Official Languages Committee on Dec. 5th, 2006

[Steven Blaney, Conservative, Lévis—Bellechasse, QC]

How many employees do you have?

[Luketa M'Pindou]

Currently, there are two of us. As of January, and thanks to Immigration Canada's Multiculturalism Program, we'll be hiring three new employees as part of the Caravan of Tolerance project, an anti-racism initiative which will be implemented throughout the province and which, among other things, involves organizing workshops in schools.

[Steven Blaney, Conservative, Lévis—Bellechasse, QC]

How many people have you managed to get involved in your activities over the course of the year? Are you more successful with young people?

[Luketa M'Pindou]

We mainly work with francophone immigrant families. There is a youth section and a female francophone immigrant section.

[Steven Blaney, Conservative, Lévis—Bellechasse, QC]

Have you twinned up with Le Franco, for example, or with other such organizations?

[Luketa M'Pindou]

Yes, the organization always encourages partnerships.

[Étienne Alary]

We're very interested in their new project and intend to work with them.

[Steven Blaney, Conservative, Lévis—Bellechasse, QC]

The Caravan of Tolerance?

[Luketa M'Pindou]

That's right.

I should add, in response to a question Mr. Murphy asked me about cutbacks made by the Department of Human Resources and Skills Development to programs to assist youth, those cutbacks did hurt us somewhat because youth crime continues to rise in Edmonton. When you make cutbacks to such programs, you only end up encouraging crime in the community. So, we still have our work cut out for us.

For your information, Edmonton is a city in western Canada where crime is on the rise. I think the government needs to try hard not to make cutbacks to programs that help out youth.

[The Vice-Chair, NDP, Yvon Godin]

There have also been cutbacks made to the international student exchange program. Are you familiar with this program which enables young people to study abroad?

[Josée Devaney]

It may be a post-secondary program.

[The Vice-Chair, NDP, Yvon Godin]

That's right, it's a post-secondary program.

[Josée Devaney]

Then that's not my area of expertise.

[Yvon Godin, NDP, Acadie—Bathurst, NB]

That's not your area. I see.

I would really like to thank you. I think we are lucky. It's true that we don't always agree with the government, but it is there to govern. In any democracy, it is normal for there to be opposition. We raised a number of issues with you, this Canadians. We've discussed these issues and will make recommendations to the government.

On behalf of the members of this committee, I'd like to thank you sincerely for having raised the problems and challenges associated with improving the status of both official languages in Canada.

I'd ask members to check out by 1 p.m. We'll meet in the hotel lobby at 1:15 p.m. We'll be making two site visits. First, the St. Thomas Community Health Centre, in—

[A Voice]

It is Saint-Thomas.

[Denis Collette]

That's right, it is Saint-Thomas. There's the temporary site and the permanent site, Mr. Chairman.

[The Vice-Chair, NDP, Yvon Godin]

I see, the Saint-Thomas Community Health Centre. What did I say?

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

You pronounced it the English way, St. Thomas.

[The Vice-Chair, NDP, Yvon Godin]

Funny, I thought I would have said it the French way. It's something I'm very familiar with, because my father's name was Thomas.

I apologize to my colleagues. As you can see, in a democracy, it doesn't take long for someone to disagree with you.

Then we'll visit the University of Alberta's Saint-Jean Campus. We'll leave Edmonton at 5 p.m. to go to Regina.

Once again, I'd like to thank the members of the public who attended our meetings. I'd also like to thank the representative of the Commissioner of Official Languages as well as the interpreters, technicians, clerks and researchers. Thanks to everybody and have a good day.

This meeting is adjourned.