Mr. Chairman, members of the Standing Committee on Official Languages, good afternoon.
My name is Louis-Philippe Gauthier and I am the President of the Conseil économique du Nouveau-Brunswick.
The Conseil économique du Nouveau-Brunswick represents approximately 1,000 members in or related to the francophone business community in our province. As a leader in this lively and dynamic community, the Conseil économique du Nouveau-Brunswick is very much interested in matters that reflect the vitality of official language minority communities. In addition to its role as a catalyst and promoter of the interests of the francophone business community in New Brunswick, the Conseil économique is also the organization delegated by the Réseau de développement économique et d'employabilité du Nouveau-Brunswick, which is usually called the New Brunswick RDÉE.
That said, you will therefore understand our deep concerns over the recent cuts and the disappearance of various government programs, which are necessary not only for the growth and development of minority official language communities, but also for the whole country.
We feel that decisions concerning these programs and initiatives should not be made on the basis of monetary calculations alone, but also factor in the outcomes and their effects on our communities. We believe that the savings made will never be able to offset the enormous social and economic costs that will result from these cuts to programs that have a major impact on the rights and the development of official language communities.
Today, I would like to draw your attention specifically to the elimination of the Court Challenges Program and the massive cuts to a number of literacy programs. I will then draw your attention to the renewal of the RDÉE financing agreement in order to ensure that it can continue. It is important to remmember that the RDÉE plays a very important role in the economic development of minority official language communities.
To begin with,the Conseil économique du Nouveau-Brunswick is very worried about the elimination of the Court Challenges Program. Indeed, the Conseil économique is worried about the government's interpretation of the program, as it seems to perceive these cuts as a way of implying that citizens are getting more for their money.
Our question is how the minority official language communities are going to get more for their money when the Court Challenges Program disappears. Since its establishment in 1978, the program has ensured that the rights of many official language communities in Canada have been able to enforce their rights, and we are very worried about future positions that the government will take further to this decision.
Given that the committee has decided to make the vitality of official language minority communities the topic of discussion for this meeting, we believe that it is useful to point out to committee members that this vitality cannot be assured without the tools, programs and initiatives needed to promote the vitality and development of these communities, as well as respect for their fundamental rights .
Although it is more difficult to estimate the social and economic costs of eliminating the Court Challenges Program, the same cannot be said about what will happen as a result of the cuts to literacy. The Fédération canadienne pour l'alphabétisation en français recently pointed out that these cuts would have a serious long-term impact on the development of francophone and Acadian communities in Canada:
The most recent International Adult Literacy and Skills Survey revealed that the average literacy rate among francophones was below that for anglophones in all regions of Canada. More than half the Canadian adult francophone population had serious trouble understanding what they were reading.
Illiteracy has a direct impact on our businesses and their development. The lower birth rate, together with the exodus and aging of our populations, have a direct impact on rural regions and on official language minority communities. These factors reduce access to qualified workers who have key skills, including reading, writing and understanding. It is therefore essential to maintain these literacy programs for the labour force for the good of our economy.