Official Languages Committee on March 29th, 2012

[Costas Menegakis, Conservative, Richmond Hill, ON]

I have a quick question for the Canadian Teachers' Federation. I was really pleased to see the recommendations that you put in the package you presented to us today. One of them was to promote French language content on the web.

Are you familiar with the Language Portal of Canada? It's a website that the Translation Bureau here on the Hill has put up. It had 29 million hits in the last 11 months. That's over 80,000 an hour.

Could you comment on that? Would you be familiar with it?

[Paul Taillefer]

Monsieur Boudreau will comment.

[Ronald Boudreau]

Yes. I must say that we greatly appreciate the fact that it is now free and accessible, since it's a tool we use.

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

We're the ones who did that.

[Ronald Boudreau]

As Mr. Taillefer said, the federation is a bilingual organization. We have our own translation service, which uses this tool every day. And I use it daily in my own work.

[The Chair, Conservative, Michael Chong]

Thank you.

Mr. Bélanger, you have the floor.

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

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you for being here, gentlemen.

Mr. Taillefer, thank you very much for your presentation. I especially want to thank you for the first two paragraphs of your brief. In the first paragraph, you say you would be remiss if you did not mention that you had hoped that the government would hold a proper consultation. I fully agree with you. A committee like ours is in no way equipped to conduct a professional consultation, since the atmosphere is sometimes very politically charged and we have only two hours a day, twice a week. That does not constitute a professional consultation.

This decision by the government came at midterm. We actually learned about it three months after we began our study and had met with people. So we have questioned witnesses without even knowing that our mandate was to hold a proper consultation for the purposes of studying the roadmap. I think this shows the government's contempt for the committee and our communities. I thank you for highlighting that.

Furthermore, I'd like to thank you for talking about the 2007 Summit of Francophone and Acadian Communities of Canada. I took part in that summit as an observer. It was a real exercise involving the entire community and its constituents. All the organizations, everyone signed the plan in the end. So I think that the government could draw inspiration from that for the renewal of the roadmap, which has already been decided, as announced by Bernard Valcourt in Newfoundland and Labrador. He said that the funding for the next roadmap would be reduced. I don't know why we are being asked to continue to carry out this exercise, but we are going to do it.

You both talked about welcoming newcomers, and I thank you for that. Since we are being asked to hold a consultation, I am going to do so. I am going to send you a report. In the previous Parliament, the committee did a study on immigration that was not completed. It had done some good collaborative work. The committee had tabled the report to Parliament. However, the government called an election before it could respond to the report. The committee of the current Parliament has not yet looked at the report again nor obtained a response from the government regarding its recommendations, which basically touch on the points you are raising. I am going to send it to you. Would you please respond to this report so that the committee can at least benefit from your knowledge and your concerns in this respect? It's true that it's important for the future of education in our communities. So I thank you for raising this point. I'll send you the report once I'm back in my office. I also see that my assistant, who is in the room, is taking notes.

You also spoke about early childhood. Could you please briefly give me your comments because I want to take the rest of the time to talk about education. Early childhood is part of that. The federal government had signed agreements with all the provinces, and each of them involved early childhood for linguistic minorities. In each case, the linguistic minorities had applauded these agreements, but the first thing the new Conservative government did in 2006 was to announce that it would abolish these agreements. Could you please comment on this?

[Yves Saint-Maurice]

For us, early childhood is an area that we have decided to embrace more in the past two years. For us, early childhood is not included in the education structure…

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

Please be brief.

[Yves Saint-Maurice]

…since we are working with the school networks.

However, it is obvious for us that, increasingly, day-care centres must be better equipped and open to welcoming minorities because integration or disintegration begins there. There are more and more exogamous families today. We need to work to raise the awareness of children at a very early age.

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

Thank you.

[Paul Taillefer]

Early childhood is a key to the survival of linguistic minorities. The research clearly shows that young people who take part in early childhood programs in French are more likely to maintain their connection with French through their school experiences and in the community later on.

Moreover, there may be greater repercussions. In fact, the OECD told us that, in countries where there are very specific early childhood programs, the school performance of those young people is higher than that of young people in countries without programs. So it is an economic and social advantage for countries. It's really critical for us.

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

Allow me to interpret your comments. I believe you said that it would be better to maintain this type of agreement. That's how I interpret it, and I don't hold you responsible.

Education is central in the context of the roadmap. We want the roadmap to be renewed, but we have no idea how the hundreds of millions of dollars transferred to the provinces for this component will be used.

Can you tell the committee if these hundreds of millions of dollars transferred to the provinces are actually allocated to the education of linguistic minorities and, if so, if that funding is used properly?

[Richard Lacombe]

Neither I nor ACELF know how this funding is used. Our organization is not an advocate. We do not work on these matters.

[Paul Taillefer]

This is a very difficult accounting exercise for us, as an organization. In some territories and provinces, more money is allocated to the minority language education system. However it is impossible to determine whether the entire amounts are used for their intended purpose. Transparency would really be an important aspect for us.

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

Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Michael Chong]

Okay, thank you.

Mr. Weston, you have the floor.

[John Weston, Conservative, West Vancouver—Sunshine Coast—Sea to Sky Country, BC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I also want to thank our guests. It truly is a pleasure to hear your comments.

Mr. Taillefer, I was struck by something you said. You alluded to inescapable demographic considerations. Those of us who support bilingualism in our country and the growth of French in minority communities and the growth of English in minority communities in Quebec know that it's an important effort.

In the context of the roadmap, what do you think our best practices are? What is the best way to invest the funds to fight these inescapable demographic considerations?

[Paul Taillefer]

First, to put things into context, I should say that the face of the francophonie is changing. Immigration is certainly boosting the number of French speakers and making the francophonie more vibrant, but it is also presenting a number of challenges, hence the importance of action research, which involves being able to determine the issues and then put in place programs that deal with those issues.

I would like to give the floor to Mr. Boudreau so that he can round out my answer.

[Ronald Boudreau]

The reality of the francophone community isn't common to all Canadians. For example, it goes without saying that the rural depopulation of the majority population does not lead to linguistic assimilation. However, this is the case for francophones. Mr. Taillefer mentioned the immigration factor, but there is also the whole matter of urbanization. Our francophones in rural communities who have grown up and developed in local majority communities where infrastructures supported the language are now in large cities and are victims of assimilation.

With respect to maintaining the community, this becomes an additional cause for concern to us, which is why we are hoping that the targeted amounts are approved to encourage action research in those areas.

[John Weston, Conservative, West Vancouver—Sunshine Coast—Sea to Sky Country, BC]

Mr. Saint-Maurice, it's truly a pleasure to welcome a team of individuals who are at the forefront of education in our country.

I'll ask you the same question: what are the most important efforts in our roadmap? Where do you think the money would be best invested?

[Yves Saint-Maurice]

As you said, the roadmap somewhat concerns us; it concerns us financially.

In my opinion, the best efforts will still be those that are devoted to the communities, to culture and to education. Those are the areas we need to enrich, develop and support. The minority communities need support that they cannot produce themselves. So it is important that the roadmap complement their financial efforts.

[John Weston, Conservative, West Vancouver—Sunshine Coast—Sea to Sky Country, BC]

Do you think that the children from a province like mine—British Columbia—need to go to Quebec or New Brunswick to receive good second language training, or can they get it in their own community?

[Yves Saint-Maurice]

I think that children in British Columbia, and children elsewhere in Canada, must absolutely be able to do it in their own community. That is what we have been working so much on for several years. We encourage interactions between the francophone communities of Quebec and the francophone communities in minority situations, but this is just a strengthening of the efforts that are already being made locally.

When young people from British Columbia come to Quebec, they say, "Wow, it's beautiful, it's fun", but when young people from Quebec go to British Columbia, they say, "These people have guts! What these people experience on a day-to-day basis isn't easy, but they really do good things that are worth supporting." So it's reciprocal.

I think that young people—this is why we're talking about identity building—across Canada, in the small communities in the Northwest Territories and in Victoria or Vancouver, must absolutely be able to develop in their community, and this is increasingly true.

It is also in this sense that immigration is an added value that gives even more hope for success. Across Canada, with the exception of majority Francophone communities, we are seeing an increase in the clientele of francophone students in francophone schools, even though the number of francophones in Canada is not increasing. Despite all that, there has been an increase in students in our schools. That means that there are more and more rights holders under section 23 attending our schools.

[John Weston, Conservative, West Vancouver—Sunshine Coast—Sea to Sky Country, BC]

You just said something very important. Even though my family has benefited from studying in Quebec a number of times, we know that it isn't just a dream, but something real: we can blossom in both languages. In the past, we couldn't attain that objective as a nation.

Thank you, Mr. Saint-Maurice.