Official Languages Committee on Dec. 11th, 2023

[The Chair, Liberal, René Arseneault]

I call the meeting to order.

Welcome to the witnesses and members of the public who are following these proceedings. This is meeting number 82 of the House of Commons Standing Committee on Official Languages.

Pursuant to Standing Order 108(3) and the motion adopted by the committee on September 20, 2023, the committee is meeting to continue its study on the economic development of official language minority communities.

I was going to skip the usual reminders, but I see we have someone new joining us remotely.

[The Clerk of the Committee, Ms. Audrée Dallaire]

It's Ms. Enayeh, a witness, Mr. Chair.

[The Chair, Liberal, René Arseneault]

All right.

Since we have someone new, I will go over the rules.

Today's meeting is taking place in a hybrid format, pursuant to the House order of June 15, 2023. Members are participating in person, in the room, and remotely using the Zoom application.

To ensure that the meeting runs smoothly, I will ask members and witnesses to keep the following rules in mind.

Please wait until I recognize you by name before speaking. If you are on the video conference, please click on the microphone icon to unmute yourself. When you are not speaking, your mike should be on mute.

Interpretation services are available. Those on Zoom have the choice, at the bottom of their screen, of either floor, English or French. Those in the room will need to put in their earpiece and select the appropriate channel.

Although the room is equipped with a high-quality audio system, feedback can occur. This can be extremely detrimental to the interpreters and is most commonly caused when someone wearing their earpiece gets too close to the mike. I would ask all of you to be extremely careful when putting in or removing your earpiece. Please speak clearly into the designated mike and avoid touching your earpiece. Please lay it on the table far from your mike when you are not using it.

Keep in mind that all comments by members and witnesses should be addressed through the chair.

Members in the room who wish to speak are asked to raise their hand, and members on Zoom are asked to use the “raise hand” feature. The clerk and I will do our best to maintain a consolidated speaking order.

I would like to let the committee members know that all the witnesses participating virtually underwent the necessary connection tests prior to the meeting, pursuant to our routine motion.

Now I wish to welcome the witnesses.

From the Alliance des femmes de la francophonie canadienne, we have Ms. Boutiyeb, executive director, and Ms. Enayeh, president.

From the Provincial Employment Roundtable, in Quebec, we have Mr. Salter, executive director, and Mr. Walcott, director of engagement and communications.

This is how the meeting is going to go.

Each organization will have five minutes for opening remarks. We will then move into questions and answers. Unfortunately, it is my job to strictly enforce the time limits, but the more everyone stays within their allotted time, the more likely we'll be able to have a second round. That will also ensure that every party has an opportunity to ask the right questions. Even though I will be strict about the time, it is very nice to have all of you. I will let you know 15 seconds before your time is up.

We will now get started.

Ms. Boutiyeb, you may go ahead. You have five minutes.

[Soukaina Boutiyeb, Executive Director, Alliance des femmes de la francophonie canadienne]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Ms. Enayeh, our president, is actually going to go first.

[The Chair, Liberal, René Arseneault]

Very good.

You have five minutes, Ms. Enayeh.

[Nour Enayeh, President, Alliance des femmes de la francophonie canadienne]

Mr. Chair, members of the committee, I am speaking to you from the unceded territory of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh peoples in Vancouver.

On behalf of the Alliance des femmes de la francophonie canadienne, or the AFFC, I want to thank the Standing Committee on Official Languages for inviting us to share our recommendations on the economic development of official language minority communities.

My name is Nour Enayeh, and I am the AFFC's president. Joining me today is our executive director, Soukaina Boutiyeb.

The AFFC is a non-profit feminist organization working to highlight the role and contribution of more than 1.3 million francophone and Acadian women in minority communities through education and advocacy. The AFFC is fortunate to have 15 member organizations.

This year, the action plan for official languages formally recognized women's crucial contribution to the development of official language minority communities. In particular, they ensure that francophone identity is passed on. Ongoing concrete investments in francophone and Acadian women are essential to recognize their contribution and support the economic development of our communities.

Our communities face many challenges. The rise in gender-based violence during the pandemic and the lack of any mention of the francophone community in the National Action Plan to End Gender-Based Violence are troubling. The AFFC is also alarmed by the funding reality of our member organizations, which do not all receive core funding. Core funding is essential if they are to continue playing their role in the community.

In addition, francophone immigrant women have unique needs that immigration programs and services fail to take into account. Taking their specific circumstances into account would help francophone immigrant women not only integrate better, but also become more involved in social and economic life. In Canada, women make up 54% of caregivers, and they need access to French-language health care and services tailored to their realities.

Gender-based analysis plus, or GBA+, is meant to mitigate the impacts of government programs and services on the basis of the identity factors unique to each individual. In order to be fully effective, GBA+ should be undertaken comprehensively and results should be publicly available.

The AFFC has some recommendations for the committee to consider.

First, we recommend that the government earmark funding specifically for francophone and Acadian women's organizations, as part of the funding allocated by the various federal institutions.

Second, we recommend that the government provide specific core funding to all francophone and Acadian women's organizations in minority communities and invest $280 million over five years in the core funding allocated to Canada's francophone community.

Third, we recommend that the government undertake GBA+ in a more comprehensive manner and make the results publicly available.

Fourth, we recommend that the government uphold its commitment to gender equality and take the needs of francophone immigrant women into account in its immigration programs and services.

Fifth, we recommend that the government top up its investment to implement the National Action Plan to End Gender-Based Violence and earmark funding specifically for organizations representing francophone and Acadian women in minority communities.

Finally, we recommend that the government support francophone caregivers by investing in better access to services and resources.

Mr. Chair, members of the Standing Committee on Official Languages, thank you. Ms. Boutiyeb and I are available to answer your questions.

[The Chair, Liberal, René Arseneault]

Thank you, Ms. Enayeh.

Mr. Salter, you have five minutes. Please go ahead.

[Nicholas Salter, Executive Director, Provincial Employment Roundtable]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Before I get started, I want to say that I would be pleased to answer members' questions in French. However, as the executive director of an organization representing the English-speaking community in Quebec, I will be giving my opening statement in English.

Mr. Chair and esteemed committee members, on behalf of the Provincial Employment Roundtable, thank you for the opportunity to speak with you today.

Through my remarks and our discussion, I hope to highlight the issues and needs of Quebec's English-speaking communities as they pertain to employment.

First off, here is a bit more background about who we are. The Provincial Employment Roundtable, otherwise known as PERT, is a non-profit, multi-stakeholder initiative whose main goal is to address issues of employment and employability facing the English-speaking community in Quebec.

PERT accomplishes this through researching the major challenges that these communities face, and by engaging with our network of over 90 members from across the province of Quebec. Our members contribute their knowledge and expertise through their participation in our four sectoral tables, which regroup employment service providers, employers, educators and regional community organizations. Our sectoral tables inform our research agenda and provide feedback on our analysis. They also serve as a place for collective mobilization and the development of solutions and initiatives to help address and increase awareness of the employment issues our communities face.

While I'm pleased to be here today to have the opportunity to share the most up-to-date employment statistics regarding Quebec’s English speakers, the economic trends that these statistics reveal are truly worrying.

PERT’s quantitative research, which primarily uses Canadian census data, shows that Quebec's English speakers, who represent 57.4% of the total official-language minority community labour force in Canada, experience higher levels of unemployment, lower incomes and higher rates of poverty than the French-speaking majority in Quebec, as well as all other OLMCs across the country.

More specifically, our analysis of the new 2021 census data shows that English speakers had an unemployment rate of 10.9%, which is four percentage points higher than that of Quebec’s French speakers at 6.9%. English speakers also earn a median employment income that is $5,200 lower than French speakers. These gaps in unemployment and income have been present and growing since at least 2001, and have effectively doubled between 2016 and 2021. A deeper dive into unemployment and income data shows that there are disparities even within the English-speaking community, with English speakers living in the regions, as well as visible minorities, immigrants, first nations and Inuit, experiencing worse outcomes.

While the myth of the wealthy Quebec anglophone persists, the realities on the ground are very different. We see high levels of income disparity within Quebec's English community and disproportionately higher rates of poverty compared to French speakers: 10% versus 5.8%. Despite representing only 14.9% of Quebec's population, the English-speaking community accounts for nearly one-quarter, 23%, of the nearly 450,000 Quebeckers living in poverty.

The data is pretty stark. The English-speaking community in Quebec faces important economic challenges, and these challenges are a threat to its continued vitality in the province.

To find appropriate solutions, however, it's important to understand why English speakers have been falling behind in recent years. The research we have done thus far has helped us to identify three main barriers to employment driving the downward economic trends for our community: first, a lack of access to specialized and targeted English-language employment services; second, an ineffective French-language learning system, particularly for adults in the labour market, and the lack of diverse programs offered to support the language-learning needs of individuals in key professions; and lastly, a lack of access to English-language skills training programs due to the limited availability of these programs across the province, particularly in the regions. Data shows, for example, that English speakers complete vocational and technical training programs at less than half the rate of francophones, at 6.2% versus 13.2%, limiting their ability to participate in in-demand trades and careers in Quebec.

As you all know, employment is an area of shared jurisdiction. As such, we believe that to effectively address the challenges and begin to reverse the worrying employment and economic vitality trends we’ve outlined, governments across all jurisdictions need to work together in a collaborative and coordinated way.

The first steps in doing this work involve recognizing employment as a cornerstone of economic development and community vitality in the English-speaking community of Quebec, and developing a strategy that prioritizes impact and accountability; improving the relationship between federal institutions and the English-speaking community in Quebec concerning economic development; ensuring coordination and co-operation between the federal government, particularly Canadian Heritage and ESDC, and the provincial government in areas of shared jurisdiction; investing in research on the employment and economic development of the English-speaking community; and developing a pan-Canadian plan to strengthen investments in free and accessible adult French-language training programs.

Over the last three years, PERT has built a robust and diverse network of partners whose perspectives and expertise drive our capacity to develop solutions to the problems I have outlined today. We are especially proud of our partnership with the Regional Development Network and YES, an employment organization in Montreal with which we've deployed a French-language confidence-building program for jobseekers across the province.

Nevertheless, all of our members and stakeholders stand ready to work with all levels of government to develop and implement innovative solutions that will help address our community's employment challenges. The one missing piece we require to put our vision in place is adequate and sustainable government investment.

Thank you for your time.

I would be pleased to answer your questions in French, as best I can.

[The Chair, Liberal, René Arseneault]

Thank you, Mr. Salter.

Here on Parliament Hill, you can feel free to speak in one or both official languages. Feel free to talk in English or in French.

We will now begin the first round.

Each party will have six minutes to question the witnesses, beginning with the Conservative Party, as we always do.

Mr. Généreux will start things off. I will be enforcing the six-minute time limit.

[Bernard Généreux, Conservative, Montmagny—L'Islet—Kamouraska—Rivière-du-Loup, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you to the witnesses. It's very good of them to be here today.

Ms. Enayeh and Ms. Boutiyeb, what do you think of the fact that the government hasn't done more to recognize the work of francophone women all over the country? Is that how you feel?

[Soukaina Boutiyeb]

Thank you for your question, Mr. Généreux.

In Canadian society, in general, francophone and Acadian women tend to be overlooked. What we want and need tends to be overlooked as well. That's a reality we face.

The National Action Plan to End Gender-Based Violence illustrates that reality, which we've talked a lot about. The purpose of the action plan is to eliminate violence. The reality, though, in provinces and territories is that services for francophone and Acadian women are a luxury. No service to end gender-based violence by and for francophone women exists.

There is no trace of francophone women in the national action plan, so there is still a long way to go.

[Bernard Généreux, Conservative, Montmagny—L'Islet—Kamouraska—Rivière-du-Loup, QC]

The action plan for official languages 2023‑2028 sets out funding for all of French-speaking Canada outside Quebec, in every area, and, in theory, that includes francophone women.

Have you seen any of that money since the spring?

[Soukaina Boutiyeb]

No, not since the spring.

Nevertheless, for the first time—at least since I've been on the job—the official languages action plan recognizes the role of women in language transmission and community vitality. We see it as a step forward, and we take great pride in it. We will see how that translates into funding.

Another important thing to remember is that not all of our member organizations receive core funding. We represent 15 organizations across the country. There are no such organizations in the Northwest Territories, Newfoundland and Labrador or Nunavut because there is no funding.

[Bernard Généreux, Conservative, Montmagny—L'Islet—Kamouraska—Rivière-du-Loup, QC]

How much core funding do you receive or normally receive? What are you expecting given the latest funding announcements?

[Soukaina Boutiyeb]

Not all women's organizations receive core funding, as I said. Some receive very little of what they actually need. Some of our member organizations might receive $40,000 a year, say. That doesn't cover much.

Generally speaking, our in‑house research shows that an organization needs at least $350,000 a year to pay an employee and an executive director, and to cover all the other resources it needs to support its core activities. That depends on the organization's mandate, for instance, whether it serves women directly or does advocacy work. On the whole, however, an organization needs at least $350,000 a year.

[Bernard Généreux, Conservative, Montmagny—L'Islet—Kamouraska—Rivière-du-Loup, QC]

Are you talking about how much funding your national organization needs? You said you had 15 member organizations in Canada.

[Soukaina Boutiyeb]

I'm talking about organizations in each province. The Alliance des femmes de la francophonie canadienne is a national organization that represents provincial and local organizations.

We have an organization in Manitoba, called Pluri-elles. It provides direct services to women in Winnipeg.

We have an organization in New Brunswick called Regroupement féministe du Nouveau‑Brunswick. It does advocacy work, which is a different mandate.

[Bernard Généreux, Conservative, Montmagny—L'Islet—Kamouraska—Rivière-du-Loup, QC]

If I understand correctly, yours is a national organization, and you have 15 provincial and local organizations relying on you.

How much do you receive in annual funding?

[Soukaina Boutiyeb]

If memory serves me correctly, the Department of Canadian Heritage gives us $342,100.

[Bernard Généreux, Conservative, Montmagny—L'Islet—Kamouraska—Rivière-du-Loup, QC]

Do you think each of the 15 provincial organizations should receive the same amount?

[Soukaina Boutiyeb]

The Alliance des femmes de la francophonie canadienne should receive a lot more than that, since it has a national mandate, but yes, the provincial organizations need at least $350,000 to operate.

[Bernard Généreux, Conservative, Montmagny—L'Islet—Kamouraska—Rivière-du-Loup, QC]

In the action plan for official languages 2023‑2028, the government allocated an overall amount. You said that the plan was a step forward because the government had given the matter some thought and included the word “women”. If I understand correctly, though, it did not tie any funding specifically to francophone women's issues.

[Soukaina Boutiyeb]

Not as of yet. We are waiting to see how the money will be allocated.

[Bernard Généreux, Conservative, Montmagny—L'Islet—Kamouraska—Rivière-du-Loup, QC]

All right, but how do you see yourselves fitting into the overall funding?

Are you looking at how it might be possible to access more money through the Department of Canadian Heritage directly or through other national organizations?

[Soukaina Boutiyeb]

Through other organizations. It's important to keep in mind that the Department of Canadian Heritage isn't the only partner in the official languages action plan. Other departments have a role as well.

As the president mentioned in her opening statement, one of our recommendations calls for every department that provides funding to the public to automatically allocate core funding to francophone women's organizations.

Oftentimes, that is overlooked at the end of the process.

That is why we have made it one of our recommendations today.