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.
9:45 a.m.
NDP
The Vice-Chair NDP Yvon Godin
For your information, you don't have to touch anything what so ever, everything is automatic. It's modern.
9:45 a.m.
Executive Director, Townshippers' Association
Okay. Maybe I'll answer that one.
My name is Rachel Garber. I'm the executive director of the Townshippers' Association.
Regarding the caseload of the youth protection centre in the western part of the Eastern Townships, this was discussed in some depth at a recent youth seminar. The intervenors around the table agreed that a big part of the very sharp increase in the caseload of English-speaking clients, which actually proportionally doubled in one year, could be attributed directly to the networking project that the Townshippers' Association is leading. The workers were more aware of the problems in the Eastern Townships' English-speaking community. They were more visible to them, so they signalled those problems more often to the youth protection workers. The problems were always there, but now they were more aware of them.
Part of that was because of the knowledge base that the Townshippers' Association has developed and has disseminated to our public partners. Another really important key element is the very strong willingness on the part of the health and social service providers to collaborate, to really look at the situation of the English-speaking community, and to provide the services to the best of their ability. Without that collaboration, and without the very strong support of the Community Health and Social Services Network, which provided a large part of that knowledge base about health determinants in our community, we would not have been able to achieve anything. Those were two very strong key factors.
So actually, the increased caseload of the youth protection board is good news.
9:50 a.m.
Bloc
Guy André Bloc Berthier—Maskinongé, QC
That is very good to hear, because essentially, you're saying that these networks are providing good screening. That is why more cases are being reported.
November 8th, 2006 / 9:50 a.m.
Conservative
Pierre Lemieux Conservative Glengarry—Prescott—Russell, ON
Thank you very much for being here. I appreciate your presentations. As the chair of the committee mentioned, we're from all parties. We work together on official languages because as a government we want to ensure that our initiatives are in fact taking root on the ground and that they're yielding positive results.
We also want to hear about the challenges you face. I want to thank you, in particular, for sharing both with us--for sharing your successes with us and for sharing your challenges with us. As a federal politician, it's always good to hear how federal money, which tends to be way up here, actually makes its way down to communities and helps in communities.
I also like the way you're working together. You had a very strong message on the health system, on the advances that have been made with respect to health. You spoke about it as well in your presentation on the townships. So what I see are different organizations actually working together on the same initiatives, and that's yielding even better results. So I congratulate you on that teamwork.
One of the questions I have is regarding the townships and local community associations. I imagine that you have them. I was just looking through the action plan. And in Quebec, the federal government spent $4 million to help minority associations to, probably, deliver services in French. We have also announced an increase, another $120 million over 20 years, specifically for that, as well as $64 million for the delivery of minority language services.
Can you tell me what sorts of associations you have in the townships? Are they benefiting, once again, from our federal initiatives, or from the government's federal initiatives? And what sorts of challenges do you have with respect to the associations?
9:50 a.m.
President, Townshippers' Association
Well, there are a number of associations. I can't really speak on behalf of them. Obviously, for the Townshippers' Association, itself, the funding has been helpful. There's no question. When you speak of federal funding, that's a huge umbrella. There are a lot of different departments that we get funding from. Is it 75 groups?
We are interrelated and we collaborate, just like Jim, for example, with over 75 groups that are members of the association. We are also members, in most cases, of their organizations. So for a region like the Townships, that's a lot, for sure.
9:50 a.m.
Executive Director, Townshippers' Association
Something on the federal side?
9:50 a.m.
Conservative
9:50 a.m.
Conservative
Pierre Lemieux Conservative Glengarry—Prescott—Russell, ON
You're speaking about people who are leaving the Townships—
9:50 a.m.
Conservative
Pierre Lemieux Conservative Glengarry—Prescott—Russell, ON
—but are your associations helping with retention by providing services?
9:50 a.m.
Executive Director, Townshippers' Association
Yes, we are. Some of those groups are quite small, and not all of them receive federal funding. But what the Townshippers' Association has been doing, in collaboration with Bishop's, the Dobson-Lagassé Entrepreneurship Centre, and a number of other organizations, is mounting an initiative to encourage the participation of English speakers in entrepreneurship and the job market.
We have a website called www.topportunity.ca that lists the top 40 job prospects in the Eastern Townships—
9:50 a.m.
Executive Director, Townshippers' Association
—how to qualify for those jobs, and where to get the training for those jobs. We're in the process of evaluating the training programs available in the Eastern Townships to see if there is a good match between the job market and the available educational programs.
We have the collaboration of Job Links, which I think is the only employment centre for English speakers in Quebec, or at least outside of Montreal. We regularly publicize federal job openings in the Eastern Townships, and we have a good response from people.
But I think what Michael mentioned earlier was the problem of attitude. There is a sense of demoralization. The out-migration portrait for the English-speaking community is slightly different from that for French speakers in rural Quebec, in that it is not just all kinds of people who have left, but it is the brightest and the best, the people with the most education—
9:50 a.m.
A voice
The young.
9:50 a.m.
Executive Director, Townshippers' Association
Sometimes, yes, the young and the most mobile, and even the most bilingual. Now the level of bilingualism among young townshippers is proportionally twice that of young French speakers. At least that's what was reported in the last census.
That portrait is changing. The level of bilingualism might not be high enough or as recognized by employers, for example, as it could be. That's something we're working on: to create awareness in both the francophone and anglophone communities about the asset of fluency in English. Someone who has perfect French and a bit of English might be prioritized in hiring over someone who has more fluency in English, but maybe their French needs a little work.
So we want to work with everyone on that—and I think we have been—and there are other groups collaborating with us.
9:55 a.m.
NDP
The Vice-Chair NDP Yvon Godin
Merci.
We have to continue; your five minutes is over.
We're going to go to another round.
When we look at the plan of action and the money received, I heard from Bishop's University, for example—if I got it right—that they didn't receive any money.
9:55 a.m.
Vice-Principal, Bishop's University
Since education is a provincial jurisdiction, one has to be quite creative to get access to these funds. One has to create the mechanisms of partnership with other organizations with which we are providing a needed service and that can access the support money. So to some degree, I don't see direct funding for us.
9:55 a.m.
NDP
The Vice-Chair NDP Yvon Godin
Yes, you don't see it.
Regarding the money in the action plan that came into Quebec, for example, if you look at it by percentage, do you feel you have received what you're supposed to receive?
9:55 a.m.
Coordinator, Community Health and Social Services Network
What we've identified to you is the health envelope, the $26.7 million. And the answer is yes, we feel there was a proportional and equitable allocation of the federal action plan moneys, the $119 million, to our communities. We have worked not only with Health Canada but also with our francophone colleagues, and we have two consultative committees to the federal minister. The action plan delivered an equitable allocation to Quebec. This was accepted and understood by our communities, as well as our francophone colleagues outside Quebec.
I'm talking about the health envelope, because some of the other issues raised today.... You see a different message here. There seems to be, with health, more evidence of the investment. You see frustration with the other elements of the action plan. It's very hard to see the tangible benefits. I think there's generally a consensus that we did well with the health envelope, but we're very frustrated with other aspects of the action plan that have either not arrived or have come extremely late.