Thank you.
Evidence of meeting #32 for Official Languages in the 39th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was saskatchewan.
Evidence of meeting #32 for Official Languages in the 39th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was saskatchewan.
Executive Director, Assemblée communautaire fransaskoise
My answer is yes for communications and yes for culture. With respect to early childhood, we discussed the matter but it has not yet been included in our work.
With respect to communications, it has to be done asymmetrically. We could look at community radio. This is not New Brunswick. You can't set up community radio here like you would in the Acadian peninsula.
Conservative
Sylvie Boucher Conservative Beauport—Limoilou, QC
I see that there are several challenges to take up and note that you are the elite in your respective fields and that you have managed to build something quite impressive so far.
Mr. Desgagné, I would like to know what your biggest achievement has been to date. And could we build on that formula and apply it to another field to get things to work just as well?
Executive Director, Assemblée communautaire fransaskoise
That is a rather difficult question. The greatest achievement is to be able to live life in French in western Canada and to continue to do so. That is what comes to my mind. The achievements are those of the community, and they are the result of the synergy that exists between people who share the same passion and desire.
If I had to focus on one thing it would be to change the culture surrounding all of this development and do so at all levels of government. In that way, we would not be receiving the gift of an 11% increase, but rather an investment, and we would benefit from the partnerships between government and the community for the development of this wonderful country of ours called Canada.
That's how I see things.
Conservative
Sylvie Boucher Conservative Beauport—Limoilou, QC
Partnerships. All right.
Does anyone have anything to add?
Director of Education, Division scolaire francophone no. 310, Conseil scolaire fransaskois
If we can say that we've achieved some success to date, it is certainly because of the human resources we have. If we decide to target anything at all, we cannot forget the main participants involved, those who sit on associations, boards, etc. In other words, human resources.
To promote development, you need to invest. Thirty thousand dollars per year is not enough to guarantee that we will be able to keep the leaders that we now have.
Superintendant of Education, Conseil scolaire fransaskois
I'd like to add that some day we're going to have to say that French is a national language and start educating people, instead of pitting people against one another on the issue of language.
The people of Canada have two languages, and that sets us apart from the American people. The beauty of Canada is this ability to work together, to respect one another and build something for the future not by pitting people against one another, but by building something positive.
NDP
The Vice-Chair NDP Yvon Godin
Thank you very much.
On that note, I would like to thank you all most sincerely. It was an honour for us to meet with you here, in Regina, to have this dialogue with you and to ask you the questions we needed to ask in preparation for our report to Parliament.
We hope that you also appreciated having this meeting held in your region. The committee has been in existence for 25 years yet it had never travelled until now. There is a reason for this trip, and we certainly hope that we will be able to take other trips in the future, to see how we are doing, because it is by following up and engaging in a dialogue that we will be able to know if we are moving forward.
I would like to ask everyone to remain seated. We get to be movie stars for just a moment, if you don't mind. Once I've called for the adjournment, I would like you to stay seated because Radio-Canada wants to take a few shots of our group.
And now, a few announcements. At 10:45, the committee must leave the hotel to go to the Regina community school centre. We will be there until 12:30. Then we will go to the airport to fly to Winnipeg. You'll get additional information on the bus heading for the airport.
Once again, I want to sincerely thank you on behalf of the Standing Committee on Official Languages. It was a pleasure for us to be here with you in Regina. We certainly hope that once the report is introduced in Parliament, the Government of Canada will react very quickly for the good of the French language, recognized in Canada as being equal to the English language, and to our aboriginal peoples. Thank you.
The meeting is adjourned.
