Official Languages Committee on Dec. 6th, 2006

[Dominique Sarny]

We must absolutely sensitize those who are working in our institutions. I, for one, work in the university. If my university is not aware that this money is to be used to advance francophone issues through education, I could go on arguing relentlessly, all for naught. I could even lose this money.

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

It was earmarked for official languages.

[The Vice-Chair, NDP, Yvon Godin]

That reminds me of the plan to build Highway 30 in Montreal, which was announced three times. It takes time and I think that is the message we are hearing. It's all very well and good to announce funding, but then the funding has to come through. It's all very well and good to have a plan of action, but even the Official Languages Commissioner herself was forced to intervene to ask where the money was. Communities are waiting. This has to be said and people have to know. That is exactly what happened. That is one of the reasons why we wanted to visit you in your environment to see how you perceive this plan. We appreciate your comments. The Standing Committee on Official Languages has the responsibility to report to Parliament. Based on what you said, it is not a bad plan, but it must be implemented and you need the money which was announced. If funding has been approved, the plan must be put in action, and that is not our responsibility if the necessary infrastructure is not in place yet. We must be ready to implement the plan and not intervene three years from now to say that millions of dollars were announced, but since communities did not know what to do with it, they lost the money. That represents a great danger.

You are partners on the ground, you see what is happening every day and you have ideas. It's a bit like the attitude a company might have. In the past, people worked for a company and they parked their brains at the factory door. They had to listen to their boss tell them what to do all day long and they were not allowed to say what they thought. There was one boss and people had to do what he said. But companies have changed. They realized that it was to their advantage to put the brains and the intelligence of their employees to good use. The same thing applies to this situation. You are the francophones on the ground.

In summary, would you say that the action plan represents the right direction and that since we have now made some progress, we must evaluate the future direction of the plan and ask the government what it is willing to invest to ensure continuity in the interest of French becoming a national language which is respected and in which francophone communities can function in a united Canada?

[Michel Dubé]

Thank you for that summary. I would like you to give the floor to Ms. Lepage so she can briefly address the issue of the status of women. May I ask for the indulgence of the committee?

[The Vice-Chair, NDP, Yvon Godin]

I can only give you permission if I receive the unanimous consent of the committee. Is there unanimous consent?

[Some members]

Yes.

[The Vice-Chair, NDP, Yvon Godin]

We will therefore give her the opportunity to speak. I would like you to tell us who you are and tell us about your association.

[Maria Lepage, President, Fédération provinciale des fransaskois]

My name is Maria Lepage. I am the President of the Fédération provinciale des Fransaskoises. Our organization works to maintain and improve the well-being of francophone women in Saskatchewan. Our organization is part of the network of the Alliance des femmes de la francophonie du Canada.

We want to underscore the significance of the closing of Status of Women Canada's offices, because they helped us do our work on the front lines, and say just how disappointed we are.

It's not that we received a lot of money, but at least we had a voice. Women are especially affected by the lack of education. When we talk about the education of women, we talk about literacy, early childhood education, entrepreneurship and the social economy in Saskatchewan.

Training is provided by the Service fransaskois de formation aux adultes, or SEFFA, and the corporation of the Collège Mathieu. Ninety per cent of the people who take French literacy training are women. And it is only women who take French training for teaching assistants in the area of early childhood education and day care. On the French side, the same holds true for college level courses in entrepreneurship and as far as Saskatchewan's social economy is concerned.

We need a bigger envelope for literacy and education to help the community and women who for the most part work in these sectors. The decision must be reviewed. Something has to be done so that there is money for front-line workers, so that women can receive training, which will lead to greater economic independence, and which in turn will help us progress. This will also help uphold women's rights because in the last two months we have had the impression of going back 50 years. I therefore want this committee to make a real effort to tell the federal government about the needs of francophone women in Saskatchewan, and that the government take further measures to help them.

[The Vice-Chair, NDP, Yvon Godin]

Thank you, Ms. Lepage. We will now move on to Mr. Murphy.

[Brian Murphy, Liberal, Moncton—Riverview—Dieppe, NB]

I agree with you completely, but I have one brief question to ask you. The government has often said that it is only making cuts to advocacy rights funds. The government does not want to inject funds into advocacy. Is this the truth?

[Maria Lepage]

It is partly true. But we need certain criteria, and this is what is needed by all Canadian women. Despite what the minister for the Status of Women has said, we have not achieved equality. Let us be realistic in Canada. Let us stop inventing stories about women and their place in society.

[Brian Murphy, Liberal, Moncton—Riverview—Dieppe, NB]

I understand.

May I go on, Mr. Chairman?

[The Vice-Chair, NDP, Yvon Godin]

You have four minutes remaining.

[Brian Murphy, Liberal, Moncton—Riverview—Dieppe, NB]

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Mr. Ferré, you did not have enough time to tell us everything you wished to say about your recommendation. Why do you want to launch a national marketing campaign? What would you do? What are your goals and what kind of audience are you trying to target?

[Denis Ferré]

Allow me to give you a brief overview. I'm also a member of the Regroupement national des directions générales de l'éducation, which works in concert with the national federation of francophones school boards.

Publicizing our French-language schools is one of the major components of our work. We want this to be visible across the country.

Here, we have referred to a regional francophonie, or a regional bilingualism. We know that we want to make sure that the language is spoken properly, and can be understood from sea to sea. But we need money for this. If we have to do this ourselves, we would have to take it from the money that has been set aside for our children. In other words, if we decide to invest in marketing, we will be taking it out of the budget allocated for our children.

Why do we have to do this? Eighty per cent of families in Saskatchewan are exogamous. The language spoken at home is English. Where are they going to see the advertising and announcements? They will be finding it in the anglophone media, television, and on posters. If we take money from the school boards' budgets to buy posters and billboard space along the number 11 highway between Regina and Saskatoon, I believe I will soon have to start selling shoes.

In other words, if we truly believe in linguistic duality in this country, we must make investments. Today, we live in an era of visual technology and we can use all sorts of methods such as flash, and so on and so forth. Dear colleagues, I believe that we must start investing in a pan-Canadian project because all school boards are pointing in this direction.

[Brian Murphy, Liberal, Moncton—Riverview—Dieppe, NB]

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

[The Vice-Chair, NDP, Yvon Godin]

Mr. Blaney.

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

I would like to come back to a comment made by Ms. Lepage, whom, I wish to thank for coming here to share her concerns with us.

Of course, I may be going beyond our appointed subject, but I believe that there is a link, because half of all francophones are women. I don't know if you have submitted your document, but if you wish, I can forward it to the appropriate authority. I believe that it is Heritage Canada.

[The Vice-Chair, NDP, Yvon Godin]

We would appreciate having the document sent to the clerk. He will have it translated and then sent out to all members of the committee.

You can continue, Mr. Blaney.

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

I very much appreciated your comments.

I want to come back to a key sentence: “We must find the way to make French not only an official language, but a national language”. To this end, minorities have a leadership role to play. Leadership is often being discussed these days.

My colleagues sitting across from me took part in a leadership contest last week. As well, our own leader has shown leadership by ensuring national unity in his famous motion. Yesterday, we had a sense of the need to reinforce the importance of linguistic minorities in Canada.

Is it your impression that the government has shown leadership in this respect in recent years? At this point in time, do you feel that there's a need to reaffirm leadership? If so, in what way?

I would like to hear your comments on this.

[Bernard Roy]

Mr. Harper's most recent statements regarding the Quebec nation give us pause. We want to be involved in that thought process. This motion got us thinking because the following morning, the media were calling us to ask us what we thought of it, what we were going to do about it as Franco-Saskatchewanians and how the community was going to react.

First off, it is clear that the Assemblée communautaire fransaskoise recognizes that the people of Quebec have the right to identify themselves as they choose and as they already do, in fact. I think that this issue allows francophones outside of Quebec an opportunity to start a debate and get involved in the definition of this nation, for the benefit of all of government working on the building of this nation, which we alluded to earlier on. We are very interested in the matter and have had an opportunity to say so today.

I personally would like the government to consult us on the ways in which to build a francophone nation outside Quebec. As you know, outside of Quebec, there are more than 1 million of us, plus another 1 million people who speak French. So, it is important for us to be included in this consultation process.

We also have work to do with the Government of Quebec and the work that it is doing to support francophone communities outside Quebec.

I'd also like to mention that the ACF and the Franco-Saskatchewanian community as a whole want to move from a notion of minorities towards a notion of full-fledged citizens. I know that Mr. Denis alluded to this earlier on. That is how we want to contribute to the definition of the French-Canadian nation and of Quebec.

We are of the view that there are three founding peoples in Canada: anglophones, francophones and first nations. There are two official languages in Canada, and they are both national languages. To really get that message out throughout the country and help francophones outside Quebec, the government, regardless of who is in power in the coming months and years, will have to show leadership.

Some francophones were born here and in other francophone communities outside Quebec. We should avoid using the word "minority". All francophones, be they from Quebec, Acadie, Ontario, France or Africa, are part of the francophone Canadian diaspora. These people need to feel like they are part of the Canadian francophonie.

[The Vice-Chair, NDP, Yvon Godin]

Thank you.

Mr. Simard, you have two minutes.

[Raymond Simard, Liberal, Saint Boniface, MB]

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

I'm fascinated by all that the communities have managed to do with so little. It is incredible. We have come a long way in the field of education since gaining control over our school divisions.

Mr. Gauthier, you discussed the field of health care. When you look at the infrastructure which has been established over the last three years in this area, it is unbelievable. For instance, in Manitoba, people have to work on one sector at a time because they do not have the resources to do it all at the same time.

Where I come from, economic development happened over a ten-year period. Now, we can say that it is solid. It is unshakable. We have 30 employees and one permanent staff member.

We've heard that in the next plan we need to focus on the communications sector, which has always been somewhat neglected, and the cultural sector. We take culture for granted in a way and seem to think that it will never die. However, people in the cultural sector have told us they felt they had been somewhat brushed aside by the plan.

Would you agree that communications and culture are the next two sectors we should focus on? And could you tell us how economic development in Saskatchewan is fairing? Do you have a structure in place for community economic development, for instance?

[The Vice-Chair, NDP, Yvon Godin]

[Editor's Note: Inaudible]

[Michel Dubé]

We have a structure, the Conseil de la coopération de la Saskatchewan. This organization targets economic development, but it needs constant support because it involves political lobbying and other things. So, there is a structure in place, but we do have to support it.