Evidence of meeting #27 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 province.
A recording is available from Parliament.
9:30 a.m.
NDP
Yvon Godin NDP Acadie—Bathurst, NB
But it would be done by immigrants, people from outside Canada. That's what's happening in Bouctouche.
Isn't that right, Ms. Hébert? There are foreign workers in Bouctouche, as well as on…
May 29th, 2014 / 9:30 a.m.
Conservative
9:30 a.m.
NDP
Yvon Godin NDP Acadie—Bathurst, NB
Yes, that is also the case on Deer Island. These people are bringing in immigrants and making them work. They spend two months without work, but they are fed and given a place to stay. They are not paid. Is that the economy and seasonal work?
9:30 a.m.
Director General, Conseil économique du Nouveau-Brunswick
In fact, there were other employment options.
In the fishing sector, a number of businesses in the southern part of the province are open year-round. These people found ways to diversify so they could keep their employees longer. Since the employment insurance program was used to keep jobs in the northern part of the province and since there weren't many other job opportunities, the business did not have to diversify. So the program has had a negative impact on businesses and workers.
I agree with you when you say that making changes quickly to the program had a huge impact. We have seen this quite recently. Businesses were not ready for that. When a program is used over the years to support a seasonal industry, the rules cannot be changed overnight. Businesses can't adapt to changes like this and neither can workers.
9:30 a.m.
Conservative
9:30 a.m.
Conservative
Jacques Gourde Conservative Lotbinière—Chutes-de-la-Chaudière, QC
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I would like to thank the witnesses for being here this morning.
With our study, we are trying to determine which characteristics of some minority situation communities allow them to be more successful than others. We would like to find a way to help the less fortunate communities reach a certain standard of living.
Mr. Antunes, you told us that incomes in Quebec are not as high. Are you talking about gross income or net available income? Perhaps it is a bit easier to compare the net available income from province to province, since the tax rates aren't the same.
9:30 a.m.
Deputy Chief Economist and Executive Director, Conference Board of Canada
In that case, I was talking about gross salaries, which are generally higher for the francophonie in each province than the gross salaries for the rest of the province.
The problem is that Quebec comprises a large part of the francophonie. On average, salaries are lower in Quebec than they are nationally, unless we are comparing them to salaries in Ontario and certain other regions. The total economic weight, outside Quebec, is generally stronger than the contribution of the population.
9:30 a.m.
Conservative
Jacques Gourde Conservative Lotbinière—Chutes-de-la-Chaudière, QC
Mr. Chiasson, you spoke about the entrepreneurial culture and the idea of work, including the work-family balance and so on.
Could you please elaborate on that?
In my region, Chaudière-Appalaches, there is a very strong entrepreneurial spirit. Beauce is at the centre, and there is a periphery. It's as if we invented entrepreneurship. If you can't find it anywhere else in Canada, come and see us. There are examples on every street corner.
Tell me about this concept.
9:30 a.m.
Consultant, MC Consultants enr.
It's interesting that you mention Beauce, which is known for its dynamic entrepreneurship. However, even so, I've seen that fewer and fewer young people are inclined to start their own business.
Earlier I spoke about self-employed workers. Self-employed workers are not valued very much by society. However, we are starting to realize that more and more people are choosing this path, be it out of frustration or by choice.
As for government measures, I think entrepreneurship should be showcased more, not just for large companies with a lot of employees. Self-employed workers work from home. We are talking about the fact that a lot of people leave rural areas for a variety of reasons and settle in urban centres. Yet if we encouraged the entrepreneurial culture, especially the status of self-employed workers, the young and not-so-young would remain in rural areas to work. I myself have worked from home for years. Whether I am out west or in a very remote region up north, I can continue to do my work.
I had observed certain things, but the BDC studies I read showed me that my observations were founded. There really has been a drop in the culture and the enthusiasm toward starting your own business.
Once again, this isn't just about promoting the entrepreneurial culture, but also promoting formulas that help people run a business just as easily in an urban centre as in a rural area.
9:35 a.m.
Conservative
Jacques Gourde Conservative Lotbinière—Chutes-de-la-Chaudière, QC
In the region, entrepreneurs who have a lot of experience and have been successful provide the community with a mentoring service. For example, an entrepreneur will support a dozen new businesses in their first three years of operation by providing advice and guidance. Entrepreneurs pass on their experience so they are likely to avoid problems. As a result, they increase the success rate of these young entrepreneurs because start-up businesses do not all manage to make it past five years. By increasing the success rate, we increase the number of businesses that survive. Do you have this in your region?
9:35 a.m.
Consultant, MC Consultants enr.
We do.
As I've already said, I worked for the RDEE for a few years. I saw that there were initiatives like this in some provinces and territories.
For example, I see Louis Allain, and I think of the community of La Broquerie, Manitoba. I find that quite interesting. Correct me if I'm wrong, Louis, but not only did the Economic Development Council for Manitoba Bilingual Municipalities encourage these pairings between people with business experience and young people in the community, but I saw that in some communities, such as La Broquerie, encouraging this inter-generational connection between entrepreneurs who had been successful and who wanted to share their knowledge and experience was sort of in their genes. Increasingly, we are seeing this kind of formula in all the provinces and territories, but we need to provide more support and follow-up in this area.
9:35 a.m.
Conservative
Jacques Gourde Conservative Lotbinière—Chutes-de-la-Chaudière, QC
My last question is for all the witnesses.
College and post-secondary education gives young Canadians more advantages. Maybe even Canadians up to age 40. It gives them the opportunity to gain additional knowledge enabling them to do specialized work. I'm not necessarily talking about bachelor's and master's degrees. It could include training to become an industrial mechanic or something along those lines. This is the kind of work we need in Canada.
Perhaps Ms. Hébert could respond to this observation.
9:35 a.m.
Director General, Conseil économique du Nouveau-Brunswick
I would add that statistics show what you just said. Salaries are higher as soon as you have a post-secondary diploma, regardless of the sector.
In New Brunswick, this challenge must be taken on by a large portion of the population, especially the francophone population, which does not have the tools needed for post-secondary education. The population does not have the literacy level required.
There is not much mentoring in New Brunswick's francophone community. The anglophone community in the private sector places great importance on this. A little earlier, I gave you the example of the Wallace McCain Institute. Some groups have really taken this issue to heart, and they are from the private sector. We don't have these kinds of tools in the francophone community. When we submit requests to government authorities, they responded that mentoring was not an original or innovative idea. So we are hesitant.
9:35 a.m.
Conservative
Jacques Gourde Conservative Lotbinière—Chutes-de-la-Chaudière, QC
To wrap up, I would like to go back to what you said about there not being tools for post-secondary education. What section of the population does that affect? I would hope that young people in your region would have the same tools as others for post-secondary education, or at least I hope they do. Perhaps you were talking about people aged 35 to 50. Could you please clarify that?
9:35 a.m.
Director General, Conseil économique du Nouveau-Brunswick
I was talking about all age groups.
We thought that the literacy-related problems would decrease or disappear as the population ages. We thought that it concerned older people who had not finished high school. However, that is not at all the case. Young people are finishing secondary school, but they don't have the reading skills necessary to go on to post-secondary education. The figures are a little lower than for the oldest age group, but it is still a problem among young people.
9:35 a.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Michael Chong
Thank you, Mr. Gourde and Ms. Hébert.
Ms. St-Denis, you have the floor.
9:35 a.m.
Liberal
Lise St-Denis Liberal Saint-Maurice—Champlain, QC
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
My question is for Mr. Antunes.
Can the economic delay of francophone communities be attributed to political reasons? To go back to Mr. Godin's question, what is the federal government's role or responsibility in that respect?
9:35 a.m.
Deputy Chief Economist and Executive Director, Conference Board of Canada
That's a good question.
I don't think it's necessarily related to politics.
We spoke about education-related skills. I would like to say that I fully agree with that.
I think we have a labour market that generally favours employment but that it is getting tighter. We've missed the opportunity to fully integrate youth into the workforce.
When we look at Canada's economic performance, it's important to point out that it varies greatly from region to region. If we look at the two main provinces where there is a high francophone minority population—Ontario and New Brunswick—we see that those are the provinces where the economy was generally much weaker. I think that the francophonie is at a bit of a disadvantage because of the general evolution of the economy in those two regions. Now, what can we do? That is a difficult question.
I would just like to quickly come back to a point that I raised previously. The demographics do not necessarily favour entrepreneurship. Regions with high francophone populations have been hard hit. It's difficult for the federal government to balance this kind of platform. Changes were made to Canada's employment insurance program, and we don't necessarily disagree with them. However, those changes have affected how generous the system is toward seasonal jobs, which have felt the impact as a result.
So these are difficult questions. How can we fix the problem? I think it is mainly the federal government's responsibility.
9:40 a.m.
Liberal
Lise St-Denis Liberal Saint-Maurice—Champlain, QC
Mr. Chiasson, would you consider creating an annual guide exclusively about francophone tourism in Canada? It would be like the one that was done for aboriginals.
9:40 a.m.
Consultant, MC Consultants enr.
Your question is very interesting.
I think that what makes a community interested in francophone tourism is the cultural reality. What the tourist is really looking for is a specific experience. We're talking about experiential tourism and to feel like they're in a different country.
When we look at new trends in tourism, we can see that what today's tourists are looking for is to have an experience. I think that yes, we could consider a guide or something to nicely present this cultural reality.
We're talking about a guide, and I know that there are several provinces and territories that are indeed trying to present this cultural reality in an effort to attract tourists. Additional effort could be made in this respect.
9:40 a.m.
Liberal
Lise St-Denis Liberal Saint-Maurice—Champlain, QC
Perhaps there is another way of working. Could we reconcile the historical experience of francophone communities with the large museums? In other words, do any of the museums in any of the provinces talk about the reality of francophones across Canada and the difficulties they have encountered and still do? Could that be explored?
9:40 a.m.
Consultant, MC Consultants enr.
Being from the Atlantic region, I can say that the Acadian culture is certainly talked about a great deal. I think it is part of our tourism product.
I think that Louis could comment further on the situation in the west. Still, there is work being done there to educate people about the Métis and francophone cultures. That could be presented as a tourism product in itself.
As for whether we are doing enough, that's a question we have to ask ourselves.
9:40 a.m.
Liberal
Lise St-Denis Liberal Saint-Maurice—Champlain, QC
Does this exist in the museums?
It exists in Acadia, but does it exist in other Canadian provinces or even in the Canadian Museum of History?
9:40 a.m.
Consultant, MC Consultants enr.
I'm sorry, but I don't have an answer for that question. Is it presented as much in other Canadian provinces as it is in the Maritimes? I couldn't tell you.
In the Maritimes, I think it is still presented in a positive way.
9:40 a.m.
Liberal
Lise St-Denis Liberal Saint-Maurice—Champlain, QC
Mr. Allain, is it wishful thinking to believe that francophone institutions in minority communities will survive?
