Thank you, Mr. Chair. Good afternoon, everyone.
Mr. Chair, members of the committee, thank you for inviting the Fédération des communautés francophones et acadienne du Canada to outline the priorities of francophones in minority situations in nine provinces and three territories with respect to the upcoming federal budget.
Established in 1975, the FCFA is the main voice of the 2.6 million French-speaking Canadians who are living in a minority situation in the country. In the brief we submitted last August, we presented six very specific recommendations. Those recommendations are the following: include the funding for the next official languages plan in the 2017 budget; also include in the budget an increase in Canadian Heritage's funding envelope for francophone organizations and institutions; provide support for French-language skills development and training; implement measures to promote the employment of young francophones; establish a strategy for supporting francophone community media; and establish a real coordinated national strategy for high-speed Internet access.
We made those recommendations while recognizing the social, cultural and economic value of the francophone communities we represent. Building the capacities of organizations, infrastructure, services and resources in French in our communities is essential if we want those communities to continue being the champions of promoting French, as they currently are.
When our organizations don't have the resources to keep up with the growing demand for services in French, our communities become weakened. When kindergartens in French are unavailable, our children end up in English kindergartens, and they often attend English school after that. When our community radio stations and newspapers don't have the means to go digital, thousands of francophones must turn to English-language media for information about their community.
When the social infrastructure in our communities, such as our cultural or community centres, is inadequate, and when there's a lack of resources to offer French-language programming, it's a missed opportunity for Canadians who have gone through French immersion to practice and experience the language in everyday life. Thus, it's a missed opportunity for linguistic duality.
This may seem big, but the message I want to communicate today is that support for the vitality and development of minority francophone communities, as required by the Official Languages Act, can often be done through existing envelopes and investments.
More specifically, the Government of Canada announced, in its winter 2016 budget, significant investments for infrastructure, digitization, early childhood and youth employment. Those are meaningful actions and solid priorities. However, the one fact that a federal program is open to all Canadians, in both official languages, does not mean that minority francophone communities will benefit. An initiative designed for the majority may well not benefit the minority, unless the government includes special measures for that minority.
I will give you an example. When it invests in infrastructure, the Government of Canada generally deals with the provinces, territories or municipalities. But given their minority status, our communities all too often escape the attention of those levels of government. However, for us, infrastructure funding can mean community centres that have been renovated or have been better adapted to francophones' needs. It can also mean French-language kindergartens that, as the Commissioner of Official Languages was once again saying a few weeks ago, are a critical need in several parts of the country, or cellular coverage and high-speed Internet services, which currently don't exist in communities such as Port-au-Port, in Newfoundland and Labrador.
So the federal government could truly change things for our communities by reviewing investments in social infrastructure and by adding measures adapted to the realities of minority francophone communities. For example, a small percentage of those investments could be invested directly under agreements between the federal government and the communities. Similarly, the government could create mechanisms using the investments for the youth employment strategy, announced in the latest budget, so that young people from francophone and Acadian communities can benefit.
The most important thing is that the government use various levers through different federal institutions to support the vitality and development of minority francophone communities.
Thank you. I am ready to answer your questions.