Thank you, Mr. Chair, for inviting me as President of the Chambre de commerce franco-colombienne to discuss the vitality of the linguistic minority communities.
The Chambre de commerce franco-colombienne was founded in 1983. It's a non-profit organization whose mandate is to develop and improve business relations among French-speaking business people in British Columbia.
I'd simply like to make a brief aside. Earlier, when you were speaking to Mr. Cyr, he talked about the Chambre française and Mr. Becker. That was the Chambre de commerce française au Canada, Vancouver branch, which is a separate organization.
The Official Languages Act derives, among other things, from the federal government's objective of promoting the vitality of the Francophone and Anglophone minorities, supporting their development and promoting full recognition of the use of English and French in Canadian society.
The great threat to the vitality of the official language minority communities is assimilation, as witnessed by the high linguistic assimilation rates, particularly in British Columbia. It isn't enough to send in reinforcements, particularly through immigration, in order to build a growing community.
Business people are concerned about the impact of assimilation on two levels: growth in the Francophone clientele base in order to make offering services in French cost-effective and the challenges involved in ensuring that their language is also that of their children and grandchildren.
In a world with extensive means of communication and transportation, the opportunity to serve Francophones here remotely in an increasing number of fields tends to fragment the minority communities. This offer of service must be made not only in primary services provided by governments, but also in all areas normally available in society.
The assimilation process occurs in two phases. The first phase is learning a second language. For virtually all members of official language minority communities, that phase is already complete. The second phase is giving up one's first language. This phenomenon rarely occurs during the lifetime of a single person because only a minority of people can forget a language that they used to master. It is therefore preferable to view linguistic assimilation as a process that takes place over at least two generations.
Consequently, actions promoting the vitality and development of the official language minority communities must take into account the intergenerational nature of assimilation and include positive action measures in that area.
Recent years have witnessed major achievements in this field, in particular the creation of the Conseil scolaire francophone de la Colombie-Britannique. Earlier you talked about RésoSanté. However, the availability of early childhood and education services is still limited. Support for the development of these services is important in establishing the trust of citizens who have or are considering having children and in the intake capacity of minority communities, and that includes business people.
That trust also depends on whether the community is able to have its rights respected, which legislative will is not always enough to guarantee. The court system has been put in place to resolve disputes, in accordance with the law, including those concerning the way in which executive and legislative powers are exercised.
However, the Court Challenges Program has just been cancelled, which will limit the communities' ability to assert their rights and to combat assimilation and linguistic drift.
In addition, the availability of community services won't completely offset the lack of services and benefits normally available in a modern society. The limited availability of mass cultural services in French, the equivalent of MuchMusic via cable television, for example, makes it hard for young people to access culture in French and contributes to linguistic drift.
It should be noted that the sense of being a minority is not experienced in the same way in all communities across the country. In British Columbia, the Francophone community is scattered across the province, making it virtually invisible. And yet there are federal government service points providing service in both official languages. Such offices should be points for meeting and noticing the presence of minority language constituents. However, the various federal institutions have designated various offices to provide those services. As a result, instead of grouping the members of the minority community in one place that belongs to them, the use of services in the minority language disperses them, reinforces the sense of minority and does not promote the development of related French-language services that Francophone business people, among others, could establish.
On behalf of the board of directors of the Société Maison de la francophonie de Vancouver, which I also chair, I want to express the hope that the Maison can make a more active contribution to the visibility of Canada's linguistic duality and of the Francophone community, even more particularly on the occasion of the 2010 Olympic Games.
The central role that the Maison de la francophonie plays as a synergistic presence housing a critical mass of Francophones working in French in Vancouver promotes the development and integration of the Francophone community. Its location, the major roadways in the area and the availability of public transit help make the Maison de la francophonie a showcase for the Francophone presence in the City of Vancouver.
We hope that the Maison de la francophonie can serve as a gathering place for Francophones and a place with which they can identify during the Games and subsequently continue to serve not only the Francophones of B.C., but the Francophones from everywhere who have gotten to know Vancouver through the Games.
To achieve the objective of promoting the development of the official language minority community, sustainable infrastructure projects must be carried out that could showcase Francophones' cultural and linguistic heritage and their contribution to Canadian society.
The future depends on a correction of assimilation factors and a tenacious application of corrective action. Results will appear and can only be evaluated over generations.
Mr. Chair, with those words I complete my remarks. I'll be happy to answer members' questions.