Thank you. Do you want to add something?
Evidence of meeting #24 for Official Languages in the 39th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was anglophone.
Evidence of meeting #24 for Official Languages in the 39th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was anglophone.
10:10 a.m.
Liberal
10:10 a.m.
Executive Director, Townshippers' Association
I just wanted to add that in the last census, two-thirds of English speakers in the Eastern Townships said they were bilingual and only one-third of the francophones said they were bilingual. So there is a certain functional bilingualism there. I think that needs to be improved a lot in order to take hold in entrepreneurship and employment, and to result in better jobs, not just sweeping floors.
But there's also the attitude that Michael mentioned before and there's a problem of demoralization. As someone has said, the brightest and best have left and here we are. So it's sort of the leftovers. If someone is bilingual, or even speaks a little French, and goes to another province, they will be recognized as fully bilingual much sooner than they will be recognized and given that job opportunity on the basis of their bilingualism in their own community. So this is a problem that's pulling some of the better-educated young people away, and for those young people who are left here, they're feeling like the leftovers. There's a problem with motivation that we are trying to address.
I don't know if Jim had something to add.
10:10 a.m.
Coordinator, Community Health and Social Services Network
Our surveys of our own community in terms of access to the health system, for example, are quite indicative. We probed to find out why anglophones may not use the system even if an institution might have a service available, or why they won't use English in an emergency room in a hospital when they could. It's very interesting what we learned. There is a shyness, even if you're bilingual. There may be a shyness in a circumstance, when you stand out, to request a service in English, for reasons that you don't want to create some kind of supplementary demand on a very overstretched system, or you might be concerned that if you ask for a service in English, there may be a delay in getting that service.
But there is a shyness, and often our francophone colleagues say, well, anglophones don't use our services. Often it may be that anglophones are less likely to go to a public institution to get a service to solve the problem. They stay in their communities, and often when they do hit the public system, they're in crisis at that point. But there is definitely an aspect, even for bilingual anglophones. There is a shyness about the environment of a public institution that they may not feel either linguistically or culturally affiliated with.
10:15 a.m.
NDP
The Vice-Chair NDP Yvon Godin
The minutes have gone past, but, Michael, if you would like to comment, I propose that you do it on my time.
10:15 a.m.
Bloc
Guy André Bloc Berthier—Maskinongé, QC
Mr. Godin, you owe me three minutes that I gave you in New Brunswick. So you'll give me seven minutes on this one?
I gave him three minutes in New Brunswick.
10:15 a.m.
Bloc
Guy André Bloc Berthier—Maskinongé, QC
Mr. Carter, I will ask you my question once again, because you have not yet answered it.
As regards the organization of services in the health network at present, what could we do to improve accessibility to health services?
10:15 a.m.
Coordinator, Community Health and Social Services Network
In Quebec, people are entitled to service in English, because this is guaranteed under the Quebec Health Act. So, the legislation has very clear guidelines for our partners in the health care system. From time to time, public institutions officially identify services that are available in English. For example, an executive director and his or her staff may announce that a home care program is available—in other words that there is a multidisciplinary team and enough resources to provide services in English on an on-going basis. The executive director will make it clear that the institution is ready to be part of this home care program. We have an obligation to ensure that there is a genuine offer of service in English.
There are initiatives in place in all parts of Quebec to identify services. Next spring, the government must approve all of these plans. This is a very important instrument for guiding what goes on in the network.
The other important factor is a desire on the part of professionals to improve their ability to provide better service to their English-speaking clients. All our efforts and successes are based on the desire of health care professionals to provide better service to these clients. This was very encouraging and helpful for example in the case of an institution that will be working closely with a group of volunteers to improve a program for seniors. We mentioned a few specific examples earlier of how this works in practice.
10:15 a.m.
Bloc
Guy André Bloc Berthier—Maskinongé, QC
That's fine.
My question is to Mr. Rittenhouse.
You talked about a project you want to develop at Bishop's. I want to hear a little more about your project and the service you want to offer to the
group of people
or the population the project will serve.
10:15 a.m.
Vice-Principal, Bishop's University
Merci.
You're going to visit Bishop's this afternoon, and Madam Teasdale will be with you. So she could provide
other ideas about this major project to ensure that you get a good understanding of what we are trying to do.
This project is an initiative by the university, with the support of the Townshippers', to try to be a learning commons. And to some degree this is the area in which potentially we could access federal funds, possibly through the 2003 action plan, possibly through other federal initiatives or funding opportunities. The idea behind it is to replicate the success stories of francophone communities outside Quebec by having a place where people can have resources and feel a community involvement. The idea is to create a larger library, as I said in my little discourse
which would be the equivalent, in the Eastern Townships, of the Grande Bibliothèque nationale in Montreal.
And we would provide an open-door policy to the community, as opposed to being the university library. It is more a resource totale that will provide as much as possible all kinds of services to the community, our students, the anglophone community in the region, and the francophone community that wants to access English language material or information that isn't quite as available elsewhere.
However, libraries these days aren't just buildings with books; they are branchée everywhere. They are completely connected. We hope as much as possible, in the plan we are presenting to various levels of government and organizations, to provide a service to what we would call the off-island anglophone community to access information, to provide services, to be a community resource similar to the way certain very positive occurrences have happened in the French-speaking communities outside Quebec.
10:20 a.m.
NDP
The Vice-Chair NDP Yvon Godin
Thank you.
I wish to raise a question, but I know Mr. Van Lierop wants to make comments to Mr. D'Amours and I'd like him to be able to.
10:20 a.m.
President, Townshippers' Association
It was a general comment, because I have to leave very quickly. One of the things I wanted to say that I thought was very relevant and Madame Boucher alluded to is that it's fabulous, in my opinion, and certainly in the opinion of the association, I'm sure, that you decided to come to Sherbrooke. The official languages minority support program...obviously the francophone minority in the rest of Canada tends to get a lot of the attention and the English minority in Quebec often gets tarred with the brush of rich Westmounters, and it's not the case.
10:20 a.m.
President, Townshippers' Association
It's not the case. That's what I'm trying to plead with you today, to be aware that the English minority in Quebec is more than just Montreal. Sure, there are problems in Montreal. There's no question. I'm not trying to deny that. But it's especially acute here in the Townships and in the regions. So thank you.
10:20 a.m.
NDP
The Vice-Chair NDP Yvon Godin
I'll leave it to Mr. Petit for about four minutes. That's what we've got left.
10:20 a.m.
Conservative
Daniel Petit Conservative Charlesbourg—Haute-Saint-Charles, QC
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
My question is to Ms. Garber.
You tabled your paper in both official languages. I thank you for that, that was a very good thing to do. It shows that you act on what you say. In this document, there is something I find interesting as a lawyer. You say and I quote:
For example, the Youth Protection Office in Cowansville reports that in March 2006, 52 per cent of its caseload involved English speakers, although English speakers represent only about 23 per cent of the population in the surrounding area.
That figure is high, particularly for youth protection services. If the figure applied to ordinary courts, I would understand somewhat, but here we are talking about young people.
Why has there been this increase? Is that something you discovered, or was that a well-known fact? What can be done about this? If you make the point to the committee , it is because you want to draw our attention to the problem.
10:25 a.m.
Executive Director, Townshippers' Association
The child and youth protection centre in Cowansville has given us this figure.
The proportion has always been high, but it's especially higher this past year because of the greater awareness of teachers, nurses, and helping professionals of the socio-economic problems in the English-speaking community. So that attitude of demoralization that Michael mentioned earlier comes into play here.
We did a series of focus groups throughout the Eastern Townships with high school students about two years ago. One of them said that if you want to live in the Townships, you have two choices: one is to join the Hells Angels and the other is to live on welfare. This is a rather stark choice.
But with that kind of attitude, and with families who have low incomes or generally unfavourable situations turning to--I was going to say criminal activities, but social problems--drug addictions or whatever, those persons would be more at risk.
I think that comes into play, but I think the good news is that through the networking program, we are now meeting those needs. That is exactly why the percentage is so high now, because those needs are being signalled and the population is feeling trust that the system will respond to those needs. Perhaps a few years ago that level of trust wasn't there. So the portrait is changing.
10:25 a.m.
Coordinator, Community Health and Social Services Network
This is similar to the question asked by Mr. André. At the moment, the Centre Jeunesse is trying to work very actively with the disadvantaged members of the community, in partnership with the English-speaking community. These measures have had an impact on the services provided by the Centre Jeunesse that works closely with the community to target a vulnerable segment of the population.