Official Languages Committee on April 8th, 2008

[Bernard Lord]

Mr. Godin, you can identify these differences just as well as I can. I do not remember exactly how many recommendations there were in the committee report, but I think that there were more than that. Some elements were included because...

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

Could you name one that is of major importance?

[Bernard Lord]

In fact, I am talking about injecting $1 billion.

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

Your telephone is ringing, no doubt, Ms. Verner is calling you.

[Bernard Lord]

No, even better, it's my wife.

[The Chair, Conservative, Steven Blaney]

We will deduct this from the time allotted to Mr. Godin.

[Bernard Lord]

Another specific and different recommendation is the one with regard to the $1 billion, and this is clearly stated in my report. However, it was not stated in the committee's report. Nevertheless, I understand that the mandates were not the same.

Many things are similar to each other. You heard people who told you the same thing. I think that it is important to be able to consult with people, to listen to them and to hear them out as they express their thoughts. I have done my part of the work, which consisted in reporting what the people told me, and I freely chose to make 14 recommendations.

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

You have not answered my questions, except for the one about your $1 billion. With all due respect, you have not found much more than we did.

[Bernard Lord]

Mr. Godin, my mandate did not say that I had to find different things. I do not have your report in hand, but we could look at it together.

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

Just now, you said that you were very glad to have produced a report on arts and culture. This was one of your recommendations. You knew that it was also a part of our recommendations. Thus, there is nothing new. We were telling the minister...

[Bernard Lord]

Mr. Godin, you put a question to me, and I would like to be able to answer it.

You're telling me that is nothing new. However, there are new things as compared to the previous plan. My mandate did not consist in doing your work over again or in being different; it consisted in chairing meetings and consultations as I did in various parts of Canada. Therefore, I have carried out my mandate and I am glad to have done so.

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

Mr. Chairman, let us look at the figures. I think that about $810 million were invested in the action plan. One hundred thirty five million dollars are missing, and we could discuss this later. Then, there is a new recommendation on arts and culture.

Would the amounts be calculated in the same way? Does the addition of arts and culture raise the figure to $1 billion? It is easy to calculate.

[Bernard Lord]

Mr. Godin, I think that we will have to...

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

If we add arts and culture, it will become expensive.

[Bernard Lord]

You ask me a question, but you prevent me from answering it.

The minister has to be given the opportunity to unveil her plan. My job was to conduct consultations. I consulted people who told me all sorts of things, and some of them had told you the same thing. I think it is a good thing that we have an opportunity to hear specific recommendations on important things more than once, particularly on arts and culture.

I allowed myself one recommendation. I said that the billion dollars was a minimum and that afterwards, the government should accept your recommendations...

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

Is it the addition of arts and culture to the action plan that existed previously that meant that the figure is $1 billion? Where does that $1 billion figure come from?

[Bernard Lord]

I decided to specify that a minimum of $1 billion was needed after noting that past investments were about $810 million. The initial plan called for $751 million, and the government invested about $810 million.

Without having taken the time to account for every single item, I thought it was important to indicate an amount. I determined that $1 billion would be the minimum. If the government were to decide that it must invest $1.1 billion, so much the better, if it needed that amount to achieve the objectives defined in the action plan.

However, to support the activities and to achieve the objectives that I heard about, that I mentioned and I think are good ones, $1 billion is a minimum.

[The Chair, Conservative, Steven Blaney]

Thank you, Mr. Godin.

We will now continue with Mr. Jean-Claude D'Amours from the Liberal Party.

[Jean-Claude D'Amours, Liberal, Madawaska—Restigouche, NB]

Thank you for being here with us, Mr. Lord.

You stated that your work was consultative in nature. I therefore will not ask you that question since you have just answered it. Did you have a team of people that helped you quantify the dollar amounts?

[Bernard Lord]

The...

[Jean-Claude D'Amours, Liberal, Madawaska—Restigouche, NB]

Simply answer yes or no. Did you have a team to quantify the dollars?

[Bernard Lord]

The people from the department supported me and accompanied me during the consultations.

[Jean-Claude D'Amours, Liberal, Madawaska—Restigouche, NB]

All right. In responding to a question put by my colleague Mr. Godin, you stated that you based yourself on past amounts to establish the amount of $1 billion. That is exactly what you said.

Mr. Lord, before I put my questions, I consulted our analyst. He confirmed that right now, we are not in a position to know the amounts that were invested or spent as part of the Official Languages Action Plan over each of the past two years. If we were not able to identify that amount, how are you able to do so?

[Bernard Lord]

I am pleased to answer that.

I examined the investments and expenditures that have been made under the previous plan over the past five years as well as other items that had been added. I concluded that $1 billion would be the minimum amount required to achieve those objectives. I requested this information from the department staff who worked with me.

[Jean-Claude D'Amours, Liberal, Madawaska—Restigouche, NB]

That's fine.

Mr. Lord, you state that your analysis is based on the last five years of the action plan. This was the dollar amount. What is the amount per year, over the past two years? When you conducted your analysis, you surely examined how much money had been spent over these past two fiscal years.

What amounts were spent over the past two years as part of the action plan?