Government Operations Committee on March 1st, 2022

[Mona Fortier, Liberal, Ottawa—Vanier, ON]

I did have the privilege of answering that in the House, MP McCauley. Thank you for your question. Maybe I'll send you a letter.

[The Chair, Conservative, Robert Gordon Kitchen]

If you could respond to that question in writing, that would be appreciated, Minister.

[Mona Fortier, Liberal, Ottawa—Vanier, ON]

Yes. I will respond in a letter.

[The Chair, Conservative, Robert Gordon Kitchen]

Thank you, Minister.

We'll now go to Mr. Housefather—unless he wants to ask the question and get the answer.

Mr. Housefather, you have five minutes.

[Anthony Housefather, Liberal, Mount Royal, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Minister, it is a great pleasure to have you with us today.

I am going to ask you a question about a subject that is dear to your heart.

We both have minority language communities in our ridings. I know that reform of the Official Languages Act is important to you.

The new bill that has been introduced would give you more powers. I am going to read paragraph (k) from the summary of the bill:

Part 1 amends the Official Languages Act to, among other things, (k) provide that the Treasury Board is required to establish policies to give effect to certain parts of that Act, monitor and audit federal institutions for their compliance with policies, directives and regulations relating to the official languages, evaluate the effectiveness and efficiency of policies and programs of federal institutions relating to the official languages and provide certain information to the public and to employees of federal institutions;

You are now going to have a lot of powers.

What are you going to do with them?

[Mona Fortier, Liberal, Ottawa—Vanier, ON]

Thank you for the question, which I am very pleased to answer today.

As you know, the introduction of Bill C‑13 to modernize the Official Languages Act is important to me, because the Act has not been modernized in 50 years. We are getting to it today. I am very happy that this bill has been introduced and I hope it will be passed quickly.

As part of this modernization, the role of Treasury Board is going to change; it will take on the role of central agent and will have greater powers to oversee and enforce the Act. That will also enable us at Treasury Board to see how we can improve the service provided to Canadians in terms of official languages.

[Anthony Housefather, Liberal, Mount Royal, QC]

I am going to come back to Ms. Vignola's question. It seems to me that you will have more powers in relation to departments that are more recalcitrant, or less effective, at making sure their employees are bilingual and ensuring bilingualism in the services offered to the public. Is that correct?

[Mona Fortier, Liberal, Ottawa—Vanier, ON]

We were already able to do that, but now we will have to do it. That will give us an important tool for making sure that the departments that are already making efforts in connection with the Official Languages Act but have shortcomings in that regard are able to rectify those shortcomings.

[Anthony Housefather, Liberal, Mount Royal, QC]

I have another brief question on the same subject. You are undoubtedly aware of the judgment concerning British Columbia that held that services will be given in French in that province in the case of powers delegated to the provinces by the federal government.

Will that give Treasury Board the power to ensure that the agreements signed with the provinces and territories include provisions requiring that they enforce the Official Languages Act within their governments?

[Mona Fortier, Liberal, Ottawa—Vanier, ON]

When the federal government signs agreements with the provincial and territorial governments, one of the things it ensures is that services are provided to minority communities. In this case, since it is a court judgment, I am working with Mr. Lametti to see what the government's response to this will be and how we can best play our role in connection with agreements with the provinces and territories.

[Anthony Housefather, Liberal, Mount Royal, QC]

Fantastic. I'll also just say in English that I'm very pleased about that, because I know you'll do a lot with those powers.

Can I just ask one more question? We're all looking for more diversity, more inclusivity in the federal workplaces. Could you talk to us a little bit about what you are doing in that regard?

[Mona Fortier, Liberal, Ottawa—Vanier, ON]

As you know, diversity and inclusion are a very important initiative that the Treasury Board is working on, and we're always committed to this effort. We continue to bring forward steps to remove discrimination from our institutions, to improve the experience of public servants, and to ensure that they're able to realize their full potential.

What have we done? We've created the Office of Public Service Accessibility and the first accessibility strategy for the public service of Canada. We also committed to meeting or exceeding the requirements of the new Accessible Canada Act, which sets out the legal requirements for accessibility for all federally regulated businesses.

I'm sure we can continue that conversation on how we're making sure diversity and inclusion are part of our public—

[Anthony Housefather, Liberal, Mount Royal, QC]

Thank you so much.

[The Chair, Conservative, Robert Gordon Kitchen]

Thank you, Mr. Housefather.

We'll now go to Mrs. Vignola for two and a half minutes.

[Julie Vignola, Bloc, Beauport—Limoilou, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Supplementary Estimates (C), 2021‑22, contains 46 horizontal items, which is gigantic. That is not necessarily bad news, because it means that the departments are collaborating with one another. I was pleased with some of those government items, but I also found them shocking.

That is the case for the following horizontal item in particular. Out of $654 million, $647 million is going to the Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development for operating expenses relating to climate change mitigation measures in developing countries. So $647 million is going to that department for operating expenses—that's fine—but also for grants and contributions for international climate finance mechanisms and financial institutions, and projects to promote adaptation to climate change and development of governance capacity.

I have to say that I wondered. I mean, $647 million out of $654 million is really a big piece of the pie. I wondered what proportion of that $647 million was allocated to international financial mechanisms and financial institutions in comparison to the proportion allocated to the projects themselves. I didn't know that international financial institutions needed grants and contributions from Canada. That was a surprise to me.

When we talk about development of governance capacity, whose capacity is that, and for what?

[Mona Fortier, Liberal, Ottawa—Vanier, ON]

You have given me an opportunity to reiterate that Canada recognizes that climate change is a global problem that calls for solutions at a planetary scale. This funding will increase support to developing countries, as you have probably seen in the plan...

[Julie Vignola, Bloc, Beauport—Limoilou, QC]

That's what I said.

[Mona Fortier, Liberal, Ottawa—Vanier, ON]

... so they are able to transition to low carbon emission economies...

[Julie Vignola, Bloc, Beauport—Limoilou, QC]

My question is about the financial mechanisms.

[Mona Fortier, Liberal, Ottawa—Vanier, ON]

... and seize opportunities to mitigate those changes, as Canada and all countries of the world must do.

I can ask the officials in my department to give you more precise answers to your questions. If we don't have all the answers, we will send them to you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Robert Gordon Kitchen]

Thank you.

If you can provide that information—

[Mona Fortier, Liberal, Ottawa—Vanier, ON]

We will. I don't have it off the top of my head.

[The Chair, Conservative, Robert Gordon Kitchen]

Please provide it to the clerk and we will get that. Thank you.

We'll now go to Mr. Johns for two and a half minutes.

[Gord Johns, NDP, Courtenay—Alberni, BC]

Minister, we all heard the alarming report yesterday from the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. It cited that 40% of the global population is highly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. It urges climate adaptation investments to save lives.

There is $653 million earmarked for funding to help developing countries address the impacts of climate change. It says that money will be spent on assisting the transition to clean energy in order to support the goals of the climate agreement.

Can you break down how the money within that package is specifically being spent? For example, it says that it will invest in climate-smart agriculture. How much money will be spent on that?

[Mona Fortier, Liberal, Ottawa—Vanier, ON]

Thank you for your question. I think it resembles the questioning of MP Vignola in asking for precision on the submission.

I don't, unfortunately, know it by heart. I just know that we go through a process of receiving the submission, looking into it and making sure that we're responding to the priorities that we have set out.

If you would permit, we would send a written response to give you more details on your question.