Official Languages Committee on Oct. 20th, 2016

[François Choquette, NDP, Drummond, QC]

Mr. Boileau, I know you asked—I don't remember what year the report was released—for a group of experts to be established to determine the proper strategies. Aren't you currently negotiating the establishment of the group of experts?

[François Boileau]

We have the group in place.

[François Choquette, NDP, Drummond, QC]

Okay.

[François Boileau]

The Ontario government agreed. The group carried out its work over the past year and a half. I'm now waiting for the group to release its findings to the public.

I participated in the working group, and I told the group that I hoped the work wouldn't involve building castles in the air. That's more my specialty at another level. I asked the group to carry out the work and to propose concrete solutions for the field and to identify organizations and very specific strategies at the federal level, but especially in Ontario. This will help us make progress and change the result, because 2% is not acceptable.

[François Choquette, NDP, Drummond, QC]

If I understand correctly, there's currently no francophone lens regarding immigration.

[The Chair, Liberal, Denis Paradis]

Mr. Choquette, I must stop you here.

Mr. Boileau, please keep your answer short.

[François Boileau]

I won't comment on the situation at the federal level, but I'll say that, in Ontario, the group of experts uses a francophone lens. That's already a step forward, since it wasn't the case before.

[The Chair, Liberal, Denis Paradis]

Thank you.

Mr. Lefebvre, you have the floor.

[Paul Lefebvre, Liberal, Sudbury, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Boileau, for your comments on immigration.

We haven't discussed the immigration of students much in the committee. Students come to the country to study in French and they don't go only to Quebec. They come to study at the bilingual colleges and universities in certain provinces.

In Quebec, the Quebec-France agreement enables exchanges, and tuition fees are kept as low as possible.

Does Ontario have a similar agreement with countries such as France, Belgium and Switzerland so that students from those countries can easily enrol in our colleges or three francophone universities?

[François Boileau]

I haven't done a comprehensive analysis of the situation, but to my knowledge, the premier of Ontario has followed in the footsteps of her predecessor. The province attracts foreign students by offering to reduce their tuition fees.

[Paul Lefebvre, Liberal, Sudbury, ON]

For French studies, are there incentives like the Quebec-France agreement?

[François Boileau]

They apply to students in general. I would be surprised if they were aimed only at francophones.

[Paul Lefebvre, Liberal, Sudbury, ON]

A similar strategy could enable Ontario to achieve its objective of 5%.

[François Boileau]

I understand your question. At this time, it's more often up to institutions to develop that type of strategy, as Collège Boréal just did with France and Belgium.

Does the department let them do it? Perhaps, but I think there's more of a laissez-faire attitude in that regard.

[Paul Lefebvre, Liberal, Sudbury, ON]

That's what I wanted to discuss. Collège Boréal made an agreement with France and Belgium. Can you give us more details on what the agreement contains? How could we encourage the other institutions and provinces to consider this type of initiative?

[François Boileau]

I'm not in a position to give you more details on the agreement, but one thing interests me. At least people are having a discussion and this possibility exists.

Let's set Sudbury aside for a bit. Let's look at what's happening at La Cité, better known as La Cité collégiale, and at what programs exist in Côte d'Ivoire. They can develop a partnership to enable Côte d'Ivoire to establish a police training program, for example. Collège Boréal already has facilities in other African countries to develop teaching programs for the mining sector, an important sector in the region.

I see that major potential progress is being made with these countries because Africa, especially francophone Africa, will experience a significant population explosion. This situation creates new possibilities and business opportunities. It's more than simply a matter of attracting new immigrants here. The training programs provided together with La Cité or Collège Boréal in these countries have major benefits for us. The professors who travel to Africa come back with greater knowledge. They have a better understanding of diversity and of the world. They therefore become better professors. This enables us to have better knowledge of the field and to establish contacts to then develop business opportunities. Everyone wins across the board.

[The Chair, Liberal, Denis Paradis]

Thank you very much, Mr. Boileau.

That brings our meeting with you to an end. Thank you very much for your presentation. All the members of the committee found it very helpful. It was a wonderful presentation. My thanks to you on behalf of the committee members.

We are going to suspend the session for a few minutes so that we can establish contact with the Yukon. We will be hearing from the next witnesses by videoconference. We will reconvene in five or 10 minutes.

In the meantime, I suspend the session.

[Sylvie Boucher, Conservative, Beauport—Côte-de-Beaupré—Île d’Orléans—Charlevoix, QC]

Before you do, Mr. Chair, may I talk about something else? Can you wait two minutes?

[The Chair, Liberal, Denis Paradis]

Let's do it when we come back.

[The Chair, Liberal, Denis Paradis]

The session is resumed.

Mrs. Boucher, you have the floor.

[Sylvie Boucher, Conservative, Beauport—Côte-de-Beaupré—Île d’Orléans—Charlevoix, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I would like to tell you that you will be receiving the following notice of motion tomorrow or on Monday. It reads as follows:

That the committee invite the newly nominated judge to the Supreme Court of Canada, Malcolm Rowe, to appear on Tuesday, October 25, 2016.

I am making this request because of what happened to us before when we formed the government. People said they were bilingual but they did not speak French. I would like to make sure that the judge in question speaks both languages well and is able to understand them.

[The Chair, Liberal, Denis Paradis]

Thank you, Mrs. Boucher.

We receive your notice and we will discuss it in an upcoming session.

Have we been able to reach our friends in the Yukon?

We are going to try and establish communication with the folks in the Yukon in the next few minutes.

[François Choquette, NDP, Drummond, QC]

That's a long way.

[The Chair, Liberal, Denis Paradis]

Yes, indeed, it's a long way.

[Sylvie Boucher, Conservative, Beauport—Côte-de-Beaupré—Île d’Orléans—Charlevoix, QC]

Yes, it's a long way.