Official Languages Committee on Dec. 5th, 2006

[Jean Johnson]

In fact, that would comply with the new Official Languages Act, if I have understood correctly.

[Dr. Denis Vincent]

We are the experts on the ground, in terms of the development of the francophonie in Canada. We are the French-language promotional agents from sea to sea. It would be much better if we were recognized as such and if the investment of our hearts and souls into this work were acknowledged, rather than having to beg for money.

[Jean Johnson]

In our community, we do all the planning work and we identify certain priorities. The federal government or its officials do not necessarily respect those priorities. This has to stop.

[Raymond Simard, Liberal, Saint Boniface, MB]

We often talk about Manitoba, where there are excellent Liberal members of Parliament.

[Some members]

Oh, oh!

[Raymond Simard, Liberal, Saint Boniface, MB]

The provincial government of Manitoba truly participates in this area and is supportive, which is a huge improvement to the situation. On the other hand, I know that it is less involved in other areas.

I think that this has become a tool in Manitoba. It works well in all areas because agreements have been signed and funds have been matched. So there are no arguments and things move ahead quite quickly.

How could we encourage the provinces to be more proactive?

[Marc Arnal]

The first thing you could do would be to make sure that this topic is automatically on the agenda for all federal- provincial meetings.

Furthermore, I think that we could be working with the ministers responsible for French services in the provinces. The federal government is now part of this working group, as well as Quebec, I believe. I think that some issues could be resolved within that group. I don't know if we can change any attitudes, but I do believe we can change behaviour.

I'm going to quote your former colleague, Denis Coderre, in the hopes that it won't hurt anybody's feelings. At the time, Lyle Oberg was the provincial minister responsible for immigration. It was said at the time, but those were maybe only rumours, that openness of mind was not his main quality. Mr. Coderre, before a national assembly of approximately 500 people in Calgary, said:

“My friend Lyle understands that if there's no official language clause in the agreement, there will be no agreement, don't you, Lyle?”

Lyle, who was sitting nearby, replied “Yes, Minister”. I think that federal ministers can also make things happen.

In terms of envelopes, I think that they are a necessary, but temporary, measure. I would like it if they were not necessary, but—

[Raymond Simard, Liberal, Saint Boniface, MB]

But for now they are.

[Marc Arnal]

Let's say that for now, they're not doing any harm.

[The Vice-Chair, NDP, Yvon Godin]

Thank you.

Mr. Lemieux.

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

Thank you for your presentations.

I am a Franco-Ontarian member of Parliament. My riding has 65,000 Franco-Ontarians and I am always listening to the needs of communities. I enjoyed listening to your presentations this morning. I found that you were well informed about what is happening in Alberta with francophones.

I have found, over the course of this trip, that there are many needs. In fact, there are perhaps too many needs given the limited amount of funds and resources that are available. Success always represents a challenge regardless of the area or sector. On the other hand, I think that if their efforts are focused, communities, the federal government and the provincial governments will be successful.

Mr. Michaud spoke about education and a new agreement with the provinces that has just been announced and that is worth one billion dollars over four years. Yes, throughout Canada people are making the needs in the area of education known. There are challenges but there are also success stories. Take, for example, the health networks. There are still challenges that must be met, but significant progress has been made. With respect to immigration, there will be a 309-million-dollar project for the purposes of settling immigrants in Canada. That also affects francophones. Like any good politician, I'm engaging in an extensive preamble but I will now move on to my question.

You represent groups and associations here in Alberta. You work together in priorizing your needs. I think, as a politician, that there are several needs. Are you working together to set priorities for Alberta based on an agreed-on list of needs? In order to succeed, the federal government will have to focus its efforts rather than investing small amounts here and there.

I'll start with Mr. Arnal and Mr. Johnson and then continue with Mr. Lavoie.

[Marc Arnal]

I believe that there is a provincial bill that acknowledges the FCAA as the organization that speaks on behalf of the Albertan francophonie. The association's mandate is to coordinate what is happening within the community. Where there are many varied needs, it is officially the responsibility of this organization to establish some sort of order.

We, for our part, belong to the francophone community and to the University of Alberta. We will therefore be pursuing our files within the university while keeping the community informed.

Jean could perhaps expand on this. In fact, I suggested to Mr. Johnson that he take the opportunity of the annual assembly of his association to explain what the Saint-Jean Campus of the University of Alberta is doing in terms of community development. I believe that will be happening.

[Jean Johnson]

Quite simply, the FCAA, which speaks on behalf of the community, has established strategies for the purposes of consulting the community, community forums and so on. We review our plans, strategies and priorities on a yearly basis in order to ensure that we are on the right path.

In terms of planning, we have a systematic process. Mr. Arnal referred to the fact that we want to make all community organizations accountable to their communities. In order to achieve this, we have signed four cutting-edge agreements in the following sectors: economy, arts and culture, sports and recreation, and health.

These organizations will speak on behalf of their sectors and be leaders in their own sector's development. However, once a year, they will be accountable to their communities and they will meet with the board of each association to provide an update of the situation and to account for the past year. That is what Mr. Arnal was talking about.

We would like to do the same for schools. In other sectors, the FCAA has become a leader by default, because there have been no organizations to represent the interests of, for example, immigrant communities. There are only three stakeholders involved in the early childhood sector. We have therefore taken on that role but there is a systematic planning and auditing process.

[Joël Lavoie]

I can speak to the administrative process.

[The Vice-Chair, NDP, Yvon Godin]

Thank you, Mr. Johnson.

[Joël Lavoie]

I'll only take a few seconds.

Regardless, Mauril Bélanger, who at the time was the minister responsible for official languages, made the same request. He told us that we had too many priorities and he asked us to choose one. Our priority is very simple, and it took the community 10 minutes to say that it was the Saint-Thomas Health Centre.

That was three years ago. Since then, senior officials have told us that they had the political will, that it may be eligible for funding, but that they did not want to create any precedents within their program.

So, yes, we can establish priorities and yes, we are capable of doing that. We have an entire democratic process in order to do that. However, those priorities have to be respected and the programs have to adjust to the needs of the communities. That is one point.

Furthermore, there used to be yearly agreements between Canada and the community under which joint committees worked with the government in order to establish priorities. That was then dismantled in order to avoid any administrative concerns. Now the community does its work, and Canadian Heritage does its own work and ultimately decides what is good for the community.

We are still trying to figure out exactly what the dialogue and these famous agreements with the Government of Canada mean, because over the past few years, cooperation has been very difficult.

[The Vice-Chair, NDP, Yvon Godin]

Mr. Vincent, earlier on I made a comment about Eastern francophones who come out West and you wanted to speak to that. I would like to hear any comments you wanted to make.

[Dr. Denis Vincent]

It reminds me of something that happened a few weeks ago. This is a situation that is heart wrenching.

A young family from the Gaspésie settled in Edmonton. The spouse works in Fort McMurray, the mother does not speak English very well or not at all. She became sick, and she ended up in emergency for two days. She did not clearly understand what was happening in the hospital. She therefore decided that her children had to learn English as quickly as possible, that they had to learn English.

We'll see where that family ends up on the assimilation curve over the next few years. Those individuals will be anglicized by the time they return to the Gaspésie, if they ever return. These are things that are happening and that we see.

We never imagined that we would see all these people coming here at once. It happened over the summer. Our schools had 20% more students in September than they had last June. There has been massive immigration. We need the necessary tools to welcome these people properly. If we don't succeed, then they will very quickly become anglicized.

[The Vice-Chair, NDP, Yvon Godin]

I want to continue talking about the health care sector, which Mr. Lavoie and Mr. Johnson referred to in response to Mr. Lemieux. What do you see as the government's role? One centre can help many people: a centre could be created where people could go.

We saw one such example in Toronto. The Centre francophone de Toronto provides a number of services, it is incredible. This doesn't mean that we haven't heard complaints from people outside Toronto. We heard many such complaints in Oshawa and other areas, but Toronto was way ahead of the game.

Is this the kind of centre you want?

[Dr. Denis Vincent]

The health care centre is a no-brainer. It is currently being built despite the fact that the federal government has failed to provide significant funding. In my opinion, this should be easy. It is an essential tool, a priority that our community has identified.

[Joël Lavoie]

The amount of $1.2 million represents 5% of the budget over five years.

[Dr. Denis Vincent]

This is exactly the kind of thing that our community needs in order to be able to help everyone in need.

[The Vice-Chair, NDP, Yvon Godin]

A little earlier, we heard the government representative ask you what your priorities were. You do not want to spread the money around, you want to have something tangible at the end. Your recommendations would be in keeping with this idea.

For example, since 2003, the action plan has brought you to where you are now in health. This has helped you enormously and you have had the time to study the action plan. You want a health care centre, but now that you have reached another stage, the government is telling you that this is not part of its mandate, that it's not in its budget and that it doesn't have an envelope for this.

What stage are you at now?

[Jean Johnson]

I want to make two comments.

The first concerns the Saint-Thomas Health Centre. This is a $24 million project. There is a $1.2 million shortfall, and we are still waiting. The only contribution from the federal government would be $1.2 million. Our concern with regard to programs is that there is a program for this, but those responsible don't want to create a precedent. What kind of precedent would be created by giving 5% for a project? The province of Manitoba wouldn't say that, in order to implement a $25 million project, it needed 5% of that amount from the federal government. I fail to understand the logic behind this refusal.

Second, to give you an idea of the scope of immigration to Alberta, there is a job access centre that helps 100 new job seekers per week here in Edmonton. This means that over 400 people are looking for employment and will ask for service in French. This is an access point, and we want to be able to follow up with these individuals in order to provide them with support and help them integrate into the French community.

[Marc Arnal]

In terms of immigration, people are playing with words. If you read our report, you will see that we deliberately play with words. We don't talk about immigrants so much as newcomers. The problem is that these centres receive funding for immigrants. Consequently, there is no funding for newcomers who are not immigrants or refugees.