Official Languages Committee on Nov. 8th, 2006

[The Vice-Chair, NDP, Yvon Godin]

Order.

I would like to welcome you all and thank you for being here this morning. We are the parliamentary committee on official languages, and it's a great pleasure for us to be here in Sherbrooke.

We started our tour this week in St. John's, Newfoundland. We were in Moncton yesterday, and we are here today.

Our parliamentary committee has existed for about 25 years. This is the first time the committee has made the decision to go across the country, meet people directly in the field, and look at their institutions, just to see what's happening out in the field. So far it's been very good.

Looking ahead, we have an action plan that was put together, and we want to know how the action plan is working in the communities. We want to know if you have any comments about it, if you have any proposals to give to us, and what works and doesn't work.

Our committee members this morning are Sylvie Boucher, Pierre Lemieux, and Daniel Petit, representing the government; Jean-Claude D'Amours, the official opposition; and Monsieur Guy André, representing the Bloc Québécois.

My name is Yvon Godin. I am from northeast New Brunswick, and I represent the New Democrat Party.

This morning we will start with the Community Health and Social Services Network, the Townshippers' Association, and Bishop's University.

To the three presenters, we would ask you to take ten minutes for your presentations. You might have heard three minutes, but you can take around ten. After that we'll go around the table for questions by members.

Mr. Carter.

[James Carter, Coordinator, Community Health and Social Services Network]

If we had only had three minutes, we would have been ready to limit our comments, but thank you for granting us a little extra time.

The Community Health and Social Services Network is a network made up of community organizations, public institutions and other components of the Quebec health and social services system. The network promotes partnership projects to improve access to English-language health and social services.

I am making this presentation especially to comply with the directive that the results of the federal government's investment in the area of health in Quebec be made public. I will be talking about a number of challenges and perhaps also some courses of action, or future policies that the federal government could follow up on.

I wish to thank committee members for the invitation to report to you on the results of federal investments of $26.7 million in Quebec to improve access to health services in English for Quebec's English-speaking communities. A total of $4.7 million has supported the creation of formal networks bringing English-speaking communities and service providers together. Some $10 million has led to improvement of the conditions of access to primary-level health care and social services in English. Another $12 million is building the human resources capacity of Quebec's health and social services system so serve English speakers and extend services to remote English-speaking communities through technology.

What are the specific results of the $4.7 million investment and the challenges for the future of community networks and partnerships? Ten local and regional networks have been created, as well as a provincial network of 65 organizations. I represent that network. These formal networks have brought together English-speaking communities and health and social services providers in the Gaspé, Magdalen Islands, Lower North Shore, Megantic Region, the Eastern Townships, the eastern part of Montreal and the Outaouais.

The networks have built a very sizable knowledge base leading to better identification of needs and priorities. When we talk about the networks, we also talk about the public institutions that are part of those networks. Partnerships always include the community, the public health and social services network, health and social services centres and the other public institutions that provide communities with services.

The principal challenge is sustaining these partnerships in the context of a major reorganization of the health and social services system. The health system is constantly being reorganized in Quebec, just like in other provinces, I imagine, and this poses a significant challenge for communities to fully participate in this multi-year reorganization. Quebec's new approach to service delivery has created 95 services networks to meet local needs. The current 10 local and regional partnership networks operate in about 25 per cent of the new territories.

Quebec's horizon for implementing reform extends well beyond the current Action Plan, which will end in a few months. We foresee that a federal commitment is required beyond 2007-2008 to support the current 11 networks in meeting reorganization objectives, as well as to create new networks in many vulnerable communities, which do not benefit from the current partnership investments.

The second measure deals with initiatives for improving access to primary level health care. This represents a $10 million-investment. A total of 37 public institutions upgraded their capacity to serve English-speaking people in their own language. These projects were carried out over a 15-month period, ending in March 2006. Seven projects coordinated efforts to improve the rate of use of Info-Santé, a telephone health line for English speakers. A new centralized telephone system was created in four regions thanks to the investment. It will guarantee availability of such telephone services in English across Quebec, thanks to extensive language training and translation of nursing protocols and social intervention guides.

As for other projects in this area, 25 other institutions upgraded front-line health and social services and 5 long-term care centres adapted programs to better serve the public. For instance, the institution recruited new personnel to serve English speakers, as well as volunteers from English-speaking communities. Specialized language training was given to staff members and a significant number of documents were translated for health system users.

The principal challenge will be to sustain the results of investments when the next stages of reorganization unfold. The 37 projects were completed in March 2006. There are 26 of these projects awaiting an additional investment of $3.4 million for activities to be completed by March 2007. We are about to reach agreements to ensure that Quebec receive the $3.4 million budget envelope.

Now what about the service delivery commitments? We believe that a commitment is required beyond 2006-2007 and we want to ensure that our main partner, the Quebec Ministry of Health, continues to receive a financial contribution from the Government of Canada to support its measures to improve access to services in English.

This is recurrent funding that is consistent with its multi-year reorganization plan. We do not want a project that only allows us to engage in a reorganization over a few months, and we cannot continue to reorganize if we do not have the means to adapt the public network.

Some $12 million were invested in the third measure, i.e., human resources development and distance service delivery. Last year, 1,400 French-speaking professionals working in 81 public institutions in 15 Quebec administrative regions received language training. The language training allows them to improve their capacity to serve English speakers. In 2006, another 2,000 professionals are expected to receive training courses.

Next year, some 4,000 francophone professionals in Quebec, in all administrative regions, will have received the training.

In addition, 22 innovative pilot partnerships have been struck in 14 regions to create internships to increase the number of English-language students in nursing, social work and other health-related disciplines that receive professional training in the regions.

The partnerships bring together—and this is the innovative part—English-speaking communities, French-language institutions in the regions and English-language professional degree programs. In fact, these are three-way partnerships. They are a first step to increase the number of English-speaking professionals that stay in the regions to serve communities.

Let us now look at the challenges.

I have two minutes left?

[The Vice-Chair, NDP, Yvon Godin]

Your two minutes are already up, but go ahead.

[James Carter]

Thank you. I will speed up.

The reality of system reorganization, movement of personnel and retirement indicate, in my opinion, the necessity for a long-term commitment to training and human resource development. In the 10-year health accord concluded between the federal government and the provinces, the first ministers set an objective to increase the number of health professionals serving the minority language communities in Quebec and the rest of Canada. We feel that the federal government should respect this commitment and identify the resources to be dedicated on a recurring basis for this measure.

Evidence points to continuing demographic challenges and health status inequalities in English-speaking communities. The latest census shows high rates of aging, population decline in several regions, and high rates of low-income in English-speaking communities in a number of regions. We also know that our communities will continue having difficulties as they strive to ensure their vitality. Access to the health system is a challenge shared by both the communities and the public network. There is an additional demographic challenge in many of our communities.

Our brief therefore contains several suggestions as to future federal commitments to improve access to services in our communities.

Thank you.

[The Vice-Chair, NDP, Yvon Godin]

Thank very much.

Mr. Michael Van Lierop will be the next witness.

Please give us your name and who you are representing, for the record.

[Michael Van Lierop, President, Townshippers' Association]

My name is Michael Van Lierop, and I'm the president of the Townshippers' Association.

Good morning, everyone. I would like to thank you for giving me this opportunity to talk to you today about our position regarding the 2003 action plan for official language minorities.

The Townshippers' Association is a volunteer-based, non-partisan, non-profit association. It works on behalf of some 41,000 English speakers scattered throughout a largely rural territory measuring approximately the size of Belgium. A map and background information are found in the booklet that we've given you, “Profile of the English-speaking Community in the Eastern Townships”.

In the past three decades, the size and character of the English-speaking community in the Eastern Townships has changed dramatically. It has lost about 30% of its members and now constitutes about 6% of the total population. It has a high proportion of seniors and a low proportion of youth. English speakers aged 15 to 44 have generally lower levels of education, employment, and income than their French-speaking counterparts or their English-speaking seniors.

These characteristics are key health determinants. The English-speaking community in the townships has special needs for health and social services. Social service needs for youth, for example, are acute. The youth protection office in Cowansville, for example, reports that in March 2006, just this year, 52% of its case load was English-speaking, although English speakers represent about 23% of the population in that area.

The efficacy of social services relies largely on language, in a clear and nuanced understanding.

Another area where language is a key factor in caregiving is in services for seniors, whose level of bilingualism is generally lower than that of youth.

In this context, we can give witness to the capacity of the action plan on official languages to achieve measurable and sustainable change. We have seen its effect in our community in the area of health and social services. Initiatives that the action plan brought to the area include, first of all, the health and social services networking and partnership initiative; secondly, the telehealth sessions; thirdly, primary health care initiatives; fourthly, language training for front-line health and social service providers; and finally, the development of human resources.

In the Eastern Townships, the health and social services networking and partnership initiative has permitted a development of two networks, an information and referral service, a volunteer bank, and a seniors information network. The two networks have carried out needs assessment and rallied the collaboration of service providers. They have done this by making the providers aware of the current realities of the English-speaking community and by bringing together service providers and community members to work together to improve access to services. More than eighty service providers attended a recent youth seminar about the needs of the community and also about available services.

In one year, the Townshippers' information and referral service received 150 requests from community members about health and social services. Although the services they seek may be available in English already, they are not accessible because a senior, for example, may simply not be able to locate them in the phone book. Health care providers also call asking for help to refer a client to resources in English or for English-speaking volunteers.

Other initiatives enabled by the federal action plan include translation of local health and social service documents; information sessions for seniors; mental health awareness events; and workshops. These initiatives have led to improved relationships between front-line workers and the English-speaking community as a whole. As one worker recently said, “We knew the English-speaking community had needs we weren't meeting, but we did not know how to reach the community members. Your organizing these information sessions has made this possible.”

Communication, understanding, and collaboration between service providers and members of the English-speaking community on these factors have led to improved access to services for our community. The networking and partnership initiative has also led to concrete measures to improve access. For example, two health centres have pioneered in making information available in English on their websites, and others have begun to put their English informational brochures on display.

Two elements are key to the success of these networks. First, we must receive funding for resources and coordinators who can work consistently with our partners in a way that volunteers cannot. Second, we must receive resources so that the networks are community-governed. We sincerely hope these key elements will continue to be available to us.

From our perspective, the 2003 action plan was slow in being implemented in such areas as education, economic development, and the public service. English speakers in our region have a real need for improved French language instruction in schools and for adults alike. Despite great financial constraints, the Eastern Townships School Board has increased the proportion of core courses offered in French in its schools. The action plan should be providing support for this initiative. Low-income adult English speakers do not currently have access to free or low-cost French language courses. This is desperately needed.

The townships' English-speaking community has seen an exodus of its brightest and best who seek better job prospects elsewhere. The Townshippers' Association is urgently working to improve access of English speakers to employment and entrepreneurial opportunity in our region. Until the current portrait of low education, low employment, and low income has changed, the English-speaking community cannot contribute its fair share to the economic prosperity of the Eastern Townships. Our vision is to be an economic asset to the community, rather than a burden.

The association collaborates with the Quebec Community Groups Network to encourage English speakers to apply for jobs in the federal public service of Quebec. Despite this, only 7.5% of the federal public servants in Quebec are English speaking, while it should be 12.9%. In the Eastern Townships, anecdotal reports tell us that the federal public service in our region still lacks the capacity to consistently deliver even the most basic of bilingual services. It is difficult to evaluate the federal action plan's effectiveness, however, when many of its recommendations have yet to be implemented. In the coming years, we hope to see an impact in the areas of education, economic development, and the public service.

In short, we recommend that, first of all, the 2003 action plan be renewed and be more actively supported by the Government of Canada; second, that the health and social service initiatives be continued and expanded, enabling continued community participation in these measures; and finally, that the education, economic development, and public service measures be fully implemented and the time span for this implementation be extended.

The federal action plan for official language minorities is extremely promising and has given our community very positive results where it has been implemented. However, it has been partly crippled by slowness in its implementation. We, your community partners, strive to be diligent and accountable in our use of public funds. This diligence, however, is thoroughly compromised when we are given two or three years to complete a five-year action plan. The problems the action plan addresses are very complex, as you can see, and long-term funding is necessary to resolve them.

Thank you.

[The Vice-Chair, NDP, Yvon Godin]

Ms. Garber.

[Rachel Garber, Executive Director, Townshippers' Association]

I'm with him.

[The Vice-Chair, NDP, Yvon Godin]

Then it will be Mr. Jonathan Rittenhouse.

[Dr. Jonathan Rittenhouse, Vice-Principal, Bishop's University]

Bonjour. I'm Dr. Jonathan Rittenhouse, vice-principal of Bishop's University.

As a general preamble to what I'm going to say, I would say that Bishop's has felt no direct impact from the operations of the 2003 action plan. We've felt none whatsoever. Therefore, our brief could be brief.

But I am here to talk about the past and future activities of our university and the vitality of the minority language community in Quebec. As you know, Bishop University was founded prior to Canadian Confederation and it is still, today, the main anglophone institution outside of Montreal. It is a major component of the minority community vitality in Quebec. As you also know, we are a small university but we continue to attract students from around the world.

Ten percent of our students come from over 50 countries, 45% of them from all provinces and territories of Canada, and more than 20% are francophones from Quebec. They come for our well-respected reputation as a student-focused institution, and those from away come because we are a safe and human-scaled portal into Canada and into Quebec. They come to us from Quebec because we are a safe and human-scaled portal to the rest of Canada and the world.

In our undergraduate program—and we have won awards for this category—we give our students enriching, intense and non-artificial opportunities to make contacts with a broad range of individuals and cultures.

Our Eastern Townships Research Centre has for nearly 25 years promoted the study of the region, with particular emphasis on the minority community. But as our most recent conference, held this past weekend, most clearly demonstrates--it was a conference devoted to the changing faces of our cultural communities in the region--our sense of that community in the region is open and wide.

Further, the Eastern Townships Research Centre at the university is the official repository of the archival heritage of the anglophone community, and we have collected, preserved, and made available the personal and institutional records of our region, for example, the Townshippers' Association.

For more than two generations, our education science school has played an important role in the training of teachers who have worked, and who continue to work, in all of Quebec's school boards, particularly in the rural regions.

Our Dobson-Lagassé Entrepreneurship Centre, founded five years ago, has acquired a reputation as being an innovative centre that provides courses, advice and counselling to new entrepreneurs through a wide network of notaries. Hence, all of our cultural resources—our big theatre, our studio theatre, our art gallery, our concert hall, our library and our sports field—provide our community with resources and activities that are unmatched outside of Montreal. But we can and we must do more and do it better, perhaps with the assistance of the progressive 2003 plan for the future of the Champlain Lake area.

We are currently in the process of doing some comprehensive strategic planning for the institution. As our Director, Mr. Robert Poupart, said, the purpose of this planning is to provide for our vitality in the XXI^st century. We are presuming that he will say that our future vitality is important today, not only for the vitality of the minority community outside of Montreal, but for the majority community.

Most specifically--again, I say with a fully implemented 2003 action plan--we are ready to play an even more integral role in local development. We wish to expand our activities to better encompass the sense of lifelong learning and to meet the provincial government's recent request for educational institutions to better serve their communities. The phrase is envers la demande, as the government's report puts it.

We believe we can expand our service to the professional needs of the majority community, particularly through our long experience in second-language training, a training we always combine with a cultural element. Such service can and has attracted international students to our campus and so makes Quebec known to a wider community.

Further, we can work more closely with local anglophone organizations and local employers to tailor what we can offer to their pressing social and commercial needs. You've just heard in great detail those needs enunciated.

We sincerely believe that the federal government, through its action plan and other initiatives, can play a positive role in helping this institution achieve those goals.

Finally, we have already spoken to some federal representatives about our great plans to establish the equivalent of the Grande Bibliothèque in Montreal. We are hoping to expand and revitalize our library and to make it a great intellectual, cultural and social resource, one that will be able to meet the needs of users, assure the ongoing vitality of our university and minority and cultural communities outside of Montreal and also be open to Quebecers living in the region; a resource that will enable the university to continue attracting people to our small institution.

As our slogan says: "A Small University, a Great Institution".

[The Vice-Chair, NDP, Yvon Godin]

Thank you, Mr. Rittenhouse.

Now we're going to go to the question period.

We will begin with the official opposition.

Mr. Jean-Claude D'Amours, you have seven minutes.

It's going to be for seven minutes. It will be seven minutes for both the questions and answers.

Five minutes!

[Daniel Petit, Conservative, Charlesbourg—Haute-Saint-Charles, QC]

Are we going back to seven minutes?

[The Vice-Chair, NDP, Yvon Godin]

Do we agree on five minutes? Agreed.

[Guy André, Bloc, Berthier—Maskinongé, QC]

We agreed on that at our last meeting.

[Yvon Godin, NDP, Acadie—Bathurst, NB]

I apologize, I thought this was for yesterday only.

[An Hon. member]

No.

[The Vice-Chair, NDP, Yvon Godin]

All right. Five minutes. Go ahead. We have just lost two minutes.

[Jean-Claude D'Amours, Liberal, Madawaska—Restigouche, NB]

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I hope that this will not be taken off my time.

I would like, first of all, to thank each and every one of you for being before us this morning.

Maybe you don't know, but I am a member of Parliament from northern New Brunswick, so you will understand that the question of minority in my area is really important. One part of my riding is 98% francophone, while the other part is probably around 40% anglophone, so it's always important for me to make sure that we balance the services we can offer to each and every community. It's not the same in New Brunswick, because we are the only official languages province in Canada. I realize it may not be the same case for you.

We don't hear really often about your challenges. I'm really pleased to be here, because this time we'll be able to know a bit more about your challenges, and I have just realized that you've always faced some challenges.

I'm pleased to see also that the Community Health and Social Services Network has prepared a document in both the official languages of Canada, even though it's for the minority anglophones in Quebec. I was a bit surprised, maybe, because of the question of financing.

Mr. Van Lierop, you talk about economic development, and, Dr. Rittenhouse, you talk a bit about the entrepreneur. What is the biggest challenge that the entrepreneur of the anglophone minority has to face on a daily basis? Is it the challenge of working with the clients, to try to have services, or to try to find financial assistance, or is it something else?

[Michael Van Lierop]

I would say it's probably a mixture of all of the above. In a minority situation, language is always part of the equation, but it's also a question of resources. A question of awareness is a big part of the problem as well, and to be perfectly honest with you, it's a question of attitude. A big part of what we try to do at the association is to foster a positive view of living in the townships in young anglophones in particular--people like me, who decide to stay here because we see a future here. Every region in Canada has this problem, but ours is a bit more acute--a lot more acute--because of the language equation.

When it comes to entrepreneurship, I can't say specifically what the one big issue is. There is no one big issue; there are just a lot of little ones, and they pile up fast. We try to address them at the very basic level at least. We encourage people. We develop programs. We have an entire committee dedicated to dealing with the issue of townshippers of tomorrow, who are our future. The committee deals with education, employment opportunities, career opportunities, entrepreneurship, and it encourages people to go out there and learn what's available for them.

It's really a lot about awareness and attitude.

[Jean-Claude D'Amours, Liberal, Madawaska—Restigouche, NB]

Mr. Rittenhouse.

[Dr. Jonathan Rittenhouse]

Primarily it would be to attract and retain good employees. Employers need to have confidence that the infrastructure in the community in which their business is set up has the capacity to attract potential employees to come to the region. They need to be confident that the region will be able to serve all their needs in all the areas that we all know about. And sometimes it can hinge on the issue of language. Certainly, support systems to possibly upgrade some non-francophone employees to levels of functional bilingualism are very useful to put in place for employers in the region, and sometimes we get into weird circumstances and situations with respect to that. Frankly, the employers just want opportunities to have that training available, and since it is sometimes expensive, they want some support system to ensure that can occur.

If you are more like an anglophone Quebecker, you're not necessarily eligible for such types of training and so on.

So it's to attract and retain high-quality employees who believe that the infrastructure is there to support their living and their developing in our region, and at certain levels to ensure that if there is a lack in French language skills, it can be better achieved.

[Jean-Claude D'Amours, Liberal, Madawaska—Restigouche, NB]

I can't understand the challenge on the question of bilingualism. In my part of the country we take it for granted that we will speak a little bit of English. So if an employer needs some employees, he already knows that the employees will be able to speak with anglophones in the area. But here, you are a little more concentrated, and the employers will also need bilingual employees to be able to give services to the anglophone population. At the same time, they don't have a choice. They also need somebody who is able to work with the francophone population. So probably it is a double challenge.

Is there any possibility in the area to offer a different course to the francophones to speak English and to the anglophones to speak French? I won't have a chance...but maybe in the second round.

[The Vice-Chair, NDP, Yvon Godin]

On the second round we can get the answer.

Mr. André.

[Guy André, Bloc, Berthier—Maskinongé, QC]

I'm glad to see everybody here. We had a long trip, and I'm glad to be back in Quebec. And I'm glad to be meeting you.

The issue of health concerns me. I worked in this sector for many years, before going into politics. I was a responder in a CLSC for 17 years. Because I was bilingual, I was the one who spoke to the members of the anglophone community. However, it must be said that very few people speak English in the riding of Berthier—Maskinongé. However, on occasion, in a crisis, I was asked to intervene because I was the person who could speak both languages.

Over the past few years, I have noted that health care organizations are tending to provide health and social services in both official languages and, in order to achieve this, they make one person responsible for dealing with the anglophone minority. As far as accessibility to health services is concerned, do you think that things are working out well for the anglophone minority? I would like to hear your comments on that issue.

Moreover, Mr. Van Lierop, you made mention of the responders' workload. You talked about 52 per cent and 27 per cent for the anglophone communities. Could you tell me how you would explain that? There is nevertheless an entire social services and community services network. How do you direct your clients to these services? Is it adequate? What problems are you facing under these circumstances?

[James Carter]

Do you want to start with the first one?