Official Languages Committee on April 10th, 2008

[Daniel Petit, Conservative, Charlesbourg—Haute-Saint-Charles, QC]

Could we ask the witness for it?

[The Chair, Conservative, Steven Blaney]

If it can be given to the clerk, then we will distribute it to committee members.

[Daniel Petit, Conservative, Charlesbourg—Haute-Saint-Charles, QC]

It will then be sent to committee members.

[The Chair, Conservative, Steven Blaney]

Would that be possible, Mr. Corbeil?

[Daniel Petit, Conservative, Charlesbourg—Haute-Saint-Charles, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

[The Chair, Conservative, Steven Blaney]

Fine. Thank you very much.

I will now give the floor to Mr. Gravel, then to Mr. Lebel who has not had an opportunity to ask a question yet, and then it will be Mr. St. Denis' turn.

[Raymond Gravel, Bloc, Repentigny, QC]

I have a brief question that I did not have time to ask.

Mr. Corbeil, you said that the government was considering immigration as a way of solving the problem of decreasing numbers of francophones outside Quebec.

[Jean-Pierre Corbeil]

Many people consider immigration.

[Raymond Gravel, Bloc, Repentigny, QC]

If I were an immigrant coming from Europe or elsewhere and I was going to settle in Alberta, it would be quite surprising if I were to seek out francophones. I would be more inclined to seek out anglophones. It seems to me that that just makes sense.

[The Chair, Conservative, Steven Blaney]

Please be brief, Mr. Corbeil.

[Jean-Pierre Corbeil]

If you had had the opportunity to participate in some discussions within certain groups in Alberta or in Manitoba, where immigrants have become integrated in the francophone community, you would have seen a rather exceptional level of vitality. There are immigrants that settle in those areas.

[The Chair, Conservative, Steven Blaney]

Thank you, Mr. Corbeil.

Mr. Lebel.

[Denis Lebel, Conservative, Roberval—Lac-Saint-Jean, QC]

I just have one comment to make.

Reference was made to the situation in Quebec. Mr. Rodriguez talked about the specific nature of Montreal. Saguenay—Lac-Saint-Jean is an area that has lost approximately 10% of its population in the past 15 or 20 years: it went from 285,000 people to 260,000. The migration of francophones in Quebec to large centres such as Montreal and Quebec City, adds to that demographic loss.

It is important to consider the context of data in order to be able to draw comparisons. Take all the francophones outside Quebec for example. Is Quebec continuing to « export » its children elsewhere? One has to look at the demographic curbs. It is essential to put information in perspective in order to find solutions as opposed to guilty parties.

I am making that comment simply to point out that resource-rich areas of Quebec have all lost people to Montreal. Families used to have ten children of which five would remain in these regions. Today they have two children and both leave. Neither of them remains. The phenomenon has to be looked at within the broader picture.

I am new to this committee. I can see that we will be talking about the francophonie and francophone reality and I am very pleased about that, however all the information has to be considered and compared in order to have as complete a picture as possible.

[Jean-Pierre Corbeil]

In Quebec, this is a significant concern amongst the anglophones in these communities. The communities are emptying out and that applies not only to anglophones but also to all rural communities.

[The Chair, Conservative, Steven Blaney]

Fine.

The Honourable Michael Chong has a brief question to ask.

[Michael Chong, Conservative, Wellington—Halton Hills, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Just as a point of information, in your second slide you mentioned that the use of languages other than English or French most often at home is less frequent than their portion of the population for allophones. I can tell you the reason for that, in part.

I am a first-generation Canadian. I had a Chinese father and a European mother. And so my father's first language is obviously Chinese and my mother's first language was Dutch. If anything were ever to get done at home, they had to communicate to each other in one of the two official languages. I remember as a kid my father would get mad and say something to my mother in Chinese and she would respond in Dutch, and they'd have no idea what they were saying to each other.

[The Chair, Conservative, Steven Blaney]

Thank you, Mr. Chong.

I would like to thank our witness. This time, we truly took full advantage of the two hours we had at our disposal. Perhaps I can conclude in saying that language is evidently an issue of identity that affects us all personally.

Thank you, Mr. Corbeil.

The meeting is adjourned.