All right.
Evidence of meeting #34 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 cuts.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Evidence of meeting #34 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 cuts.
A recording is available from Parliament.
9:15 a.m.
Committee Researcher
The Chair can move the motion, that is usually the rule.
9:15 a.m.
The Clerk of the Committee Ms. Danielle Bélisle
The motion reads as follows:
That, the evidence received during the Committee's Study on Health and on Immigration in Official Languages Minority Communities, be adduced as supplementary evidence for the Study on the Vitality of Official Languages Minority Communities.
9:15 a.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Guy Lauzon
Are you in agreement? Is this all right?
We will now recess for five minutes to allow time for the witnesses to enter.
9:20 a.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Guy Lauzon
Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to the Official Languages Committee. We are beginning the second part of our meeting, in which four witnesses will be taking part. I would ask you to limit your presentations to three minutes. The members will then ask you questions.
Ms. Mariette Carrier-Fraser, you have the floor.
9:25 a.m.
Mariette Carrier-Fraser President, Assemblée de la francophonie de l'Ontario
Good morning. I am the President of the Assemblée de la francophonie de l'Ontario, an organization that has existed only since the month of June. We held our first annual general meeting in June. I do not know whether a brief was submitted to you. If not, it will certainly be sent on later.
Very briefly, the Assemblée truly reflects the drive of French-speaking Ontario. Our vision for Ontario is: a French-speaking Ontario united in its diversity, that shows solidarity in its actions and that is collectively committed to its well-being.
The AFO is truly inclusive. In terms of diversity, for example, we have representatives of ethnocultural racial minorities, and we have sectoral representatives. In all, 14 sectors are represented on our organization's board of directors. From the geographic standpoint, five of the province's regions are represented. To begin with the geography of Ontario, we have francophones in Thunder Bay, Orillia, Kingston, Toronto, Ottawa, etc. This means that for francophones to get together, people have to travel, sometimes more than 1,000 kilometres, to come and see us in Ottawa to attend meetings. For the francophonie, the geography of Ontario is rather vast.
There is also a feeling of isolation within the francophone community. It is often said that people are isolated in rural communities, but the francophone community in Toronto is also isolated. There may be 50,000 francophones in a city, but when there are 2 million in the province as a whole, it is not necessarily easy to be in touch with one another.
Interests vary from one community to another. In the small town of Hearst—where I was born, and my parents still live—the population is 98% francophone. My mother has lived there for 80 years and does not speak English at all. Elsewhere, in southern Ontario, the situation is completely different.
For the first time this year, we did some strategic planning and established two development thrusts, because we did not want to spread ourselves too thin. We said to ourselves that as a new organization, it was important for us to make sure that we did not try to do too much at the same time. The two objectives we set were organizational capacity—because we are a new organization, and must make sure that we can do the work properly—and strengthening our political actions. We need to make sure that what we do is based on facts.
We have a few priorities: collaboration and coordination among sectors, regions and racial minorities; communications; increasing the number of services in French. From the political standpoint, with respect to increasing French-language services, we turn mainly towards the province, and to the French Language Services Act, etc.
Another priority is visibility and recognition from governments: the work of the provincial association in recent years did not have much of an impact because the group was in the process of restructuring. Now that things are in place, we want to make sure that we are much more visible and in a position to increase financial resources and government support.
In terms of being dynamic, the meetings that were held over the past few months showed that there was solid representation from the francophone population.
I will list the 14 sectors I was just mentioning: seniors and retired people; special needs; communications; community development; education—there is the whole aménagement linguistique issue that affects several levels, even the colleges—; youth—which is very much engaged: we have a very strong youth organization in Ontario; it is perhaps the strongest organization of its kind in Canada—; the municipal sector and urban planning; the arts, culture and heritage; cultural centres and community development; cooperatives; the economy; women; justice, and lastly, health. All of these sectors are very dynamic and very well represented on our board. There are many different activities just about everywhere in the province within these groups.
As for ethnocultural racial minorities, as I was saying, there are four sitting on our association. It is essential, and it is included in our by-laws and regulations: we need to have ethnocultural racial minorities within our organization. There are other members who are members of racial minorities, but not elected as representatives of the racial minorities. They are simply elected as people from the community. Thus, we have five regional representatives.
The challenge to us as an organization, and what we want to do with government assistance and cooperation, is not to make demands on Parliament Hill, but to work with government to move our issues forward.
The important issues for us are: increased funding for the francophone community—it is almost impossible to do the work we need to do as an organization; we have over 1,000 in Ontario—increase in services and having the federal government consult the community.
Thank you, Mr. Lauzon.
9:25 a.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Guy Lauzon
I now have the pleasure of welcoming one of my neighbours, Ms. Brisebois, of Cornwall.
You have the floor.
9:25 a.m.
Francine Brisebois Centre culturel de Cornwall, Stormont, Dundas et Glengarry
Thank you for having me here today.
I am here as the Executive Director of the Centre culturel de Cornwall. This cultural centre has the following goals: to ensure the unity and safeguard of francophone culture; to study the measures needed to encourage progress; the promote the tourism industry; to strengthen cooperation, unity and friendship among French Canadians; to safeguard francophone customs and traditions and give them pride of place; and to promote arts and culture.
As the Executive Director, I have several concerns: social change; demographic statistics; civil rights, obligations and responsibilities; francophone social, cultural and artistic services; the quality and quantity of our services; francophone community integration services; various sources of funding; social impacts; the next francophone generation; and the involvement of professionals. Those then are the major interests. There are several points that stand out as important for my region.
I find that three minutes to explain 45 years of operations is not a lot. I didn't think I would have only three minutes to speak to you about the problem being experienced by our francophone community.
I am a Franco-Ontarian who lives in a francophone minority region. I got involved in the cultural centre because I found that francophone culture was missing in our region. Personally, I encountered many challenges in growing both culturally and academically. The cultural centre is trying to continue its development. We have been collaborating for 45 years and we intend to keep our francophone community.
At the moment, funding is the main problem being faced by the cultural sector, particularly after the substantial cuts it experienced this year. These cuts are threatening the survival of the centre and the survival of our francophone communities.
Last year, we presented a development plan to the Ministry of Citizenship and Immigration. The plan focuses on the following: developing access to infrastructures, resources and equipment needed for the development of the francophonie; promoting coordination and solidarity among socio-cultural communities; promoting the francophone identity.
How much time do I have left?
9:30 a.m.
Centre culturel de Cornwall, Stormont, Dundas et Glengarry
To conclude, I would like to see a support program established at the Centre culturel de Cornwall that is based on a federal-provincial-community agreement, in collaboration with inter-, extra- and intra-ministerial cooperation, to jointly articulate the cultural development of our minority francophone communities.
I am fortunate to be working with people from different ethnic backgrounds from different countries. Geographically, the region we live in is reasonably strategic and it is experiencing some serious economic development problems. These problems are having an impact on the community, particularly in education.
We have lots of statistics and important points, but I don't think I have the time to present them to you today.
9:30 a.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Guy Lauzon
Thank you, Ms. Brisebois.
Our next witness is Mr. Pierre Bourbeau, Director General of the Fédération culturelle canadienne-française.
9:30 a.m.
Pierre Bourbeau Director General, Fédération culturelle canadienne-française
Good morning.
As I have only three minutes, I will do without the acknowledgments and not bother with our organization's presentation. I nevertheless want to tell you that I am here on behalf of our President, René Cormier, who lives in New Brunswick. It is unfortunately impossible for him to be here today.
When the Action Plan for Official Languages was launched in 2003, we noted that the arts and culture sector for the Canadian francophonie was not mentioned. The FCCF therefore recommended to the federal government some changes designed to include the cultural component. In our view, these components are still relevant, and we will present them to you today in four parts.
First of all, to promote effective cultural action in the francophone and Acadian communities, with a view to cultural dissemination and the consolidation of the cultural and artistic network, the FCCF recommends that the federal government introduce two things.
The first is an Official Languages in Culture Program. This would be similar to something that already exists in the field of education, and which is called the OLEP, the Official Languages in Education Program. Alongside this program, the FCCF would like to initiate an intensive discussion process to determine the exact nature and scope of its mandate.
Then, we suggest the creation of a strategic arts and cultural industries fund. This supra-sectoral fund would make up for some of the flaws in existing programs. In concrete terms, it would mean that hybrid organizations and their initiatives—culture, arts and cultural industries—would have access to an additional source of funding to consolidate the cultural sector.
There have been significant impacts over the past few years in cultural dissemination and distribution. Challenges remain in terms of building infrastructures in the region—we have just seen a good example—and distribution networks that would be able to meet the special challenges of Canada's francophonie, and to deal with technological change.
This moves us to part two. Over the past year, French Canadian artistic creation and production has been able to establish national platforms to support artists and organizations, as well as businesses, in our communities.
The FCCF therefore recommends the implementation of an arts and culture framework agreement that would have a specific budget, based on the model used for funding national organizations over a period of five years; the establishment of strategic inter- and intra-departmental partnerships under the leadership of the DG-OLSP; the opportunity to encourage new IPOLS agreements, the inter-departmental partnership with official language communities, and to enhance existing agreements; greater equity and increased access to funding from federal cultural agencies and federal departments; and greater accountability from these bodies.
I now come to part three. Culture and education are the mainstay in promoting language and affirming identity. The education summit held in June 2005 confirmed this perception and identified a thrust that it called the "school identity and culture role". The FCCF recommends a significant investment to support the language-culture-education link initiative.
We come now to the fourth and final aspect. Several other community development sectors include initiatives that support the integration and recognition of culture in developing communities, for example economic development, immigration and early child care. The FCCF would like to see arts and culture included when federal-provincial agreements are negotiated or included in other agreements mentioned in the previous sections.
The FCCF recommends that the next formal mechanism for inter-departmental coordination in relation to official languages include an arts and culture component; that the fundamental nature of culture also be reflected in the other portions of the next mechanism; that it encourage the implementation of cultural projects and that the accountability framework be extended to federal institutions involved in the arts and culture.
We believe that the time has come for the federal government to perpetuate the current Action Plan for Official Languages and that it is now more than ever necessary to give proper recognition to the contribution of artists, cultural agencies and industries of the Canadian francophonie. The most recent recommendations made to the federal government by the Standing Committee on Finance in its report entitled "Canada: Competing to Win" are consistent with these recommendations, and we are pleased to see this.
Pierre de Coubertin said: "It is not enough to blaze the trails; we most often go back over them, over and over, to expand them and make them passable."
9:35 a.m.
Director General, Fédération culturelle canadienne-française
Did I meet the three-minute time limit?
9:35 a.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Guy Lauzon
Yes, you did.
We will resume our round of questions, with five minutes for each one.
Mr. D'Amours.
9:35 a.m.
Liberal
Jean-Claude D'Amours Liberal Madawaska—Restigouche, NB
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Ladies and gentlemen, I would like to thank you for being here today. There has been talk of budget cuts, but at least you were able to make your presentations without being interrupted.
I would like to raise a matter. Ms. Carrier-Fraser, you spoke earlier about consultation, and Ms. Brisebois spoke about cuts in Cornwall. As the name of your cultural centre takes a long time to say, I will simply use the term “Cornwall”.
Were you consulted before the budget cuts were made?
9:35 a.m.
Liberal
Jean-Claude D'Amours Liberal Madawaska—Restigouche, NB
I can no longer recall which of you said that being able to obtain services in French was a right and that it was also a federal government obligation. If it is our right to obtain these services and the federal government has an obligation to provide them, how do you explain the cuts that were made to the official language communities, whether to the Court Challenges Program, to Status of Women Canada or to literacy? I will not waste my time by naming all of them. If we have a right and the government has an obligation, then someone is failing to live up to their duties. I hope that you are like Ms. Brisebois. I hope that you do not need to come before the committee to explain to your federal member the problems you are experiencing at home. Does one of you have something to say about this?
9:40 a.m.
President, Assemblée de la francophonie de l'Ontario
I think that when Ms. Brisebois talks about cuts, she is referring mainly to cuts to this year's programs. Canadian Heritage nevertheless has a rather limited budget to support organizations. The number of organizations in Ontario alone is increasing, but the pie is still the same size. To ensure that francophone organizations and associations receive some funding, the amount allocated to each of the organizations is being reduced so that everyone gets a little. The organizations then have trouble not only living, but surviving.
9:40 a.m.
Liberal
Jean-Claude D'Amours Liberal Madawaska—Restigouche, NB
What use is the program? I have my own ideas about that, but what purpose does it serve for you? Would it not by any chance help to ensure the vitality of the communities?
9:40 a.m.
President, Assemblée de la francophonie de l'Ontario
That is what we are doing. The development and vitality of communities is our job. Whether we are talking about cultural centres or the ACFOs, all of the organizations have responsibilities with respect to the vitality and development of the communities, just as the federal government has this responsibility. We cannot do it with the means available to us at this time.
9:40 a.m.
Liberal
9:40 a.m.
Centre culturel de Cornwall, Stormont, Dundas et Glengarry
Our programs represent the continued development of francophone culture. If our programs are cut, it will mean cutting our youth summer camp program. Thirty young people go to an immersion cultural summer camp to maintain their French during the summer. If I can no longer offer the program, its absence will be felt.