Evidence of meeting #25 for Official Languages in the 41st Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was artists.

A recording is available from Parliament.

On the agenda

MPs speaking

Also speaking

Serge Kaptegaine  Executive Director, Canadian Centre for Refugee Employment
Guy Rodgers  Executive Director, English Language Arts Network Quebec
Peter MacGibbon  President, English Language Arts Network Quebec
Gerald Cutting  President, Townshippers' Association
Rachel Hunting  Executive Director, Townshippers' Association

10:10 a.m.

Executive Director, Townshippers' Association

Rachel Hunting

It goes—

10:10 a.m.

NDP

Yvon Godin NDP Acadie—Bathurst, NB

Fox River is what they call it.

10:10 a.m.

President, Townshippers' Association

Gerald Cutting

Because the territory is so large, one of our major problems is that we may have a small pocket of anglophones who would like to participate in a certain activity who might find themselves near Philipsburg, which is at one extreme, and then there may be another group. When we talk about how we create avenues of vitality, communication becomes extremely important. If you talk about the importance of radio—

10:10 a.m.

NDP

Yvon Godin NDP Acadie—Bathurst, NB

What do you suggest then?

10:15 a.m.

President, Townshippers' Association

Gerald Cutting

In terms of making suggestions to deal with that kind of issue, the geography we encounter means we have to move towards the use of technology. We can have a conversation. You can be in a town at one end of the townships and I can be in another, but through video conferencing, through Skype, and through the use of electronic devices, we can create more avenues of communication.

What we're going to have to look at is using what is available and developing structures and programs around that so we can share ideas, share our artistic presentations, and have a dialogue that will bring us closer together in the world of ideas.

10:15 a.m.

NDP

Yvon Godin NDP Acadie—Bathurst, NB

Are you suggesting that the government get involved with your organization to create that? You have the idea, but what are you missing to put it together?

10:15 a.m.

Executive Director, Townshippers' Association

Rachel Hunting

We're missing infrastructure in the regions.

10:15 a.m.

Conservative

The Chair Conservative Michael Chong

Thank you, Mr. Godin.

10:15 a.m.

Executive Director, Townshippers' Association

Rachel Hunting

There are still pockets of the Eastern Townships where people don't have access to the Internet at home. They need either a satellite 3G kind of system, which is really expensive and not reliable, or they simply don't have access to the Internet and that technology when they're at home. That can also create opportunities for employment for people who are in isolated areas, opportunities for education through distance learning and video conferencing. It's not only in terms of arts and culture that it could have a benefit. Infrastructure is really important.

10:15 a.m.

Conservative

The Chair Conservative Michael Chong

Okay.

Thank you, to all of our witnesses, for your testimony. Merci.

We'll suspend for five minutes, so we can go to the second part of our orders of the day.

10:20 a.m.

Conservative

The Chair Conservative Michael Chong

We are resuming the meeting of the Standing Committee on Official Languages.

The work of the committee is on the agenda for the second part of our meeting. We are considering two motions.

Mr. Godin, you asked for the floor. Would you like to move your first motion?

10:20 a.m.

NDP

Yvon Godin NDP Acadie—Bathurst, NB

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

My first motion is as follows:

That the Committee invite the Minister of Heritage before June 12, 2014 to appear in front of committee to explain why there is a delay in the payment of grants allocated to official languages groups by her department.

The reason I am calling on the committee to invite the minister is simple. The last time the minister came, she said that she was quite pleased to come to our committee. She is the minister responsible for official languages. This week, I saw her rise in the House and say that we could invite her to the committees because she enjoyed coming.

I think that the minister must come to our committee because the witnesses we've heard from so far and the people who call our offices are telling us that there is a delay in the payment of grants to the organizations. It is already mid-May.

Mr. Chair, the problem is that the organizations can't go through with their summer activities if the payments are made too late.

Mr. Chair, this is not your first day at the Standing Committee on Official Languages. You probably recall that the organizations said they had to use their credit cards to keep their employees paid or to pay for expenses. We don't want that to happen any more.

I remember when James Moore was the Minister of Heritage and he promised us that this would stop. He said the department would take the previous year's applications and process them in early spring. Once again, we hear that there are delays in the payments. Maybe the government has a good explanation, but we would at least like to hear that. We would like to be able to ask the minister questions to see what's going on and to determine what we could do to help these organizations.

Under the Roadmap for Canada's Official Languages, Canadian Heritage has responsibilities to the communities. The Roadmap for Canada's Official Languages is a mechanism the government put in place in order to grant funding. Under Part VII of the Official Languages Act, the government must promote the official languages and official languages minorities in Canada. All these organizations are in place.

I didn't think the payments would be late this year. Maybe the minister will tell us that the payments aren't late. I look forward to hearing what she has to say. According to what we've heard, we would say that Canadian Heritage employees are not communicating with the organizations to let them know where things stand and to reassure them.

Mr. Chair, that is one of the reasons I hope that the government side will vote with us. I don't know whether it'll be in camera or not. One thing's for sure: if we leave here after an in camera session, it won't be because they voted in favour of the motion. That would be too bad, yet again.

I therefore call on the Minister of Canadian Heritage to come here before June 12 to explain what is going on and to take questions. This is about her responsibility and the committee for which she is responsible.

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

10:20 a.m.

Conservative

The Chair Conservative Michael Chong

Thank you, Mr. Godin.

Mr. Gourde.

10:20 a.m.

Conservative

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

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.

I think that my colleague's questions are perfectly legitimate. I urge him to go see the minister, who is scheduled to appear before the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage at 1 Wellington in 35 minutes.

I believe that you—if you want to go—or your party will be able to ask her all the questions you can think of about everything you want to know. You will not get those answers any faster than in 35 minutes from now.

It goes without saying that we are going to vote against this motion today because the minister is appearing before the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage. You can ask her all the questions you want. You will not have any problems asking her questions.

10:20 a.m.

Conservative

The Chair Conservative Michael Chong

Thank you, Mr. Gourde.

Ms. St-Denis, you have the floor.

10:20 a.m.

Liberal

Lise St-Denis Liberal Saint-Maurice—Champlain, QC

I do not really understand how you can say that anybody here can go to the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage meeting to ask questions.

Here, I am the only one asking questions and over there they take turns asking questions. There are members of the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage. They are not going to give Mr. Godin their turn. I do not think that is a valid reason for refusing Mr. Godin's request that the minister come to meet us here.

10:25 a.m.

Conservative

The Chair Conservative Michael Chong

Thank you.

Mr. Nicholls, you have the floor.

May 15th, 2014 / 10:25 a.m.

NDP

Jamie Nicholls NDP Vaudreuil—Soulanges, QC

Thank you.

I just find the lack of transparency regrettable, Mr. Chair, coming from Monsieur Gourde.

I've been here for three years now. Monsieur Gourde has been here longer than I have, I believe, and he knows the way committee works. He knows that we have speaking rounds. He knows that we have members who are permanent on the committee.

This is a specific issue that we have to get to. He knows the way the committee system works. If you're discussing 10 different issues, you're not going to have in-depth discussions on those 10. You might have in-depth discussions on one or two.

This is a particular issue that we have to address. I see Ms. Bateman smirking and thinking that it's not important, but it's regrettable that we can't bring the minister here to ask her specifically about something that many of the witnesses on this economic study have said is a problem, that they're not getting payment and that the instability of funding is affecting their operations.

I don't think it's realistic of Monsieur Gourde to suggest to run over to 1 Wellington to ask questions at committee. He knows this isn't feasible. He knows this is a fantasy and yet he still persists in pursuing this fantasy.

I just find it regrettable, because we need to get to the bottom of why this is happening. The best way to do that is to tell the minister two weeks ahead of time to please come and tell us why this is happening and how we can solve it.

10:25 a.m.

Conservative

The Chair Conservative Michael Chong

Thank you, Mr. Nicholls.

Monsieur Godin.

10:25 a.m.

NDP

Yvon Godin NDP Acadie—Bathurst, NB

Mr. Speaker, I am having a really hard time understanding why Mr. Gourde is telling us these things. He is saying that, if we want to ask the minister questions, we can go to another room where the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage is meeting and that we will have 45 minutes to do so. Hello! The heritage committee is not the official languages committee, even if the minister is responsible for both.

The heritage committee is the one that is examining the 150th anniversary. I could have told Mr. Gourde to go in the other room rather than wearying us with this. Our committee has also examined this issue. Mr. Gourde's argument is that the two committees are different and that our committee is independent. The government has had us examining this issue, which is also being examined by the heritage committee, for months on end. Yet, it is the same government.

I have been an MP since 1997 and I have never seen the like. A minister responsible for official languages has never come to testify before a committee for only one hour instead of two. The government is using its majority to ensure that the minister will appear before our committee for only one hour. We cannot even ask the minister the questions we want to ask her.

Since it seems the minister does not like appearing before the heritage committee, the hour devoted to the heritage committee could be split in two: half an hour for the heritage committee and half an hour for the official languages committee. As long as we are doing that, we may as well just invite the minister for 15 minutes.

She does not like appearing before committee. The Conservative government does not like Parliament. The Conservative government does not like for committees to be transparent. It does not want committee members to ask questions. I think it is shameful that the minister responsible for official languages will not appear before the Standing Committee on Official Languages to talk about programs related to official language minority communities.

The heritage committee discusses arts and culture, but our committee talks specifically about our country's minority communities. Organizations that need government programs have told us that there is a delay in the payment of grants. The government is the one that suggested we conduct this study in the first place. Witnesses from across the country have told us that they have not received any money from the government and that there have been delays.

Now, Mr. Gourde is telling us to go to the other side of the House and ask our questions somewhere else. I am wondering what we are even doing here. I know the Conservatives do not want us here, but here we are. As parliamentarians, we are responsible for asking the minister questions and she is responsible for appearing before us. She should be testifying for two hours, not just one. We will ask her our questions and then it will be done. If she does not do so, perhaps it is because this government has something to hide.

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

10:25 a.m.

Conservative

The Chair Conservative Michael Chong

Thank you, Mr. Godin.

Mr. Gourde, the floor is yours.

10:25 a.m.

Conservative

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

I would like to respond to Mr. Godin.

In the past, Mr. Godin has participated in other committee meetings to ask questions to other ministers. He is pleased to attend other committee meetings. Committee members of a party make arrangements among themselves. Committee members can allow members of their party who do not sit on the committee to feed them questions or let them take their place. It has always been considered good form to do so. This is a way of doing things that has been around for a long time.

This morning, there is a procedure and House affairs committee meeting that should be very interesting. At that meeting, your leader will explain how he took money from the House of Commons to do partisan work. It is a meeting that Canadians are going to love watching this morning. It will be very interesting to hear him explain how the $3 million was spent. I might even pop in to hear his explanations.

10:30 a.m.

Conservative

The Chair Conservative Michael Chong

Mr. Godin, you have the floor.

10:30 a.m.

NDP

Yvon Godin NDP Acadie—Bathurst, NB

My leader will appear before a committee today to show that the NDP is transparent. The government cannot say that he does not like Parliament and parliamentarians. He is out there working with people and helping MPs with to do their work in Ottawa. Today, I am going to be proud of Thomas Mulcair. He is going to attend the committee he was called to appear before and he is going to testify for two hours. He did not do as you did. He did not refuse to appear. He accepted and he is looking forward to appearing before the committee, before the Liberals and the Conservatives. He did not hide. He said himself that he was going to appear and that he was looking forward to explaining all the work that we have accomplished.

In case Mr. Gourde is not aware of this, Mr. Chair, we are all paid by Parliament. All of our work is done for Parliament, and I am looking forward to our leader's appearance before the committee today. He is not ashamed to appear. He did not refuse and he did not hide, like you are trying to hide your minister.

I am very proud of my leader.

10:30 a.m.

Conservative

The Chair Conservative Michael Chong

Okay, thank you.

Is there further debate on the motion in front of us?

Seeing none, I'll call the question.