spotlight that year. We consulted with the provincial committee to hire a bilingual co-ordinator and we helped with every step of organizing the celebration. As a result, the francophonie was an integral and significant part of Culture Days right from day one. In addition, it was a way to ensure bilingual promotion of the event in Manitoba. This is a great example of cooperation and of linguistic duality at work.

In terms of music, the 100 Nons—the organization responsible for the vitality and renewal of music in French in Manitoba—was able to set up the Boîtes à chanson communautaires project by using the Cultural Development Fund. It was also able to create an event called Festival de musique jeunesse that will be launched in 2012. With the Canada Music Fund, the 100 Nons created the musical showcase program and one of the things it will introduce is a Manitoban showcase with three Manitoban artists as part of the official programming at the Bourse RIDEAU 2012.

In education, the University of Saint-Boniface has also specifically benefited from investments under the Roadmap for Canada’s Linguistic Duality 2008-2013. Through contribution agreements, the government has invested $331,148 in scholarships for translation students, allowing the University of Saint-Boniface to attract a greater number of students to this program and, therefore, to address the shortage in this sector.

Actually, we believe that the Roadmap for Canada’s Linguistic Duality 2008-2013 is a key strategy for developing linguistic duality in Canada. However, it appears that one of its major flaws is that there is no consistency or communication to align programs with community priorities.

We see that no strategy to bring the priorities of our community in line with the roadmap has been developed. We feel it is appropriate to ask that the priorities of communities and their provincial realities are factored in when the next roadmap is developed, especially since francophone communities in each province, together with the advocacy organizations of the Société franco-manitobaine, were asked to come up with a community strategic plan.

The plan was designed as a consultation and mobilization tool for the Franco-Manitoban community and its partner organizations. It targets the aspirations of the community towards linguistic and cultural vitality, and it suggests five areas for community development over five years in order to mobilize its partner organizations for action.

Since it is the federal government requiring us to create this plan, it would make sense to put in place a strategy connecting provincial priorities to those of the roadmap. Right now, the way funds are allocated seems to show a lack of coordination with our Manitoban process that places the Société franco-manitobaine at the centre of our community strategies.

The vast majority of roadmap funding is managed by national organizations and is then directly transferred to provincial organizations, without necessarily reflecting provincial priorities or actually keeping the whole community informed.

I would like to take this opportunity to point out that many of our community organizations that have received federal funding were not able to say clearly whether the funds came from the roadmap or from other sources. All this has led us to believe that we should develop a process that promotes more strategic and effective communication in line with community priorities.

We believe that, without increased funding to organizations and institutions, the roadmap will never reach its full potential. It is important to invest in organizations and institutions that can directly meet people’s expectations.

As an advocacy group, we are responsible for managing an important decision-making process, which consists of making a recommendation for the distribution of funds under the collaboration agreement between the francophone community and the Department of Canadian Heritage. To get the job done, we have an effective community system in place and we believe it can certainly be used as an example for the roadmap.

Let’s suppose for a second that the funding invested in linguistic duality is in line with provincial priorities and has the support of advocacy organizations. We would then be sure that we were making the most of it and maximizing the spinoffs of the overall investment in the communities.

So we must increase funding for the whole community.

Skilled human resources are needed to support, guide and focus organizations in their applications in order to get the results the public and governments expect.

Let us be clear. We are not at all criticizing the massive investment in Canada's linguistic duality that the Roadmap for Linguistic Duality 2008-2013 has brought to Manitoba. On the contrary, many great projects were possible because of it and they have certainly achieved the objectives of the government. However, as we were writing this brief, we realized that, unfortunately, the Société franco-manitobaine has very little specific information on the local successes of the roadmap, since we have not been involved at all in the current process. A future roadmap would have to rectify this lack of cohesion between the government, national organizations, provincial organizations and advocacy organizations responsible for managing priorities and processes.

In conclusion, the Société franco-manitobaine believes that a major investment in linguistic duality is needed and it recommends that federal investment in this sector be increased.

The Société franco-manitobaine is ready to offer its support in order for us to be able to work together towards concrete improvements on the linguistic duality funding process in the years to come.

Thank you for inviting us to appear before you. Thank you for listening to us and for your interest in our organization and in developing official language communities.

[The Chair, Conservative, Michael Chong]

Thank you, madam.

We now have one hour and ten minutes for questions and comments.

Mr. Godin, the floor is yours.

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

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I would also like to welcome you all. I have met some of you in the past and it is always a pleasure seeing you.

I would like to start with the Société Saint-Thomas-d'Aquin from Prince Edward Island. Prince Edward Island has the RDEE, which is funded by the federal government. Do you think that this organization, which is a partner in the economic development of Acadian communities, should be maintained? Its representatives were a bit worried about the future of their organization.

[Gabriel Arsenault]

I feel that the RDEE in Prince Edward Island certainly has a role to play. The Société Saint-Thomas-d'Aquin works closely with the RDEE. The RDEE takes care of training and helps francophone entrepreneurs set up shop. I think it is important for that to take place in all our Acadian communities, if we want to keep this francophone vibrancy and vitality in our regions.

The director of our organization might also have something to add.