Official Languages Committee on April 29th, 2008

[John Furlong]

I'll let my colleague deal with the village question, but the Cultural Olympiad is governed by the broad spirit of the country. It is the governing culture, and inside it you will have specific programs, but the program is French-English. It's both together. That's what we do. That's who we are.

[Hedy Fry, Liberal, Vancouver Centre, BC]

I'm not speaking about the language, John.

[Francine Bolduc]

La Maison de la francophonie is the village you are referring to. We are working very closely with the Fédération des francophones de la Colombie-Britannique and other organizations that will also have a part of Granville Island at games time. They are looking into that place to portray certain shows. We are wanting to work with them and associate with them because maybe we can leverage what they're doing or they can leverage what we are planning to do. We are working very closely with Granville Island, because we have a liaison with it through our cultural program director. Whether it's going to happen or not, the chance is that it will absolutely happen.

Right now we are looking into the funding. I know that FFCB has put in a request for dollars to Canadian Heritage. This has been looked at, and I think it's going to go through because we are truly supporting it. We are wanting to make this an important part of the cultural programming at games time.

As well, we want to put this as part of our cultural programming of the Olympics and not something isolated. We want to make sure it's all part of it. We're going to promote it to make sure it becomes a place where everybody wants to go because it's so culturally very well displayed and will showcase what we want to showcase.

[The Vice-Chair, Liberal, Pablo Rodriguez]

Thank you.

[John Furlong]

I just want to make sure there's real clarity on what the overriding influence is in terms of how the Cultural Olympiad is being put together. If you had attended the opening night in Vancouver on February 12, you would have walked away with the impression that we had the cultural aspects of this down right. The entire show was in both languages; it was culturally diverse, but there was a very strong component from French Canada on stage performing. You would have walked away and concluded that we had tried to respect the major cultures of the country and some of the others. I think you would have said that, given all of what we have to do, we have our vision in the right place.

[The Vice-Chair, Liberal, Pablo Rodriguez]

Thank you.

Mr. Petit.

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

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

I would like to thank Mr. Furlong and Ms. Bolduc for being here this morning.

In your introduction, you spoke about an important partnership with the Vancouver Airport. You seem to have placed a great deal of emphasis on this partnership. Of course, as you explained in your comments, this is where many people will arrive, including those who come from Quebec. Often, when people travel to B.C., they arrive by plane. I imagine that when I get off an Air Canada plane—on which I assume I will have received bilingual service—I will arrive at an airport where someone will greet me in French, if only to help me get to the city and to provide me with some information.

I am somewhat removed from this event, because it will not be happening in my province. Since you seem to be very proud of what the airport intends to do, I would like to know what leads you to say that the airport itself will become an ultra-bilingual centre, to use that expression. I have some doubts about that, and not as regards the airport. We have dealings with Air Canada, with the people at that company, and I swear that sometimes their vision is that everything is in English from coast to coast. They do not even know how to speak French. As a francophone, I need some reassurance when I reach the Vancouver Airport. You seem very enthusiastic about that. Do you have reasons to be so enthusiastic?

[John Furlong]

It's a good question. Let me just set it up this way. First of all, we always thought this was an ideal location to really drive home the message that you're in Canada and this is who we are. So we've always wanted that.

We also concluded, in some of our discussions with some of our partners, that airports are a concern. At best, the language services and welcoming services are sporadic in the area that you talked about and are not maybe as they necessarily should be. Our goal was to make sure the airport really performed at the highest level possible and that we could really showcase the duality of Canada at the airport.

But what makes it work is the passion of the airport for this. Since we first met with the airport and talked to them about what we wanted to try to achieve, their whole approach to this has been to completely support the vision that we have. They're completely onside with becoming the first airport in Olympic history to be a partner in delivering the games. They know exactly what our expectations of them are.

They have made it possible for us to fully set up at the airport, so that we can integrate into the airport ourselves. We can put our volunteers there. We can accredit people at the airport. So when you arrive, it'll be like arriving in an Olympic stadium in Canada, with the whole look and feel and sounds that the games suggest.

The airport is also a highly valued operation in Vancouver, and we believe that this relationship we have with them will best reflect what it is we're trying to achieve through the prism of the Olympics.

[The Vice-Chair, Liberal, Pablo Rodriguez]

You have about a minute and a half left, Mr. Petit.

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

I have a very brief question. I would like to hear what you think. So once a person leaves the airport, there are restaurants and hotels in the city. There is not just the Olympic village. People like myself will want to go to Vancouver. What is the atmosphere like there? Will private businesses be involved in the bilingualism effort? Let us assume that I arrive in Vancouver as a unilingual francophone who likes sports. I get there, I get off the plane, I am greeted at the airport, but once I am out of the airport, what will it be like when I have to deal with private businesses?

[John Furlong]

That's a good question. I have to say that this came up at the last meeting of the Senate committee as well, and the question of what we are going to do. Let's separate them.

With the hotels, we gave an undertaking to try to make sure that, as much as we are able to, we will influence the hotels to deliver the signals in the hotels in both languages, so you'll be able to watch in the appropriate spirit and way that you would like.

Also, we gave an undertaking that we would try to influence the restaurants to do the same thing. You can expect, as you would in an Olympic city, that the restaurants will have televisions on. There'll be a lot of excitement. Each one will be full, and we will do what we can to do that.

But as you move around the city and we apply the look of the games, you'll have no doubt where you are and you'll have no doubt what country you're in. You'll have no doubt you're at the Olympics. All the signage will be the way you would want, and our team will be....

This is integrated into the operations of Vancouver 2010 today, as we go along. Notwithstanding the question from this member earlier about whether we will make mistakes here and there--we will--in general we are trying to get the highest performance that we can in this area. We want you to be proud of this. We will be looking for every way we can to really elevate this to the place it needs to be.

I think that so far I would give us, for some of our performances, a B, but we're moving this way. It's not perfect, but it's not bad, and it's far away from where we were at the beginning. I hope that by games time we can get a gold medal in this area.

[The Vice-Chair, Liberal, Pablo Rodriguez]

Thank you, Mr. Furlong.

We will now go to Mr. Gravel.

[Raymond Gravel, Bloc, Repentigny, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

I would like to thank Ms. Bolduc and Mr. Furlong for being here today.

I too am skeptical, I have my doubts. It is all very well for me to be a believer, but I do have some major misgivings. I have problems with bilingualism in Canada. The best example is that people often say that bilingual service is available, but it is really limited to "bonjour" and "merci".

Take the example of the National Prayer Breakfast. I have been invited to the National Prayer Breakfast, which is in two weeks. I went last year as well; I had heard that it was supposed to be bilingual. The only words spoken by Mr. Anderson, the moderator of the event, were: "Bonjour, bienvenue". Everything else was in English. And this was supposed to be bilingual. If that is what you call bilingualism, we can do without it!

Your presentation this morning, Mr. Furlong, is another good illustration of what I mean. Your presentation lasted 10 minutes, and you spoke in English for 10 minutes. You did not say one word in French. You are the chief executive officer of the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games. I do not think you would have got your position had you been a unilingual francophone. In my opinion, bilingualism means that French and English are equal. Often that is not what happens in organizations or in presentations.

I think the International Olympic Committee has a rule that French and English are the official languages of the Olympic Games. Earlier, you said that coverage by the French-language media was not your responsibility. I think that as the chief executive officer, it is up to you to ensure that French be given equal weight in presentations out of respect for the francophones of this country.

I do not know, but I think that if the official languages of the Olympic Games are French and English, you must have a mandate to ensure that French and English are equally represented in the coverage of the games throughout the country.

[John Furlong]

Thank you for your comments. We take them seriously. But I didn't say we were not responsible for media coverage. We are responsible for media coverage; it's television that we do not have a mandate in, regarding how that's done. But for media, we do.

For example, at Vancouver 2010, when we have a board meeting, the board meeting is followed by a fully bilingual press conference where we have a fully bilingual emcee. We have members of the board who are bilingual, members of the staff who are bilingual. We communicate the full findings of the meeting to the media, and we interview in both French and English following those meetings.

We issue all our press releases in French and English. We do radio and television interviews all the time in both languages, and we have the staff and a growing capacity to do that. As you can imagine, for an organization that started with one or two people, we've had to build this capacity. And as I said, today--

[Raymond Gravel, Bloc, Repentigny, QC]

You said that earlier, but if there is no media coverage, even if everything is done bilingually at the games, if I am watching the Olympics in Quebec, I have no access to broadcasts in French. This is true of many people. Not everyone can actually go to Vancouver to see the games.

So will there be good coverage by both the French-language and English-language media?

[John Furlong]

I would say they are. The exception I have to give you...and I will answer the question.

For everybody except television, it will be fully bilingual, every service, and for television we will put every influence we have to bear to try to make sure the signals are distributed the way you would like. This is obviously in our interests as well. I would be extremely disappointed and feel like we have failed if Canadians didn't get to watch the Olympic Games on television in their own language. But we have some influences and some powers.

Everything that we have direct control over will be fully bilingual. That's a fact, and that's how it will be done. And that's how it is typically done at the Olympics.

[Raymond Gravel, Bloc, Repentigny, QC]

You said earlier that you had entered into some agreements with Quebec, because you needed Quebec's help to train bilingual staff, volunteers and others.

Does that mean that the francophone communities elsewhere in Canada cannot do this work or provide service in French? Is Quebec's involvement absolutely required in this effort?

[John Furlong]

First of all, the 7,000 volunteer applications we have are not all from Quebec. Some are from Quebec, some are from Ontario, some are from B.C., and some are from different parts of the world. The capacity has come from everywhere, so we will certainly have influences from all over the country--some from New Brunswick, some from Newfoundland. We will have the capacity we need.

Quebec is a very important partner and player in the Olympic Games. It has enormous influences because there's huge capacity there culturally, athletically, in terms of facilities and otherwise. Also, many of our partners are in Quebec. Many of our major sponsors are headquartered in Quebec. So they're very involved in helping us do the job we have to do. I would say that the capacity we have in this area comes from many places; Quebec happens to be quite strong.

[The Vice-Chair, Liberal, Pablo Rodriguez]

I'm sorry, but your time is up, Mr. Gravel.

We will go now to Mr. Godin.

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

You have said several times, Mr. Furlong, that your organization is not responsible for broadcasting the games. You may exert some influence, but you are not responsible for the broadcasting contracts. However, as regards the areas that do come under your responsibility, you are quite sure that everything will be in both official languages. That is what I heard.

[John Furlong]

Yes.

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

The IOC in Switzerland is an international organization, but who is responsible for the broadcasting contract in Canada? Is it Sport Canada, the Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages, the Department of Canadian Heritage?

[John Furlong]

It's complicated. It's a very unusual—

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

We will understand if you tell us. We just want to know who it is.

[John Furlong]

The IOC has a direct relationship with the television company. They negotiated the contract and made all the arrangements. They supervise all of what CTV can do or cannot do at the Olympics.