Official Languages Committee on May 15th, 2008

[Marlene Jennings, Liberal, Notre-Dame-de-Grâce—Lachine, QC]

Thank you very much, Chair.

I apologize for not having been here to hear the actual presentations. I'm not a member of this committee, but I'm particularly interested in the issue of our official languages minorities, being a member of one myself, in Quebec.

Madame Martin-Laforge, you and Madame Poirier both talked about one of the issues being the exodus of our young people. I know there have been studies, whether by Jack Jedwab and his policy think tank, about some of the reasons why.

Isn't one of the main reasons, although not the only reason, that you have an exodus of English-speaking young people--well educated, and for whom all Quebeckers have paid taxes to put them through school and keep them healthy--because the main employers in Quebec are virtually closed to them, whether it be the provincial public service or the federal public service in Quebec? Look at the statistics; isn't the best place they can find jobs in the private sector and, within the private sector, within the federally regulated private sector? The Commissioner of Official Languages came out with a report that laid that out.

If we're going to keep our communities vital, whether it be in Montreal or outside of Montreal, in the regions, we have to be able to provide an opportunity, a future to our young people. We already know that francophones living in rural areas in the regions are exiting the regions because of lack of employment. It is even worse for the English-speaking.

How does this program--in the way it's set up, you have to deal with virtually only Heritage Canada for the agreement--actually help to develop services and programs that will allow work with the provincial government and the federal government on the employment, to open it up, to make sure there is real equity in access for the English-speaking minority in Quebec within those major employers? And there's the municipal government; don't forget the municipal government.

[Cyrilda Poirier]

What you say is really interesting. In Labrador City there is one major employer, which is IOC. Because the management is English-speaking, our francophone youth, for some strange reason, are put aside when they are applying for jobs. They are not hired over the English-speaking population.

Where else can they turn? If they want to live, they have to exit, and they have to go wherever the jobs are offered.

On the Port-au-Port Peninsula, which is our really rural area, I don't think it's a question of service. It's long-standing; with the moratorium on the fisheries, for instance, that was the beginning of our youth leaving the population.

What really got me a couple of years ago was when I learned that not only were our youth leaving, but our elderly were also leaving the population. That is my preoccupation right now.

[The Chair, Conservative, Steven Blaney]

Madame Laforge, very succinctly, and then we'll move on.

[Sylvia Martin-Laforge]

Yes.

Monsieur Rodriguez mentioned health. With the action plan there was quite an investment in health in Quebec. It's not rosy, but it's a little bit better.

Employment is a major, major issue in Quebec--employment in the federal civil service, which is not high enough, and employment in the provincial civil service. Last week a report came out of the provincial civil service, and 0.08% of the provincial civil service has anglophones. It's incredible.

Employment is incredibly important, so people leave because they can't find employment. And they can't find employment maybe because their levels of language are not high enough, not because they don't want to speak French.

Everyone wants to speak French, but, in many cases, for complex reasons, those people don't pass the tests or their application isn't accepted for jobs in the private or public sector.

[The Chair, Conservative, Steven Blaney]

Thank you very much, Ms. Jennings.

Mr. Lemieux, would you like to have a final word?

[Pierre Lemieux, Conservative, Glengarry—Prescott—Russell, ON]

Thank you for your presentations. I really appreciated your comments.

I think the challenge is to find amicable solutions that could work. We're talking about $30 million here. Accountability mechanisms are therefore necessary. There also have to be results, in view of the fact that this is taxpayers' money.

As Mr. Petit mentioned, $30 million has been allocated, but, under the last action plan, $750 million was granted to assist the official language minority communities. In reality, $810 million has been spent. In education, there are agreements targeting the official languages amounting to $1 million. There are also measures in immigration. There are a number of programs. I think that getting an overview of all that from the perspective of funding for the official language minority communities is really a challenge. A lot of money comes from various places.

How could you get that overview?

[The Chair, Conservative, Steven Blaney]

We're going to ask one witness whose viewpoint represents that of the group as a whole to answer that question.

[Jean Léger]

Mr. Lemieux, do we have the report on the Action Plan for Official Languages? Do we know where the money was spent on official language? Was it spent for the communities or to help the government do its job better internally? We don't really know. So how can we answer that question?

[The Chair, Conservative, Steven Blaney]

I would ask Mr. Audet to answer, but then we'll have to adjourn the meeting.

[Stéphane Audet]

In British Columbia, the francophone community has definitely been significantly expanded as a result of that action plan. However, I see that, in the regions, the officials responsible for official languages under Part VII of the Official Languages Act are disadvantaged. They don't have the necessary resources or, in many cases, the training necessary to carry out their role effectively. We have a federal council, the Pacific Federal Council, but it doesn't have enough money.

[The Chair, Conservative, Steven Blaney]

Thank you very much, Mr. Audet.

Witnesses, this was a very productive and very intense meeting. I thank you for coming. We will be presenting our report to you shortly. Thank you, everyone.

The meeting is adjourned.