Official Languages Committee on Dec. 12th, 2006

[Gaétan Cousineau]

The federation is prepared to work with others to find literacy solutions and tools. Needless to say, French-language centres, spaces and schools are needed. I support Ms. Beaulieu's comments when she said that without places where you can speak French, there will never be a francophone community or a vital francophone community.

Even though they may be francophone, people who work in English and attend English schools end up no longer speaking French at home. I myself am from a Franco-Ontarian family. At the Cousineaus, some no longer speak French because they lived in such an environment. I continue to speak French. To do so, you need tools, facilities, and means. We are prepared to cooperate in finding such means. We have literacy expertise and are prepared to share it with you. People working in this area need support.

[The Chair, Conservative, Guy Lauzon]

Thank you, Mr. Cousineau and Mr. Godin.

I would now ask Mr. Lemieux for the next question.

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

Thank you very much and thank you for your presentation.

I am the member from Glengarry—Prescott—Russell. It is a riding located very close to Ottawa in which 65,000 Franco-Ontarians live. I am therefore very much aware of the challenges and concerns of my fellow Franco-Ontarians.

I would like to begin by making a few of comments about literacy. To fill in some of the gaps, I would like to point out that our government is going to spend $80 million on literacy over the next two years, on programs to help adults improve their reading and writing skills.

I am also currently involved in 10 important initiatives. For example, in Prince Edward Island, the government is going to spend $1.5 million to develop adult skills. There is

Building Island Literacy, Adults Reading Across Canada,

the Alpha Média Réseau project. So there is money, there are initiatives and you have the support of our government.

Nevertheless, I would like to ask Ms. Gagné-Ouellette a question.

I believe that the family is the key. Promoting the francophonie and our heritage begins in the family, particularly with parents. There are resources outside of families to help parents, but the parents need to be helped directly. It is in the family that you learn important things like values, where character is built, and where we acquire our strengths, and other such things.

In their presentations, our witnesses mentioned a concern about exogamous families. There are these concerns. Nevertheless, with respect to families, you did not really say how you were going to work directly with them to promote French at home. If parents do not speak French at home, and if they do not promote their own heritage at home, then I believe that the impact of early childhood services and day care centres in French will perhaps be minimal, because it is in the family that values are established and that important things are emphasized.

Could you speak to us about strategies for working with families, particularly with parents of exogamous families, to improve current conditions in such families?

[Murielle Gagné-Ouellette]

Thank you.

I agree fully with you: there is the whole question of energy and synergy, and values come from the family. I agree with what you have said on this.

On the other hand, with respect to services offered to exogamous families, when we speak of francophone families, exogamous families are included. Indeed, we know—I can no longer remember the percentage—that there are many francophones who are married to members of anglophone families or people from other cultures.

Consequently, exogamous families are included in the strategies of the Commission nationale des parents francophones. In some of our provinces, our parents federations have developed Ex Teams. I am certain that in British Columbia, you have had the opportunity to hear about the Ex Team, which is an initiative of the Fédération des parents francophones de la Colombie-Britannique, and of the British Columbia Francophone School Board. This initiative supports exogamous families by providing them with bilingual documentation to enable the anglophone parent in the family to be involved in the child's education.

If we could have an early childhood and family centre in each of our elementary schools, trust me when I tell you that the anglophone parent would be supported and able to help their children from the moment they are born. Because the decision to speak French to your children is something that occurs the minute the child is born, and sometimes even during pregnancy, which is precisely when parents decide which school their children will be going to: French or English.

If none of our communities has a French school or an early childhood centre, or none nearby, then there will be no option. We are not speaking here only of day care centres, because parents also have the option of sending their children to day care or to keep them at home: I fully agree. On the other hand, if we do not have early childhood and family centres, then there is no alternative.

As francophones, we never had an option, even though we had a right, because there were no francophone schools. The fact is that 20 years ago we did not have French-language schools.

[The Chair, Conservative, Guy Lauzon]

Thank you, Ms. Gagné-Ouellette. Your time is up.

That is the end of our first round of questions. Mr. Rodriguez will begin the second round.

[Pablo Rodriguez, Liberal, Honoré-Mercier, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Good morning to everyone. I am sorry for arriving late.

I am somewhat worried about how the government has been dealing with the cuts in general, and in particular for the communities. There was a time—I don't know if it was in the Action Plan for Official Languages or whether it was official—when there was a process for consulting the communities. I do not know how official it was. Was it part of the accountability framework?

[Marielle Beaulieu]

Yes it was. Not only that, but the action plan had mechanisms for consulting the minister on the one hand, and senior officials on the other, once a year. That is how things were begun and actually held.

[Pablo Rodriguez, Liberal, Honoré-Mercier, QC]

I remember taking part last year. I think that Mr. Lauzon was also there. Were there consultations afterwards?

[Marielle Beaulieu]

No, there were none this year, not since last spring.

[Pablo Rodriguez, Liberal, Honoré-Mercier, QC]

Were any consultations announced?

[Marielle Beaulieu]

None.

[Pablo Rodriguez, Liberal, Honoré-Mercier, QC]

So obviously you were not consulted on the elimination of the Court Challenges Program either.

[Marielle Beaulieu]

Not at all.

[Pablo Rodriguez, Liberal, Honoré-Mercier, QC]

I presume that these consultations should be continued.

[Marielle Beaulieu]

Mr. Rodriguez, when answering a question from Mr. D'Amours, I reported that we had been very surprised when the cuts were announced. Indeed, under the action plan accountability framework, it is very clear that official language communities must be consulted, whether on any new policies or on any changes made to policies that concern them. We were very surprised to see that for the most recent cuts, there had been no consultations.

[Pablo Rodriguez, Liberal, Honoré-Mercier, QC]

I share your concern about this matter. I travelled just about everywhere across the country over the past few months. We would like to see the action plan renewed and ideally, enhanced, and for this to be announced as quickly as possible to enable people to know where they stand. I have been hearing a great deal of talk about enhancing it with a portion set aside for arts and culture. What do you think about that?

[Marielle Beaulieu]

Mr. Rodriguez, on the one hand, the FCFA organized a major summit in which, moreover, the federal government invested a considerable amount of money. The summit should make it possible to clearly determine what guidelines should be followed for the development of the communities over the coming years. To begin with, I think it is important to refer to this event.

On the other hand, in the comments I made earlier, I spoke about the development of schools and other infrastructures. Culture is an important part of that. Over the coming months, we are going to work together with the summit, to a certain extent, to encourage the government to do something in a way that will be consistent with the highest priorities for the communities. The summit should affect not only members of the FCFA, but the whole of the Canadian francophonie, in order to establish future directions.

[Pablo Rodriguez, Liberal, Honoré-Mercier, QC]

Did the day care program put forward by the Liberal government and cut by the Conservatives have measures for the communities?

[Murielle Gagné-Ouellette]

Yes. We worked with the federal government and the provinces to ensure that there would be various measures for francophones in addition to an established percentage. There were different measures for each province. For the first time, the federal-provincial agreements included measures for francophones. It was a first, something that had never before been included in federal-provincial agreements.

[Pablo Rodriguez, Liberal, Honoré-Mercier, QC]

You are talking about measures for francophones outside Quebec.

[Murielle Gagné-Ouellette]

That's correct.

[Pablo Rodriguez, Liberal, Honoré-Mercier, QC]

We might return to that.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

[The Chair, Conservative, Guy Lauzon]

Thank you, Mr. Rodriguez.

Mrs. Boucher.

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

Good morning everyone. I am pleased to be here with you.

As you know, the committee travelled from one end of Canada to the other. We went on-site in the heat of the action to see the reality of francophones outside Quebec. It was very enriching for each and every one of us. I must say that our government and those who work for it believe unshakeably in the francophonie and in official languages.

It is true that there have been cuts; everyone has heard about them. However, I would like to place the situation in perspective, because some of my fellow members on the other side of the House went from $309 million to only $215 million between 1993 and 1999. So this could be a matter for lengthy discussion as well.

During our trip, we heard a great deal about the shortcomings of the Action Plan for Official Languages, and in particular about the lack of planning for communications.

I have a question for Ms. Beaulieu. I believe I understood that you were more or less in agreement with everyone about the fact that there was a lack of communication. As your organization is at the very centre of the Canadian francophonie, could it play a role at this level? Do you have any possible suggestions to give to the government?

[Marielle Beaulieu]

First of all, Ms. Boucher, in connection with the development and implementation of the action plan, the FCFA of Canada played a very important role in terms of coordination and in preparing the consultations that have been held thus far, both at the departmental level and in dealings with senior officials.

The FCFA also spent a great deal of time—in fact I used this term earlier—to inspire the strategy of the government at the time. Rest assured, Ms. Boucher, that we will definitely be pleased to work with the government, no matter what the political party, to properly identify potential solutions for the years to come.

Somewhat earlier, we referred to one possibility, which was the matter of infrastructures. These are definitely out-of-date in some instances, not quite up to the mark in others, and in other areas they are good. But a better balance is needed in terms of infrastructures.

At the FCFA, we feel that the action plan made it possible to accomplish some great things, in particular in health and immigration. The FCFA has always advocated the importance of a comprehensive development plan that involves the communities and governments in action on several fronts. And that leads us to the question of institutional completeness, to which we referred.

There is another factor that strikes me as extremely important. In recent years, there was a component of the action plan that had not really been mentioned much. In fact, there is more than one. The issue of community life was not sufficiently supported to increase vitality, but to go beyond vitality, particularly in terms of increasing the availability of services in French. They should be provided to all citizens in each of the communities.

We talk a lot about achieving genuine equality. However, we can't yet say, even though we remain optimistic, that it exists outside Quebec. I think that this is something important that deserves to be looked at more closely.

I will let my colleagues speak at greater length about arts and culture, but the Action Plan for Official Languages has a number of flaws that could certainly be improved. We would be happy to work with any government.