Canadian Heritage Committee on June 7th, 2018

[Alupa Clarke, Conservative, Beauport—Limoilou, QC]

My first question is really diplomatic in nature. It concerns an interesting debate for all the founding peoples, which I love, as you know.

Yesterday, the Prime Minister confirmed that he was going to modernize the Official Languages Act, but the question is whether that will be done before the election. Can you tell us about that?

[Sean Casey, Liberal, Charlottetown, PE]

I have a point of order, Madam Chair.

Questions must be related to the main estimates, which is not the case of Mr. Clarke's question. There has to be a connection.

[Alupa Clarke, Conservative, Beauport—Limoilou, QC]

Yes, I understand.

Madam Chair, I have enormous respect for Mr. Casey. We know each other well. However, the Prime Minister made an incredible announcement yesterday. The Fédération des communautés francophones et acadienne, the FCFA, the Société de l'Acadie du Nouveau-Brunswick, the SANB, and other organizations want to know whether that will be done before the election.

Do you want to answer that, Minister?

[The Chair, Liberal, Julie Dabrusin]

Mr. Clarke, can you establish a connection with the main estimates?

[Alupa Clarke, Conservative, Beauport—Limoilou, QC]

All the other questions concern the main estimates.

Does the minister want to answer or not?

[The Chair, Liberal, Julie Dabrusin]

I'm simply asking you to make a connection with the main estimates.

[Mélanie Joly, Liberal, Ahuntsic-Cartierville, QC]

It's up to the chair, not me, to decide whether the question is admissible.

[Alupa Clarke, Conservative, Beauport—Limoilou, QC]

Several sections of the Official Languages act, including section 7, provide for positive measures. However, section 7 is not detailed and specific enough for judges to be able to grant positive measures, which, of course, require federal spending. If we want to reform the act, we must focus on section 7 in particular. That's very important. There has been one case, in British Columbia, in which a judge was unable to find in favour of the francophones.

Does the Prime Minister intend to examine the problem before the next election as it relates to the main estimates?

[Mélanie Joly, Liberal, Ahuntsic-Cartierville, QC]

My dear colleague, I don't think that's related to the main estimates, but, since you are in good faith and positive announcements have been made, I will be pleased to answer you. I will also relate my answer to the main estimates.

In budget 2018, we announced the largest reinvestment in official languages history, a sum of $1.7 billion over five years. We're talking about an excellent action plan for official languages. However, as we know, the communities across the country, particularly the francophone communities, will be facing enormous challenges and serious assimilation risks. Consequently, this action plan contains the following good news.

First, the basic budgets of all official language organizations will be increased. Second, there will be a first national strategy to integrate francophone immigration into the official language minority communities outside Quebec. Third, there will be an early childhood support strategy to assist francophone children in promptly attending French-language child care centres and, subsequently, French-language schools. We will also be assisting the provinces in recruiting more French teachers. There is a shortage of French teachers across the country.

[Alupa Clarke, Conservative, Beauport—Limoilou, QC]

That's good.

[Mélanie Joly, Liberal, Ahuntsic-Cartierville, QC]

In that action plan for official languages, we will acknowledge for the first time—and this is the Trudeau government's new vision—that collective rights are extremely important. With an individualistic vision of official languages, we recognize language rights and bilingualism in the public service. However, now we will focus on the sustainability of the minority language communities. If we don't support the vitality of the official language communities, we won't be able to establish genuine bilingualism across the country.

I've spoken many times with the FCFA people, my cabinet colleagues, and the Prime Minister. We feel we can still do better on official languages, and we're still prepared to listen to good recommendations, particularly those of the Senate and the FCFA, for modernizing the act, which needs to be modernized.

[Alupa Clarke, Conservative, Beauport—Limoilou, QC]

Thank you very much, Minister.

On page 2 of your speaking notes, you say something I consider very important: "And, so that our creators and creative industries can be promoted and supported internationally, we are allocating $125 million over five years to Canada's first-ever Creative Export Strategy."

I do a lot of door-to-door work, and my fellow citizens often ask me questions about spending on this Canadian creative export strategy. How did your trip to South Korea help you refine that plan? Can you give us some examples of how your diplomatic meetings contributed to the plan?

[Mélanie Joly, Liberal, Ahuntsic-Cartierville, QC]

I'll be very frank, Mr. Clarke. Your former government, the Harper government, made massive cuts to arts and culture, particularly to cultural export programs.

Many representatives of the artistic community are here today. Remember the demonstrations that took place, in Quebec, in particular, in 2008, when those cuts were made. The cuts also hit our public broadcaster, CBC/Radio-Canada, very hard and left it more vulnerable.

We are developing a new cultural export strategy by drawing on the best models from other countries, particularly South Korea, France, and Great Britain. Unlike the Conservatives, we believe in the importance of the cultural sector as a vector of identity and protection for the French language. In addition, the sector has economic value: it represents $55 billion and 630,000 jobs in Canada.

We must establish new programs that will have a beneficial impact as a result of the thousands of jobs they create. I will have an opportunity to announce this cultural export strategy in the coming months.

I also had a chance to meet with the minister from South Korea.

[Alupa Clarke, Conservative, Beauport—Limoilou, QC]

Did you talk about what we should do?

[Mélanie Joly, Liberal, Ahuntsic-Cartierville, QC]

He told us that South Korea decided 20 years ago to invest in a cultural export strategy and that now, as a result of those investments, his country had become a cultural and entertainment giant. It is a much smaller country than China or Asia in terms of population, and yet it has managed to capture a large piece of the pie.

[Alupa Clarke, Conservative, Beauport—Limoilou, QC]

Thank you. I would like to ask you one final question.

The supplementary estimates provide for $14.53 million over five years—thank heaven—to assist community radio stations and media in the official language minority communities, the OLMCs.

We do a lot of talking in the Standing Committee on Official languages. Would you agree that a portion of that amount should immediately be sent to those organizations? We know the funding won't be available for a few months.

When those organizations appeared before this committee, they told us they were about to shut down. Would you be prepared to make an effort and immediately allocate $2 million to those organizations on an urgent basis?

[The Chair, Liberal, Julie Dabrusin]

We don't have a lot of time left, Minister. Please answer briefly.

[Mélanie Joly, Liberal, Ahuntsic-Cartierville, QC]

No investments were made in official languages for 10 years. Our government has decided to invest $1.7 billion in this sector. This will be the first time official language minority community media and radio stations have had access to funding. We have heard their concerns, and we acknowledge that urgent action is required. We'll be working with them to that end.

[The Chair, Liberal, Julie Dabrusin]

I see that

the bells are ringing. The lights have just gone on.

I will need unanimous consent to continue. What I would recommend is that we let Monsieur Nantel get in his seven minutes and then break after that, just so that everyone gets a chance to ask their questions. Would that be agreeable to everyone at the table?

[Some hon. members]

Agreed.

[The Chair, Liberal, Julie Dabrusin]

Thanks.

Go ahead, Monsieur Nantel.

[Pierre Nantel, NDP, Longueuil—Saint-Hubert, QC]

Thank you very much, Madam Chair.

Minister, you've been conducting consultations for two years, one month, and 16 days. In April 2016, you said in an interview with La Presse that, following those consultations, legislative changes would be made in 2017.

Can you confirm for us today that there will be no reform during your mandate before 2020?

[Mélanie Joly, Liberal, Ahuntsic-Cartierville, QC]

This week, my colleague and I announced a major reform of the Broadcasting Act and Telecommunications Act. This is a historic announcement in itself because the federal government has acknowledged for the first time that the Internet giants and the various players in the digital field will have to contribute to Canadian content.

It took seven years for the first Broadcasting Act to be created. Broadcasting and telecommunications in Canada represent a $66 billion system and hundreds of thousands of jobs. We necessarily want to present a good act that will have positive impact and address four objectives: to make the Internet giants contribute; to revise the mandate of CBC/Radio-Canada, which is stated in the Broadcasting Act; to revise the mandate of the CRTC, which is also stated in that act; and to support local news. According to the Broadcasting Act, broadcasters have an obligation to support the news.

[Pierre Nantel, NDP, Longueuil—Saint-Hubert, QC]

Thank you very much.

[Mélanie Joly, Liberal, Ahuntsic-Cartierville, QC]

We have established an excellent panel of experts on the issue, which includes Monique Simard, Peter S. Grant, who has written a book on broadcasting, Janet Yale, and Pierre Trudel.