Official Languages Committee on Jan. 30th, 2007

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

Exactly.

[Roger Lavoie]

And the RDEEs work with these people.

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

That's right.

[Pierre Bélanger]

In any case, we are not trying to repeat what is already been done. Across Canada, it varies depending on the structure of each region. We certainly are not trying to do what others are doing already or to interfere with their accomplishments.

We are also working with the Collège d'Alfred, on other agricultural projects, and with L'écho d'un peuple.

[Pierre Bélanger]

Our development agents are helping these people restructure and refinance their organizations. For us, all of this has to do with the development of employability and with the economic development of communities. It is very productive.

I will give you a quick example if I have time, Mr. Chairman. You are motioning in my direction. You're scaring me.

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

It's a good five minutes.

[Pierre Bélanger]

You are a good troop leader.

[The Chair, Conservative, Guy Lauzon]

You have 30 seconds.

[Pierre Bélanger]

Speaking of active offer, Mr. Lavoie referred to the Agriculture Canada Vision program. The program involved giving a small grant of $25,000 to rural communities to hire a professional consultant who would help them define their assets, their needs, what the future held, what threats they faced, and to basically get organized. The program was not used by francophone communities. When we realized this, we took advantage of meetings with representatives from the federal government to tell them that we could perhaps promote the program for them. We certainly promote it a lot: we raised $1.5 million in grants, which represented 60 Vision programs in all. Communities had no problems with this, and it yielded fantastic benefits for Manitoba. So now, communities have a real structure.

As for follow-up, Industry Canada manages 153 programs targeting small- and medium-sized businesses. Do both anglophones and francophones take advantage of all these programs? Surely not. Our officials would like to work with the department to target relevant programs to francophone communities. That's basically the work we do. So, in our case, we are not so concerned with the court challenges, as is Mr. Godin, although they do have their place. Rather, our interest lies with the value added of official languages, of the francophonie throughout Canada, from an economic point of view. And we do a fairly good job of it.

[The Chair, Conservative, Guy Lauzon]

Mr. Bélanger, it's a little over—

[Pierre Bélanger]

—over 30 seconds?

Just a bit

It's a complex subject.

[The Chair, Conservative, Guy Lauzon]

We will ask Luc Malo to ask the next question.

[Luc Malo, Bloc, Verchères—Les Patriotes, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Earlier, Mr. Bélanger, you said that you wanted the government to make an active rater than a passive offer, which would consist in simply providing information. In your experience, has an active offer already been attempted?

[Pierre Bélanger]

I don't think so, at least not with specific targets. I think that this was done, but with Canadians generally. If we agree that we need to target minority communities and that sometimes we need to refine the program or provide an active offer, and promote that offer, it's more about promoting and using the program, and this work is done by our officers. We need to want to do it. If we take a bureaucratic position, meaning that the program is available for francophones, anglophones, allophones, immigrants and that they need only ask for it, I would say that this is a neutral offer. An active offer means ensuring that the program is used and that we maximize the spinoffs. I don't think this was done most of the time.

[Roger Lavoie]

May I answer that question, Mr. Chair?

I want to use the example of Agriculture Canada's Vision program. At the time, we identified this program, we went to see the people at Agriculture Canada and we talked with them. We said that this program could benefit the francophone and Acadian communities, and that only a few aspects needed to be changed to make it relevant to our communities. The department agreed to the changes. To some extent, the program was co-managed with our network. Why wasn't this experience repeated? Often, we realize one of the reasons things work is because there is an assistant deputy minister who believes in it and who does the work. But once that individual leaves, we have to start all over again. Often, it depends on a single person within the department.

With regard to the active offer, I would say that one of the departments doing an excellent job is Human Resources and Social Development. We have been working with these people for a number of years. They presented a brief to cabinet, they have ensured that we are closely associated with their work and that we are consulted. We shared our objectives, etc. The program that resulted from the brief to Cabinet is not perfect, but it is still a step in the right direction. Thank you.

[Luc Malo, Bloc, Verchères—Les Patriotes, QC]

Earlier, Mr. Provencher, you said that one of the challenges you would face over the coming years was community revitalization. I know that next March, the Yukon will host the Canada Games. Are you associated with this event as a francophone community and will it enable you to revitalize the community to some extent, in preparation for the Games?

[Léopold Provencher]

We have a delegation that will take part, and the Franco-People of the North youth committee obtained sufficient financial support to make a significant contribution to the Games being held in March in the Yukon. So, a delegation from our region will attend and people from the Yukon will go to Hay River. This is a major contribution. This is a tool for revitalization, clearly focused more on youth, but yes, it has been well received.

[Luc Malo, Bloc, Verchères—Les Patriotes, QC]

Will these events have intermediate and long-term spinoffs?

[Léopold Provencher]

It is difficult to quantify the spinoffs of various events for youth. I think that investing in young people so they can see things, forge ties, open their minds to new realities and host people is good for the future. It is a good investment, even if it is not easy to measure the benefits.

[Luc Malo, Bloc, Verchères—Les Patriotes, QC]

Ms. St-Laurent, you painted a fairly bleack picture of the situation in health care not only in the francophone community but for everyone in the Yukon.

Based on your comments, there really is no light at the end of the tunnel. Could you explain this in greater detail?

[Sandra St-Laurent]

In the Territories, it's dark half the year, but light the other half.

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

Is that a light?

[Sandra St-Laurent]

Yes, that's the light.

We had time to tell you about our needs, but we didn't have time to tell you about our success stories. For three years now, we've had a territory-wide anti-smoking program, and it's a first. The anglophones in the three Territories can't even work together on the issue of smoking.

The networks allow us to hold workshops and share resources. We have opened public health resource centres. We provide training and support to new families. The average age our people become parents is 25 to 35. So we're talking about very young families. We provide them with support because, often, they come from across Canada and even from francophone Europe.

All these services are made possible by the networks. Today, I am not representing the Association franco-yukonnaise but rather the network. I can however tell you that this association is working to obtain more health care services. The creation of the networks in 2003 has allowed us to provide the services. We are not able to provide the community with all the necessary services, but there are services.

There is a certain level of mobilization in this area. I have been in the Tterritories for nine years now and I see significant progress in this area. In the past, no representative of the territorial and federal governments sat at our table but now several of them do. This progress has been made possible by the creation of these networks.

[The Chair, Conservative, Guy Lauzon]

Unfortunately, Ms. St-Laurent, we have exceeded the allotted time.

Mr. Godin.

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

Mr. Chairman, I want to begin by making another comment.

I think it is unfortunate that you started fighting two years in advance. The Liberals were in power at the time, and thanks to the Court Challenges Program, you were able to win your case. They had nothing to brag about, because sometimes going before the courts is essential. Since the Conservatives decided that they no longer want you to go before the courts, they cut the program. But let's not talk about that right now.

With regard to the 1.25-person equivalent and the fact that service in French is provided only in the morning, what do you suggest we do? In my opinion, the fact that this service is provided only before noon contravenes the Official Languages Act. You already won another case. This means that perhaps you could challenge in court the fact that there is only 1.25 person-years and that the service is only available in the morning, and win again.

People cannot get services in our language in the afternoon. It's true that some people speak a language other than French or English and are unable to obtain services in that language. Be that as it may, Canada is a bilingual country with two official languages. Although this fact has been recognized for years, we're still forced to fight. No one can slap himself on the back and take the credit, because there is little credit to take.

What could we suggest in our report to rectify the situation?