Evidence of meeting #28 for Official Languages in the 39th Parliament, 2nd session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was games.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Chief Executive Officer, Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games
Switzerland.
NDP
Yvon Godin NDP Acadie—Bathurst, NB
Are you telling me that the Canadian government has handed over responsibility to a Swiss company that will be telling Canadians how to watch the Olympic Games?
Chief Executive Officer, Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games
Basically how it works is that when you apply for the Olympic Games, you have to meet certain criteria and obligations. One of the undertakings you agree to is that the IOC will negotiate two things on your behalf. One is television—
Chief Executive Officer, Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games
They'll do two things that, let's say, you don't do. Let me put it that way. You can apply whatever rationale you would want to it. I know it's complicated.
NDP
Yvon Godin NDP Acadie—Bathurst, NB
No, it's not complicated. They're doing it on your behalf. You ask them and they do it.
Chief Executive Officer, Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games
Let me finish.
They negotiate television contracts worldwide with every television company that wishes to cover the Olympic Games. Canada is kind of unique in that we have this particular situation that doesn't exist in most countries.
Chief Executive Officer, Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games
It's not a problem at all. I think it's extraordinarily positive for us to have it.
Anyway, they do that, and in addition to that, they negotiate contracts with international sponsors, companies such as McDonald's and Coca-Cola. Out of those contracts they allocate funding to organizing committees.
These contracts are done directly with the IOC. We do not get these contracts. They are done by them. We're allocated a certain amount of funding from the overall global television pot, if you like, and we are given those funds to execute the games. But the specific contracts between the television companies and the IOC are done by them in Switzerland. They're negotiated in Switzerland, not in Canada.
When this was done originally, it looked like it was possible that we could achieve everything we would have wanted, because CTV had the capacity to do this. Clearly, there's a challenge. The challenge was raised with CTV by everyone involved in this right away. Now, of course, we have a new situation with TQS, which has just evolved.
All I can tell you is that we have, as much as we are able to with the influence that we have, done everything we can to draw everyone's attention to the desire and the need for everybody to rise to the occasion and deliver these services the way Canadians would like them. As an organization, we have done everything we can to try to keep this on the front burner. We've talked to official languages about it, we've talked to Heritage Canada about it, and there have been a lot of other discussions going on.
I think people are hopeful that we can get to a good solution. It's not something that's just simmering on the back burner. People are talking about this every day. So we would like to achieve this, but my point is that what we have is influence; we do not have the ability to say to somebody, you're in violation of your contract. Their contract is not with Vancouver 2010. We are not a signatory to any television contract for the Olympic Games.
Liberal
The Vice-Chair Liberal Pablo Rodriguez
Thank you.
Merci, monsieur Godin.
We'll go to the government side, with Mr. Lemieux.
Conservative
Pierre Lemieux Conservative Glengarry—Prescott—Russell, ON
Thank you very much.
I want to thank you for being here today with us. I'm very pleased to see how seriously you take your commitment to make sure that both our official languages are present throughout the activities involved in the 2010 Olympic Games. I think it is very important to guarantee a place for both official languages and the involvement of francophones from across Canada.
Your commitment to the Fédération des francophones de la Colombie-Britannique and the Fondation canadienne pour le dialogue des cultures is a good thing. I also know that you have signed agreements with Quebec and New Brunswick. I would like to know if you can give us details about the responsibilities of each partner.
For example, you have these different partners, these different groups, that are offering you input. Are they all doing the same thing, or do they each have a different mandate? Do they each have their own area of responsibility? Could you explain that to us?
Chief Executive Officer, Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games
It's a great question, and it's actually a key question in terms of the overall philosophy of the organization. What we tried to do was give every province and territory a role in the Olympic Games, sort of on their own terms. When you look at our country, every part of the country is uniquely different from every other part. So what we wanted to try to do was embody the best of each region and the overall spirit of the games.
For example, our very first partner was the Province of Quebec. We thought at the time, in the early days, when we were still fairly naive and growing as an organization, that Quebec could do a lot to help us achieve our overall mission, and not just in the area of duality of language. It happens to be the number one province in Canada for athletes today for sport. They win the most medals at the games. We wanted to try to find a way to take the best of what Quebec could bring to the Olympics and bring that onside.
We signed a preliminary agreement with each province and territory, which was to be followed by a more detailed one that would focus very much on the things we would want to have from that region plus the things they would like to achieve for their own region. For example, it's not unreasonable to think that at the games there'd be a Quebec Day and an Ontario Day and a New Brunswick Day. There would be a lot of stuff that happens on those days that really features and profiles those areas of the country.
When we sat down to talk with New Brunswick, as an example, one of the things that struck them in our early discussions was that they might be able to help us with translation. It's a complex problem for us, because we don't have an oversupply in B.C. So we have to find creative ways to overcome that. Not everybody wants to come to Vancouver to work for two years and then not have a job. So we've been looking at ways we can take advantage of some of these services and opportunities that exist in some of these regions of the country. We want to bring them onside and allow each province and territory to be engaged in helping to deliver the Olympics on their own terms. Each one would look a little different. Newfoundland has a different reason for being there, say, than Alberta and the Yukon have.
As it's moving forward now--and we're not finished with this yet--there's a very good chance that this will be one of the very few events we've ever done at which every region of the country will have its own place. They'll have their own role, their own programs, their own investments in the teams, and so on. They'll be able to claim that this is as much theirs as it is ours. That was the goal behind this. It was a way to embellish this whole vision we had of making this about the whole country and not about a few elite organizers in Vancouver. It was bringing everybody onside.
Hopefully that gives you a sense of it. Many of these files are being worked through as we speak to try to make the best situation possible for us and for that particular region of the country.
Conservative
Pierre Lemieux Conservative Glengarry—Prescott—Russell, ON
Regarding the Fédération des francophones de la Colombie-Britannique and the Fondation canadienne pour le dialogue des cultures,
these two organizations, how do they interact with your committee?
Program Director, Human Resources and Official Languages, Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games
We have a collaboration with them. So we look at what we can do and where we can work together on certain projects. It's mostly about bringing official languages alive, because there are a lot of projects that involve francophonie nationally. They have formed a coordination committee that includes people from each province to look at the aspects of education, cultural programming, volunteering, and all this. They have formed this committee. They are working on projects and they link with us. This is where, when we organize this quarterly meeting, they inform us of their progress and where we also inform them of our progress on the different functions that are linked to that.
So basically we work together. It's another way to engage each one of the provinces on the official languages aspect of organizing that part of the games.
Conservative
Pierre Lemieux Conservative Glengarry—Prescott—Russell, ON
Can you give us examples of concrete initiatives that have been recommended or proposed by those two organizations?
Program Director, Human Resources and Official Languages, Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games
Yes. In the area of education, one of the projects is a virtual torch relay. When the torch relay actually begins in Canada, there will be a virtual relay in schools in the various francophone communities. The schools will be linked for this purpose. There will be festivities and celebrations organized.
On the cultural front, we have the Place de la francophonie which is a large-scale project. It will be located on Granville island. Francophones will gather there during the Olympic Games to enjoy a variety of francophone cultural programming at the national level. We are working together on those kinds of projects.
Conservative
Pierre Lemieux Conservative Glengarry—Prescott—Russell, ON
Will these events in French take place in Vancouver?
Program Director, Human Resources and Official Languages, Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games
They will be located at the Place de la francophonie, on Granville island.
Conservative
Pierre Lemieux Conservative Glengarry—Prescott—Russell, ON
When you do publicity about the Olympic Games, do you use minority-language media as well?
Program Director, Human Resources and Official Languages, Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games
Yes. In British Columbia, there is only L'Express du Pacifique. When we need to advertise in English newspapers, it is sometimes impossible to do it simultaneously in L'Express du Pacifique because it is published only every two weeks. It is difficult. We cannot wait. When the francophone newspaper is not available, we make sure that the ads appear in both official languages in the anglophone paper.
Liberal
The Vice-Chair Liberal Pablo Rodriguez
Thank you, Mr. Lemieux.
We'll now start the second round. This time it's five minutes each.
Ms. Fry, it is your turn.
Liberal
Hedy Fry Liberal Vancouver Centre, BC
My question is for John.
You've signed an agreement with Quebec, and I understand you've been dealing with training for the athletes, employees, volunteers, etc. However, I want to ask specifically about the Cultural Olympiad, the cultural part of the games. I have been working very closely with the Fédération on what they plan to do culturally and, of course, with the whole coordinating group on the culture part.
You have had lots of sponsorship. You've been very successful with sponsorship. What percentage of your sponsorship are you putting into the Cultural Olympiad now? You said earlier that the Fédération say they have a great relationship with you. However, how much of the money are you putting into the Cultural Olympiad for the French language and culture or the francophonie across the country? Are they putting forward their cultural piece just like every other cultural piece, or is there a specific amount of money put aside just for the French culture? If so, how much is it?
Second, I know that the Fédération has asked for a francophone cultural village to be put on Granville Island so they can have this whole village and everyone can see all of the francophonie from Canada there. Is that going to happen? I think it's extremely important. I would like to see that fast-forwarded and you put your money into that.
Finally, what are you doing about bilingual signage? British Columbia doesn't have a lot of bilingual signage. Is there going to be bilingual signage everywhere when you come to the games?
Chief Executive Officer, Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games
Those are all good questions.
The signage is easy. It will all be bilingual. We are in the habit now of producing everything that way. The classic example, and hopefully one to follow in the future, will be the airport. I think you'll be quite impressed.
On the Cultural Olympiad and the ceremonies, I'm going to pull the two of them together. You have to keep in mind that the cultural program is one program, not two. So the program intends to celebrate what we should be celebrating: the full duality and cultural capacity of Canada. It's a significant investment of tens of millions of dollars and will go into a program that is supposed to live up to that expectation. It will include French, English, and other artists, and it will spread over three years. It has already started. I couldn't possibly give you the breakdown, but it's a significant amount of money.
Let me put it to you this way. I think the best way for me to describe how this is working is to just tell you how it's being set up. For the Cultural Olympiad and the ceremonies, we have engaged the full cultural community of Canada--Quebec, every province and territory, everybody is there. The plan is to put on the very best event we can. There are major influences from Quebec, eastern Canada, New Brunswick, Newfoundland, and all across the country to power that up.
I think you're going to be very proud of the outcome. We can get you an estimate, but I could not give you that number off the top of my head today. It's a considerable investment of dollars.
Liberal
Hedy Fry Liberal Vancouver Centre, BC
I really wanted to find out if the francophone cultural component of that is going to be treated just like any other culture--like music, dance, jazz, multiculturalism, etc.--or is it going to be given a specific recognition as a bilingual or bicultural component of Canada in terms of the linguistic duality of Canada? Is it going to be specifically represented? Is there going to be the village at Granville Island specifically to deal with everything to do with the culture--French culture, French food--but putting aside the games part of it?