Official Languages Committee on Nov. 9th, 2006

[Nicole Rauzon-Wright]

I would like to speak to the issue of legal challenges.

Given our mandate, and following the many meetings we have had with francophone communities, I feel more and more that people are extremely upset that they cannot have access to services in French. People are just as involved now as they were 20 years ago, when they were fighting for French schools.

A person or a community which cannot access French services would probably want to challenge the situation. For instance, if the Centre francophone de Toronto had to close its doors due to a lack of money, where could people turn to find the resources they would need to fight for these services?

It is important to consider everything that is happening within the francophonie, and more particularly what is happening in French.

[The Vice-Chair, NDP, Yvon Godin]

Thank you.

Ms. Barbot, you have the floor.

[Vivian Barbot, Bloc, Papineau, QC]

Good morning. Thank you very much for being here today.

What has emerged from today's testimony is a rivalry of sorts which exists between the respect for the Official Languages Act and the presence of immigrants; this has not emerged from other testimony we have heard elsewhere. I would like to take a closer look at this matter.

Elsewhere, we were told that the francophone community was trying to attract French-speaking immigrants to increase its population and to ensure that activities were available to a greater number of people.

Ms. Rauzon, you said that, generally speaking, the French language is not really respected as an official language, and you made a connection with... I have lost my train of thought.

[Nicole Rauzon-Wright]

I will clarify what I said. At a certain point, francophones began to settle throughout Ontario. When I talk about the francophonie, I am not referring to colour or race.

New immigrants in Ontario tend to settle in certain areas. For instance, Chinese immigrants will move to places where there are a lot of Chinese already, and as a result they can say that they represent 10% or 13% of the population. Consequently, regional organizations or public health organizations will translate their documents in Chinese or in Italian, but not in French.

We are not against immigration. I am in complete agreement with immigrants moving to Ontario. However, I want the federal government to impose on organizations the obligation to translate their documents first in French, and then in other languages, because these people also need access to services in their language.

But the opposite is happening today.

[Vivian Barbot, Bloc, Papineau, QC]

Thank you for that clarification.

Canada has two official languages. As far as I know, Chinese is not an official language and, from a constitutional point of view, it is unthinkable that it should become one anytime soon. Therefore, we must lobby in every part of Canada—and that is why we are here—so that francophones have access to services in their own language. I myself am an immigrant and it seems to me that it is up to immigrants to integrate with the help of services available to them when they arrive in Canada. In fact, immigrants must be aware of this even before coming to this country.

Further, I understand how hard it is for seniors, for instance, not to have access to French services in their own country. The same applies to young people. I may be bilingual and may not want to be served in French. I understand completely where you are coming from.

[Jean-Gilles Pelletier]

I would like to make a brief comment.

The Centre francophone de Toronto is a crossroads of services. In fact, Toronto is the city which each year receives a significant proportion of new entrants to Canada, as well as a significant number of new francophone entrants. In that situation, the Centre francophone de Toronto becomes the gateway to the country.

Our approach at the centre is based on case management. We have an internal reference process which is very structured, and which helps new entrants so that they do not have to look for the services they need in French. It is the people who work at the centre who find the services and help new immigrants to access integrated services because they desperately need them right away.

In the first five years after arriving in Canada, new immigrants desperately need health care services, social services and often also legal services. With staff that comes from 25 different countries, we do our best to help new immigrants access the services with our multi-disciplinary team.

That is probably the secret of our success. Since we are in a minority situation, it has really helped to have these multi-disciplinary centres throughout the country. We have adapted particularly well to the situation in order to serve newly arrived immigrants who have many significant and urgent needs which need to be addressed.

[The Vice-Chair, NDP, Yvon Godin]

You only have 45 seconds left. Mr. Boisvenue would like to speak.

[Jean-Marc Boisvenue]

I would like to reiterate that in southern Ontario, immigrants whose language of instruction is French are an integral part of our community; they are our partners.

I said a little earlier that eastern and northern Ontario were different. New entrants do not only go to Toronto; they also go to London, Windsor, Hamilton and Welland. In eastern Ontario, it seems that new entrants had chosen the Ottawa area, but they are also settling farther afield.

Our challenge does not have to do with “immigrants” per se. The challenge is that, for instance, you could go to the London Health Sciences Centre, or to the North York Hospital, and find publications in four or five different languages, but not in French. That is the challenge we are facing.

[The Vice-Chair, NDP, Yvon Godin]

Thank you.

Mr. Lemieux.

[Pierre Lemieux, Conservative, Glengarry—Prescott—Russell, ON]

Good morning. I would like to thank you for your presentations. As was said at the beginning, we form a team of members from every party who has come to meet with you and to listen to you.

I think I heard something negative about the CCP. But that is not the case. We are here to listen to you and to hear what you have to say. That is important for us. You are completely free to talk about your successes, your challenges or your concerns.

I would like to congratulate you because your presentations have helped me better understand your specific needs and what you are trying to achieve in southern Ontario. Thank you for that. Well done.

My question is for the person in charge of the Centre francophone de Toronto. I read your letter. I like what you do and I like your approach. I would like to know whether it would be possible for you to replicate your model elsewhere, because it seems to be working. You provide a great many services in your region. Is it possible to have other such centres in southern Ontario?

[Nicole Rauzon-Wright]

I can answer that question. Two weeks ago, in a small town, called Midland, in northern Simcoe county, I took part in a consultation meeting with the provincial government to set up a community health centre.

[Pierre Lemieux, Conservative, Glengarry—Prescott—Russell, ON]

That is wonderful!

[Nicole Rauzon-Wright]

Community health centres go a long way toward addressing the needs of francophones. They are not the whole answer, since if you are in hospital for open heart surgery and no one can speak to you in French, you will still have a problem. However, health centres meet many needs for francophones.

It is always a question of funding and available staff. Moreover, our anglophone partners still have to realize that if francophones were served in their own language, it would free up the English-speaking system. Francophones who go somewhere and hope to receive service in French often go back two or three times because they are never clear about the answers they have been given.

I can tell you that the network had to make 6,000 phone calls to find 275 pharmacists who could speak French in Ontario. So that gives you an idea of how much work we need to do to be able to help our communities.

So it is always a question of funding and of having the staff we need to make these centres run. We are also aware that we will not have all the advantages in southern Ontario that people have in Toronto. However, we are prepared to start with a 100% guarantee of bilingual services, that is, having anglophones served in English and francophones in French. But there has to be a guarantee.

[Pierre Lemieux, Conservative, Glengarry—Prescott—Russell, ON]

That is important for us. We created a $64 million, four-year program to improve services to francophones in minority language communities and invested $120 million extra in community associations that provide services specifically...

[The Vice-Chair, NDP, Yvon Godin]

Did you want to say something, Mr. Pelletier?

[Pierre Lemieux, Conservative, Glengarry—Prescott—Russell, ON]

Go ahead, please.

[Jean-Gilles Pelletier]

If I may, over the past few years, the Centre francophone de Toronto has been called on to make presentations not only in a number of regions of Ontario, but in other regions of Canada, to describe the integrated model of coordinated services provided by the Centre francophone de Toronto as a service approach to facilitate access, particularly for minority communities.

We mentioned the five principles that guide our organization and our service structure. We obviously believe that these principles, if they were embodied in the funding agreements between the federal and provincial governments and between federal sponsors, the departments and service agencies, would have a fundamental impact. We apply these principles at the Centre francophone de Toronto and, as a result, our services meet the needs of the community effectively and efficiently.

I am not saying that this comes without challenges. When we need to transfer or share information at the centre, for example, when confidential information needs to be shared with a doctor about a lawyer's client, it is not an easy process, even though our aims is to serve our clients well. There are a number of sources of consent that must be obtained, but these are operating challenges that have to be met so that we can really target our clients' needs. These are lessons that we have learned, working in a minority environment, and the Centre francophone de Toronto gains experience in this area every day, which we would be pleased to share with other regions of Ontario and also of Canada.

The Centre francophone de Toronto is not a community health centre. Once again, I want everyone to be aware of that. We are very much a multiservice centre that offers legal services, settlement and employment services. We also sponsor cultural activities; in fact, we hosted Pierre Lapointe three weeks ago. So that gives you an idea of the range of services that we offer to serve the francophone community with a good range of complementary services.

[The Vice-Chair, NDP, Yvon Godin]

Thank you.

As I said to the other groups, I am going to put on my usual hat as the committee member now and ask some questions.

I looked through your document, and you say that you offer a range of services and one of these, I see, deals with early childhood.

What can you recommend for that age group? What problems arise and what recommendations could you make to the federal government?

[Jean-Gilles Pelletier]

Thank you very much for that question.

One of the aspects that we did not have time to touch on in our presentation is this issue of early childhood services. The Centre francophone de Toronto is an early childhood development centre: we offer specialized services on an individual basis in the area of early childhood development and children's mental health, and we have a centre for parents. Our early childhood development centre is recognized by the provincial government, and we are a partner in the Head Starts Strategy, which is a major provincial initiative, which was supported by the federal government until recently, through the approach of universal day care.

In minority communities—

[The Vice-Chair, NDP, Yvon Godin]

Excuse me. You said that the initiative was supported until recently—

[Jean-Gilles Pelletier]

The federal government has stepped back significantly from funding early childhood services.

[The Vice-Chair, NDP, Yvon Godin]

What are you referring to?

[Jean-Gilles Pelletier]

To the universal child care plan, for example. That issue is important for French-language minority communities, since language acquisition happens to a large extent at the preschool level. At the Centre francophone de Toronto, we realized that we needed to step in day cares and provide specialized services in French. There are about a dozen francophone day cares in the Toronto region. So we work with those agencies by providing specialized help when they are handling problems with French-speaking children, who sometimes have development problems.

To get back to what I was saying about the Head Starts strategy, we were expecting to see a very substantial increase in the number of francophone day care spaces as part of the universal plan. That has not yet happened, and we would really like to see the federal government resume a leadership role in funding early childhood development programs, since those programs are crucial for francophones living in minority communities, particularly for new immigrants.

[The Vice-Chair, NDP, Yvon Godin]

But the government is saying that it is providing families with $100 a month for each child under the age of six and that it has created day care spaces. This does not seem to be the case where you are concerned, since you are saying that you have not received anything.

[Jean-Gilles Pelletier]

We received some funding, but there are major gaps. The change in the federal government's approach has had a major impact on francophone communities.