Official Languages Committee on Feb. 15th, 2024

[Madeleine Arbez]

That is an excellent question.

Manitoba’s French–Language Services Policy is based on active offer. Selected ministerial services are those that serve the public, the greatest possible number of francophones, if you will. It is also based on the number of people demanding services in French.

The problem is that many people in our official language minority communities don’t demand their services in French, especially outside of urban centres. We’re working a lot on that aspect. We often meet with representatives of the Francophone Affairs Secretariat, the person responsible for language services, as well as other government representatives.

That said, there is broad recognition of the value of French on an economic level and within Manitoba’s community. There is also the fact that our organization was created by municipalities, which also created 15 bilingual municipalities.

More and more municipalities are inviting us to come and give a presentation on the way to become a bilingual municipality, including structure, bylaws, status and an operating process that is, in fact, the first in Canada.

[Francis Drouin, Liberal, Glengarry—Prescott—Russell, ON]

Very well.

I come from a family that worked on the municipal level. When it comes to Bill 8, the Ontario French-Language Services Act, my father always said he represented an 80% francophone municipality. But when it came time to endorse Bill 8, not every municipality did so.

[Madeleine Arbez]

Yes.

[Francis Drouin, Liberal, Glengarry—Prescott—Russell, ON]

He always told me that the way he spoke to mayors was important. He would ask them if, in their opinion, he should speak only French to the linguistic minority in his municipality, meaning the 20% of anglophones. That is more or less how he managed to convince other mayors.

The threshold is important. How many francophones do your bilingual municipalities represent, on average? Are they the majority or the minority?

[Madeleine Arbez]

No, francophones in these municipalities are all in a minority situation. Even in Winnipeg, which is included in the bilingual municipalities, they are a minority. Indeed, it is a first.

I will give you an example. In one of the municipalities that invited us, the people were all anglophones. They told us they wanted to become a bilingual municipality. They recognized that they had francophone colleagues and neighbours, as well as francophone businesses serving clients and offering opportunities.

[Francis Drouin, Liberal, Glengarry—Prescott—Russell, ON]

I see.

Mr. Gauthier, as a Franco-Ontarian, I’m not ignoring you. My colleague will ask you some questions.

Mr. Afane, in the Northwest Territories, offering services in French and serving francophones must be quite a challenge. In such a vast territory, how do you manage to offer services to your fellow citizens, to the public you represent?

[Francois Afane]

Thank you for the question.

We are trying to do the best we can with the resources we have. The territory is indeed vast. We therefore work with organizations or stakeholders on the ground and, as much as possible with the means we have, we travel. I must admit it’s a constant challenge, because we are more concentrated in Yellowknife. In fact, 40% of the population is concentrated in Yellowknife, unfortunately. We still want to deploy our efforts into communities.

[The Chair, Liberal, René Arseneault]

There are 30 seconds left.

[The Chair, Liberal, René Arseneault]

Thank you very much, Mr. Afane.

[Francis Drouin, Liberal, Glengarry—Prescott—Russell, ON]

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, René Arseneault]

Thank you, Mr. Drouin.

We are now leaving the rural regions to go to the tip of the island of Montreal.

Mr. Beaulieu, you have the floor for five minutes.

[Mario Beaulieu, Bloc, La Pointe-de-l'Île, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I thank all the witnesses for being here today.

Mr. Afane, in the handout we received, it says the goal of your organization is to ensure the francophonie’s economic development in your territory.

You said you offer services in all languages, in all communities.

Could you tell us a little bit more about that?

Are you actually serving the francophonie or, in the end, is it really something else?

[Francois Afane]

Thank you very much, Mr. Beaulieu.

As an organization, we are vigorous advocates for French.

If you want a service offered in French, give it to a francophone organization, because it will be sure to protect French while meeting the needs of the anglophone majority community.

If you give the service to an anglophone organization, French just becomes something pushed off to the side.

As a francophone organization, we have employability and business start-up skills. We made a place for ourselves on the market, which makes us a competent organization to serve the francophone community.

Given the shortfalls observed within the community, members of the anglophone community started to communicate with us to say they would also like to benefit from our services.

Nonetheless, at the base, we remain a francophone organization that cares deeply about defending francophones. We are mandated to do so, but we also support anglophone organizations and employers.

How do we do that? For example, we recommend francophone workers to anglophone employers, telling them that the workers are French-speaking and we suggest hiring them.

We publish job offers and support employers so that they recruit French-speaking workers. It helps increase the pool of francophones in our community.

[Mario Beaulieu, Bloc, La Pointe-de-l'Île, QC]

Do you think there are businesses where the language of work is mainly French?

[Francois Afane]

There are a few, but I must admit there are not many.

Within their team, some entrepreneurs work in French. However, when they have to work with clients, they do so in English. An entrepreneur who only works with francophones won’t have a huge bottom line, because there are not many francophones in the community. We barely represent 10% or 15% of the population.

[Mario Beaulieu, Bloc, La Pointe-de-l'Île, QC]

That is probably the first official language spoken.

I will now turn to Mr. Gauthier.

You said that Greater Sudbury is 22% francophone. That means French is pretty much a minority.

You also said there is no university created by and for francophones.

Could you tell us more about that?

Do you think it’s important for Sudbury to have a university created by and for francophones?

Would that help francophone economic development in Greater Sudbury?

[Marc Gauthier]

Yes, that aspect is important and would help us.

As our local university, the University of Sudbury, is bilingual, the priorities of the majority often take precedence over those of the minority.

Unfortunately, as a result of its financial problems, the University of Sudbury invoked the CCAA, the Companies' Creditors Arrangement Act. Several French language programs were eliminated, even though they were viable.

We would like to restore our economic leverage. As francophones, we want francophones, for and with francophones, to choose the interesting programs we should be offering. That would make us a more prominent and stronger economic stakeholder in our community.

It would also enable us to retain our young people.

Currently, we've been losing young francophones who have been going to Ottawa, where there is another bilingual university, the University of Ottawa.

Many young people have left the region, and those who leave our region often don't come back. There lies the danger, because we want to keep our young people here.

Moreover, if we had more control over the services we can provide, we could attract more francophone immigrants.

[Mario Beaulieu, Bloc, La Pointe-de-l'Île, QC]

I was somewhat surprised to learn that Greater Sudbury's population is is 22% francophone. Are they concentrated in certain neighbourhoods?

[Marc Gauthier]

Sudbury does indeed made up of 22% francophones, with 30% of the population reporting that they are bilingual.

Greater Sudbury is a city that was amalgamated quite a few years ago, and the concentration of francophones is higher in certain areas like La Vallée and Chelmsford.

[The Chair, Liberal, René Arseneault]

Thank you, Mr. Gauthier and Mr. Beaulieu.

We are now leaving Montreal Island and heading for northern Manitoba.

Ms. Ashton, the floor is yours for five minutes.

[Niki Ashton, NDP, Churchill—Keewatinook Aski, MB]

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.

I'd like to thank the witnesses from Manitoba and elsewhere.

Good morning, Ms. Arbez. I'll start the conversation with you. We all know about the very important work being done by the EDCM here in Manitoba, and how you've been working very closely with our communities.

There's been a great deal of talk about this study on ways of ensuring successful economic development in our francophone communities. But it's important to mention the challenges as well. You said that circumstances in rural and remote communities were somewhat different and that these communities needed recognition and support in ways that would address their needs.

In committee, we've heard several times that one of the challenges was the long-term retention of young people and young families in our communities. We also heard about labour shortages in early childhood and education, factors that have a considerable impact on a family's decision as to whether or not to stay in the community to contribute to its economic development.

Could you tell us what you think about this? Are labour shortages in early childhood and education a barrier to economic development?

Should we be looking for solutions in this area, with federal government support of course?

[Madeleine Arbez]

Yes, definitely. The labour shortage is a key factor, together with affordable housing and other factors which we feel are barriers, along with others that need improvement if we are to retain and attract new residents. We need them in these communities.

We are currently conducting a survey with the municipalities to measure the severity of the labour shortage in child care centres. It's a key factor, along with health care and education. It also affects basic services. Sometimes people sell their business, and their children don't want to take it over. These are assets we don't want to lose, because these businesses provide critical services to their communities.

Our economic immigration strategy and our field work have led us to make an effort to accurately identify what is happening in each municipality so that a list of positions that need to be filled can be drawn up. That would go hand-in-hand with our immigration targets and our objectives for the number of workers we would like to recruit every day in Manitoba. I wouldn't say it's a solution, but it's one of the options for dealing with this shortfall, based on a priority list of course, and the urgency of each situation.

[Niki Ashton, NDP, Churchill—Keewatinook Aski, MB]

Okay. Thank you very much.

I'm going to change to another topic that is relevant to our discussion of the challenges.

Here in Manitoba, we know the degree to which francophone international students contribute to our institutions and our communities, in both the short and long term. A few weeks ago, the Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship announced that he was going to have to limit the number of international students. We have not yet seen an exemption for francophone international students in acknowledgement of the fact that the reality is different in this area.

Do you think francophone communities in Manitoba are worried about this announcement?

Do you think they feel that attracting francophone students is a part of their future, not only for economic development, but also in general?

[The Chair, Liberal, René Arseneault]

There are 20 seconds left.

[Madeleine Arbez]

You're right, Ms. Ashton. It became clear that for francophone mobility, it was essential to place a priority on francophone workers. And francophone students are the first to enter the recruitment pool.

We are therefore concerned about this decision and its implications for both the Université de Saint-Boniface and for the recruitment of francophone students.