Official Languages Committee on April 29th, 2008

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

CTV cannot do anything in French, and RDS, RIS, and TQS are not broadcast by Rogers in Winnipeg, Cornwall, Toronto, Fredericton....

, to mention only a few.

[John Furlong]

I understand this.

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

The IOC is in Switzerland. Who in Canada is responsible for telling the IOC that we have two languages here, and that this is an advantage? It is more than an advantage, it is a must. Maybe you do not know that. We will save time if you tell me that you do not know the answer.

[John Furlong]

I do have an answer. We would be responsible for communicating with the IOC if a particular situation existed and they were aware of it.

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

All you can do is try to influence people. You do not have the authority to tell the IOC that Canada is a completely bilingual country, or is supposed to be. We could also say that Canada has an Official Languages Act, but that people fail to comply with it every day. Who has the responsibility to say to the IOC: "It's a must in Canada, that's what we need"? Who will tell the IOC that it is breaking the laws of Canada, because it has chosen television networks that are not broadcast throughout the country, and that this is simply not good enough? Is that one of your responsibilities?

[John Furlong]

A number of different sources could have been responsible. I'm not sure “responsible” is necessarily the word. I think we all are responsible for trying to get to a solution.

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

I'm not looking for a solution. The solution, that is something else. Who is responsible for saying to the IOC that when they come to Canada they need to broadcast in both official languages? If it is not done, who do they have to answer to? Who is responsible for ensuring that it is broadcast in both languages? Who is it in the government? When I say “who”, I am asking which department.

[John Furlong]

It isn't any one entity.

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

Okay, nobody is responsible for it.

[John Furlong]

I wouldn't say that. That wouldn't be a fair assessment. There are many who have some influence or who would have something to say about this. It's a complicated matter. It's something that has come up time and time again. We're well aware of everybody's concern. We have tried and continue to try to get all capable parties to help to find a solution.

CTV is as interested in finding a solution to this as we are. So are many others. As far as we can tell, no one entity is able to solve this on its own.

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

The Government of Canada could do it. They could say that there are two public television broadcasters in our country, one of which is called Radio-Canada. We'll give it to the one paid for by the taxpayer. That should be easy. We went to the Winter Games in Bathurst, and we found out that the games were being broadcast in French at 3 a.m. and 2 a.m. I brought it to the House of Commons, and finally they found a solution.

[John Furlong]

As I understand it, there was a discussion between CTV and the CBC about the possibility of their working together to make sure we got the coverage. I don't think those discussions went as well as they could have. Perhaps we could look at those again. As I said, people are trying to find a solution that will work for everybody.

[The Vice-Chair, Liberal, Pablo Rodriguez]

Thank you very much, Monsieur Godin.

We'll start our third round with Mr. St. Denis.

[Brent St. Denis, Liberal, Algoma—Manitoulin—Kapuskasing, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chairman, Ms. Bolduc and Mr. Furlong.

Like Mr. Lemieux and Mr. Godin, I represent a large bilingual region, a riding in northern Ontario where the cities of Kapuskasing, Hearst, Smooth Rock Falls, and others, are located. I very much appreciate the fact that you entered into an agreement to ensure that some of the volunteers and employees will be francophones.

Are any efforts being made to invite francophones from outside Quebec and outside British Columbia to be involved as volunteers, employees, or in some other capacity?

I just want to find some assurance that with all your efforts, the people of the large French-speaking communities outside of Quebec--such as my area of northern Ontario, Pierre's area of eastern Ontario, Yvon's in Acadie in New Brunswick, and J.C. D'Amours' area--can be included as well.

What success have you had so far? What efforts are being made? Nothing is perfect, and I appreciate that, but what would you see as being the final rate of inclusion of francophones from those areas?

[John Furlong]

When we announced our volunteer program, I think on February 12, we had on the first day 1.3 million hits on our website. These came from everywhere.

The province of Ontario, next to British Columbia, is the biggest subscriber on the volunteer application list today. There are thousands of people from Ontario who have already applied. That could be largely because Ontario is a full partner. They have made an investment in the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games, we're delighted to say. Although I don't have the specifics for your region, I suspect, sitting here, that there are people from your region who have applied. I would be very happy to go and have a look and see for you and give you a more specific answer.

We did a national campaign at the very beginning, and it took off. Within weeks, 40,000-plus people didn't just go onto the website but they also filled out a very complex application form. They've agreed to stop doing what they're doing for a month, come to British Columbia at their own cost, find a place to stay, train to be a volunteer at the Olympics, do the job that has to be done, and go home again, all because they want to serve their country.

So it is a very positive program. As I said, Ontario at this moment is the second biggest subscriber of individuals to support that program. And it's thousands of people, not tens or hundreds.

[Brent St. Denis, Liberal, Algoma—Manitoulin—Kapuskasing, ON]

I would just like to know approximately how many francophones responded when you invited people to work as volunteers.

I'm not looking for any great research on this--your team is busy enough as it is--but I know that on the form you would tick off bilingual or English-speaking. I'd be happy to know just generally the response rate, among those tens of thousands of responses, maybe outside of Quebec to the call to volunteer. If it's a percentage that's relative to the total population, that would be satisfactory to me, but if it's small in relation to the total, I might suggest further efforts in those areas to promote one's ability to participate as a volunteer.

[John Furlong]

That's good advice. If there's an area where we can get an edge or find more, I would be very happy to take your lead on that.

As it stands today, approximately 7,000 of 40,000 in the system have declared themselves to be fluent and thus able to provide services to the level that we would require them to. I have to say, though, that we're just processing this now. We expect this number to grow from 40,000 to 60,000 before we start looking around for where we can find the most talented that we can find.

So we'll take a look. If there is merit in targeting some more areas, we will certainly see if we can do that. It certainly wouldn't hurt to look a little more and see if we can get those numbers up a bit higher.

One thing I can say is that although it's never enough, we were highly encouraged by the number. You know, in our province, where the percentage of francophones is quite small compared to the rest of the provinces--it is a large number, but small by comparison--this was a very large number for us on first go-round. So we're very encouraged by it, largely because we have obligations and we want to do a good job. But if we had more, that would be even better.

[The Vice-Chair, Liberal, Pablo Rodriguez]

Thank you, Mr. St. Denis.

We'll move to the Bloc, with Monsieur Nadeau.

[Richard Nadeau, Bloc, Gatineau, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Mr. Gravel raised an important issue just as I was finishing my questioning. We should not forget that the International Olympic Committee has two official languages—French and English—just as Canada does. I think this gives you a double obligation to ensure that everything is in French and in English. We know that Vancouver was competing with other cities for the Olympic Games a few years back. That means you are sort of a third party to the federal government in hosting the Olympic Games in Vancouver.

Is it correct to say that you are a third party of the federal government in hosting the Olympic Games?

[John Furlong]

I'm not sure. We were the bid committee, and the federal government and the Province of British Columbia were assigned partners in that endeavour. Yes, I think that would be fair.

[Richard Nadeau, Bloc, Gatineau, QC]

But it was Canada who won the bid to host the Olympic Games, it was not world-wide, was it?

[John Furlong]

Correct.

[Richard Nadeau, Bloc, Gatineau, QC]

Fine. As I understand it, when a third party represents the federal government, it must respect all of the laws of the federal government. One of the laws you must respect is the Official Languages Act, just as all departments must. You deal with subcontractors for sponsorships, advertisings and other matters, because that it how promotional work is done. The objective is also to ensure maximum efficiency.

Under their contracts, do subcontractors face the same requirements as you, namely to ensure that everything is in both languages?

[John Furlong]

It would be a stretch for me to say yes to that. I would say that many perform this way every day, especially the big companies we are affiliated with. But some of the smaller ones, no. As much as we're able to, we try to influence them. For example, when we sign a small partner in some area, they may be the only applicant to provide a particular service to the games that's critical for us. We would announce them in both languages, and we would do all of those things properly. But do they function fully bilingually? Most probably don't. Some do. With some, it's easy. In fact some prefer to perform in French only. But for most, I would say the answer is no. It would not be fair to say that the majority of them would have capacity in this area.

[Richard Nadeau, Bloc, Gatineau, QC]

Will francophone athletes from Quebec or elsewhere in Canada be served in French at the Olympic Games at all of the activities—reception services, training, competition, post-competition, right up until the time they leave Vancouver? Will they be able to live as though they were in a francophone environment?