Official Languages Committee on April 8th, 2008

[The Chair, Conservative, Steven Blaney]

Good morning. Welcome to the 24^th meeting of the Standing Committee on Official Languages. This morning it is our pleasure to welcome the Special Advisor on the reshaping of the Official Languages Action Plan, the Honourable Bernard Lord. Allow me to welcome him on behalf of the committee members.

Before going any further, I would like to mention that I was struck by your report's first recommendation on the importance of education for minority-community development. That is an opinion shared by our committee members and it was one of our recommendations.

Without any further delay, I will turn the floor over to our guest. I would like to remind you that you have 10 minutes for your opening remarks, which will be followed by a round of seven-minute questions for each party, followed by five-minute-question rounds.

Mr. Lord, you have the floor.

[Bernard Lord, Special Advisor for the Consultations on Linguistic Duality and Official Languages, Government of Canada]

Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.

It gives me great pleasure to be here today. I am here on your invitation to speak to you about my work as special advisor to the government on official languages.

The bulk of this work began in December. We held consultations throughout the country. We went to Vancouver, Winnipeg, Edmonton, Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal, Moncton and Halifax. At the same, consultations took place on-line. I also met with certain groups and individuals on an individual basis, including the official languages commissioners of Canada, New Brunswick and Ontario. These were very productive and constructive meetings. The individuals who participated were pleased to be there and had good ideas.

A considerable amount of work had already been accomplished. My mandate did not involve repeating that work. On the contrary, the purpose was to build on the work already accomplished, including your own. Mr. Chairman, I would like to thank you for having sent me a copy of this committee's report and for the conversations that we had on this topic. You also kept me up to date on the work that you were doing, which I greatly appreciated.

Many people are interested in the status of official languages in our country and they want to participate. They're confident, determined and they want to help our country move forward.

It was a great opportunity for me to travel coast to coast and to meet Canadians who care deeply about their country and care deeply about official languages. I met people who wanted to continue to work to advance both official languages from coast to coast.

Mr. Chair, since I'm here this morning at your invitation, I'm here really to help you in your work. I'll be happy to answer questions, and I've decided to keep my remarks very brief this morning.

[The Chair, Conservative, Steven Blaney]

I must say, Mr. Lord, that you are one of the witnesses who have used the least amount of time for their opening remarks. We will therefore immediately move into a round of questions beginning with the official opposition, Mr. Rodriguez.

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

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Mr. Lord, good morning and welcome.

Were you given a clear and specific mandate when you were asked to undertake this work?

[Bernard Lord]

Absolutely. I had a very clear and specific mandate. You can read the contract I signed with the department, that I have with me here, and that clearly defines my mandate. I can read it to you if you wish.

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

You can just give me a general outline.

[Bernard Lord]

It's quite short. I'll give you the general outline:

The contractor agrees to undertake the following work: first, to chair and moderate consultations with stakeholders invited by the department to regional events and to report on their results to the Minister of Canadian Heritage, Status of Women and Official Languages. If necessary, and with the approval of the project agent, the contractor will also hold consultations with other key stakeholders in the official languages sector. The contractor will chair and moderate seven regional events that will take place in Vancouver, Edmonton, Winnipeg, Toronto, Montreal, Moncton and Halifax. The outcome of those consultations shall be presented in early January as a written report to the Minister of Canadian Heritage, Status of Women and Official Languages, and this will be completed before the wrap-up event in Ottawa. The contractor will speak at the wrap-up event that will take place in Ottawa at the end of January 2008, on the main conclusions drawn from these regional consultations.

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

With your permission, the mandate deals mainly with means of action. It refers to meeting, consulting, travelling, presenting a report, but I would like to know if there were clear components and goals, goals that were set with respect to communities? Were you asked to focus on specific aspects or to avoid, for example, referring to certain aspects?

[Bernard Lord]

Questions were recommended within the consultation framework for the purposes of engaging individuals in a dialogue. There was also an open session that gave all invited stakeholders and all those participating in the consultations over the Internet an opportunity to speak to us on topics of their choice. No limit was set on the number of issues that could be discussed.

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

There was no limit. You weren't asked to focus on certain topics or to avoid others.

[Bernard Lord]

No, on the contrary.

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

The committee—as you know, because you mentioned this—undertook a rather extensive trip as well not long ago. We prepared well for this and we travelled throughout the country. Do you think that another series of consultations, the ones you undertook, were necessary after so many had taken place? Our impression when we listened to the communities was that they wanted us to stop consulting them, because they had told us what they wanted, and to act.

[Bernard Lord]

I believe that the consultations were very productive and constructive. All the groups, organizations and individuals who participated in these consultations were very happy to do so. It should be pointed out that Minister Verner had made a commitment to undertaking further consultations before drawing up the next stage of the action plan. Furthermore, the government made a clear commitment in its Speech from the Throne to establish the next stage of the action plan. Therefore, the consultations were valuable and constructive.

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

But in what way were they different from the committee's consultations? You read the report. Why was it necessary to consult even further? What was different? Did you meet other organizations? I have the impression that you met the same people we did.

[Bernard Lord]

We met many of the same people. At the same time, there were parallel consultations happening over the Internet that gave all Canadians an opportunity to participate and to share with the minister, the department and myself their perspectives on official languages. It was another opportunity, and specific questions were raised with respect to changes in immigration, demographic changes, the economy and government modernization. The minister wanted to provide another opportunity for committees and organizations, to share their perspectives before proceeding with her action plan. That was my mandate and I was happy to fulfill it.

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

Why did you not meet with us; we missed you. Why did you not meet with the official languages committee?

[Bernard Lord]

Why? But I am so pleased to meet with you today.

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

No, I mean during the process. We had a lot to say, we had travelled and met with people.

[Bernard Lord]

I could have easily done this, actually, but I was given such a precise mandate in terms of time and I had been asked to meet primarily with organizations throughout the country. I am assuming that the minister was fully aware of the good work that you do and that she had also received your report. My objective and the mandate that I was given were to meet with other organizations.

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

All right. We would have really liked to have met with you. During our travels, one aspect in particular kept coming up from one end of the country to the other. You know that I am referring to the Court Challenges Program. People talked about this program wherever we went. I'm assuming that this was the same thing for you?

[Bernard Lord]

People talked about this to me everywhere I went. There is absolutely no doubt about that.

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

Why doesn't that figure in your report as such?

[Bernard Lord]

If I may say so, people spoke about this issue everywhere, but that was not the dominating issue at every location. This was an aspect that was discussed, there is no doubt about that, but people were also pleased to talk about other things. There is no doubt that many people told me and repeated that they would like the Court Challenges Program to be restored. Many people made other comments.

If you turn to page 19 of the report, I mention, when we talk about... I'm going to find the line.

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

If I may, Mr. Lord, since you have said that many people mentioned this and that these people were hoping that...

Why isn't this subject dealt with as such in the report? It seems so obvious to us that this is a topic that should have been covered given that you even had to go so far as to hold work sessions on the issue. I am wondering why this was not...

[Bernard Lord]

I am convinced that you did this. If you take a look at page 19 of the report...