Official Languages Committee on Nov. 9th, 2006

[The Vice-Chair, NDP, Yvon Godin]

We must not forget that we were the first to come here to Canada.

[Louise Lewin]

It is a fact.

[The Vice-Chair, NDP, Yvon Godin]

We celebrated our anniversary two years ago, whereas Quebec will be celebrating its anniversary in 2008.

[Louise Lewin]

I should explain myself. The reason why I emphasized Quebec is that the vast majority of students at the Collège universitaire Glendon come from Quebec. Other provinces are represented, but not in large numbers. We would surely like to see those numbers rise.

[The Vice-Chair, NDP, Yvon Godin]

Perhaps there is not enough publicity.

[Louise Lewin]

No. We have covered almost everything. I think that we have done all that we could.

[The Vice-Chair, NDP, Yvon Godin]

There are some agreements with Quebec, but not enough. Are there any agreements with New Brunswick? It must not be forgotten that it is the only official bilingual province in Canada.

[Louise Lewin]

I cannot tell you exactly why there are fewer students, but I do think that it is also a matter of financial assistance. University tuition is more expensive in Ontario than it is in Quebec, for example. Does that stop students? That may be the case in the other provinces as well. If finances are an obstacle, we should ensure that this is no longer the case.

[The Vice-Chair, NDP, Yvon Godin]

Thank you.

Mr. D'Amours.

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

Thank you, Mr. Chairman, for giving me another five minutes; this is most appreciated.

[The Vice-Chair, NDP, Yvon Godin]

For the questions and answers.

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

Ms. Ferenczy, you said earlier, when you were talking about your organization, Canadian Parents for French, that the development of your children is very important, as is the opportunity to gain experience in other countries. I wanted to make a comment at that point, but I did not have enough time. I understood that this is what you want, what you are hoping for, but that you were not consulted and then the cuts came. That's what this mean. Once again, we have come back to the same thing.

What really got me earlier, was the comment made by my conservative colleague who said that we would put an end to the development of our young people, that we would educate them here, in Canada. That is one thing. However, my understanding is that they were going to be educated in accordance with the conservative doctrine and that we would not give them the opportunity to gain experience elsewhere.

That is exactly what I understood by the comment that we would educate our young people as we saw fit and that we would ensure that they would not discover what is going on elsewhere. We see this in other countries, at present. Indeed, in some countries, there is an attempt to do a complete about face, whether this be with respect to women or young people. We are presented with philosophies of this nature and I just don't get it.

However, we, the francophones outside Quebec, are trying to develop as much as possible. I come from a rural region of New Brunswick. You can't get any more rural than that. It is said that we live in the boonies, and that's true. Nevertheless, we travel in order to discover the world, to discover the other provinces in the country, to discover other countries and we are proud about that. I do not understand why the government does not want the same thing for its children. I am stupefied because I just simply don't get it.

I do not know if you wish to make any comments. If so, you may.

[Monika Ferenczy]

First of all, it is also a matter of geography. For some of our families, it is not possible to travel to other countries. Moreover, we would like to build our exchange programs between Quebec, Ontario and the other provinces, because exchanges are more achievable since they are less costly. However, we have to really work within our systems, because we cannot double the number of graduates without increasing all of the programming.

In addition, knowing two languages is really a source of Canadian pride. It is up to the school boards to provide this opportunity. This opportunity must be made possible through measures and action plans in the provinces themselves, because in the classroom, it is really the ministerial structures that help us.

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

I'm going to stop you. I agree with you entirely when you say that finances stop parents, so that you depend on the provinces. I fully agree with you on that.

Why have you been reduced to that? Because the federal government slashed $11.2 million from this program and, as a result, the government is really going to ensure that students will no longer have an opportunity to gain experience elsewhere.

When we want to provide something, we shouldn't just give up and lament the fact that our programs have been slashed. No. We must not accept these cutbacks, because these programs encouraged the development of our young people. This is how I reacted to that and I will react like this my entire life. Let us not lament the fact that we lost because we are a minority or because it's difficult. No. Let us ask for more. It is our duty to do so, as Canadian citizens. I am, nevertheless, in favour of what you're saying.

I know that I don't have very much time, Mr. Chairman.

[The Vice-Chair, NDP, Yvon Godin]

You have 40 seconds remaining...

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

Ms. Lewin, I would like to touch on one point briefly.

You said that you have 65,000 French books. That is extraordinary for a university. At the Standing Committee on Human Resources, Social Development and the Status of Persons with Disabilities, on which I sit, we heard the other day a request for more French books in universities and colleges in order to ensure that students studying in French have their manuals in French.

Do you acknowledge that more assistance from the federal government is required in that regard?

[Louise Lewin]

Absolutely. Yes, we always need more help. We have to make choices based on the money available to us. And while 65,000 books is an extraordinary number of works in French for such a small institution as ours, as you said, the fact remains that it is also a question of space. We cannot keep all of the documents that we would like to, even documents in French, because we don't have any more space. So we have to expand.

That goes back to my first recommendation: we need resources, etc. In expanding, we could also increase...

[The Vice-Chair, NDP, Yvon Godin]

Thank you.

It is now Ms. Boucher's turn.

[Sylvie Boucher, Conservative, Beauport—Limoilou, QC]

Good morning, everyone. I am pleased that you are here, today, sitting around this table. The committee is travelling in order to do some work and prepare a report which will be most interesting. It will be interesting for us, in the government, as we have heard all of your challenges as well as your criticisms. We understand what these challenges and criticisms are and we have taken note of them. We are here to work and, in particular, to find solutions for everyone.

As a francophone, I understand the situation very well. Since I come from Quebec, I don't have the problems facing French-language minority communities, but, having visited several communities, I do understand what these problems are very well.

That being said, you're all facing major challenges.

Ms. Lewin, I would like you to explain the biggest challenge you're facing at present, for your university and, as well, I would like you to give me some possible solutions that would help you with one of your biggest achievements, because that may help us.

[Louise Lewin]

I'm sorry, you asked about the biggest challenge. What was the second question?

[Sylvie Boucher, Conservative, Beauport—Limoilou, QC]

What is your greatest success? Tell us how you achieved it, because this may give us ideas for upcoming projects. In fact, there will be other projects in the future and this may provide us with ideas and possible solutions.

[Louise Lewin]

The biggest challenge is to make our students bilingual within our community called Glendon College. Approximately 20 per cent of our 2,400 students are francophones. The others are students who took core French or French immersion at school. We need to make them even more bilingual, and this could be done with additional resources.

Students need to be highly motivated, and we congratulate them for this undertaking. However, upon their arrival, they have to make decisions with regard to the grades that they will get or the challenges they will have to face. If they take courses in English and they are therefore required to do their work in English, they think that, ultimately, their grade may be lower and perhaps they may not achieve their objectives later. So, our challenge is to make our students more bilingual.

I want to come back to the exchange programs. These programs certainly may be one solution. Sending our students into a francophone environment, be it in another country or in another province, would be ideal. Everyone knows that. By immersing oneself in the culture and the language it takes less time to achieve one's goal.

We are trying to create this within the walls of Glendon College. Ms. Barbot, who was here, perhaps saw that kind of work we are doing. We are trying to create a community to provide them with this, but within a minority context. That is our biggest challenge, in my opinion.

The second question concerned our greatest success. At the risk of sounding a bit strange, our greatest success is continuing to exist with the same challenge. It is continuing to be there and, furthermore, not only our teachers, but also our directors, continue to share the same goal of turning students into bilingual citizens. This is an excellent achievement, because we are celebrating our 40^th anniversary this year. As a result, 40 years later, we are still facing the same challenge, and we are standing strong.

[Sylvie Boucher, Conservative, Beauport—Limoilou, QC]

Do I still have a few minutes left?

[The Vice-Chair, NDP, Yvon Godin]

You have two minutes left.

[Sylvie Boucher, Conservative, Beauport—Limoilou, QC]

I want to ask the same question to the representatives of Canadian Parents for French.