Monsieur, merci.
Mr. Chairman, members of Parliament, colleagues, and friends from other official language minority communities, good morning. Thank you for this opportunity to start the day--fireworks, I guess, maybe, but a lot of speakers, yes.
It is a pleasure to be with you today. My name is Robert Donnelly, and I am president of the QCGN, Quebec Community Groups Network. I'll talk about that a bit more in a minute. With me is Sylvia Martin-Laforge, our DG. I would also like to acknowledge Nancy Peppy, president of the Regional Association of West Quebecers, a member organization of the QCGN, who is with us in the audience today. I thank her for coming and taking the time to be here.
QCGN brings together 29 language community organizations across Quebec that are dedicated to supporting and assisting community development and enhancing the vitality of the English-speaking minority communities in Quebec. The QCGN encourages and promotes participation by government departments and agencies for the development of the English-language minority communities. We also aim to promote dialogue and mutual understanding between the linguistic communities in Canada.
The English-speaking communities of Quebec have evolved significantly over the years. Many communities have moved from identifying themselves as anglophone communities to now identifying themselves rather as English-speaking communities. More than semantics, this evolution in terminology reflects a move toward greater inclusiveness and recognition of generational, ethnic, linguistic, and socio-economic diversity.
Our member organizations are active throughout the regions of Quebec from just across the Ottawa River in the Gatineau Region to the Gaspé, from the West Island of Montreal to the Îles de la Madeleine to the Lower North Shore to the townships, and Quebec City--where I live--in sectors ranging from arts and culture to heritage and to health and social services, just to name three. The common thread woven through our organizations is a deep commitment to building strong English-speaking communities throughout Quebec.
The Canada-community agreements or collaboration accords have been an important tool for us and a satisfactory initial step for the QCGN, including recognizing the QCGN as the official interlocutor between the federal government and the English-speaking communities of Quebec. There have definitely been some positive results from these accords. The QCGN and our member organizations have been able to develop programs and policies that have had clear and direct positive results for our members and our communities.
As the government prepares for the future, we feel that there are some important changes that should be made to these arrangements that will help the English-speaking communities of Quebec to move forward. The QCGN is enjoying a period of growth. You heard me mention that we have now 29 member organizations. Less than a year ago, there were only 22 member organizations in the QCGN. We have completely restructured. We have a new set of bylaws, new governance, and a new head office in Montreal. This is a reflection of the growth in community awareness among Quebec’s English speakers. There is also a growing public recognition for the work the QCGN does.
The following is a quote from a Montreal Gazette editorial piece entitled “Anglos need calm defenders”, published on March 4, 2008:
We're happy to...acknowledge that the QCGN has been doing a calm and careful job of building the connections anglophones need.
No single voice can speak for all Quebec's anglophones, but different groups with energy and a pragmatic focus on what's important to us will carry us a long way, especially if they communicate and co-operate together. We need groups, plural, to protect and promote our community.
It is essential that the government provide us, thus, with adequate resources to nourish and sustain this growth and to support our community development.
Funding is of course important, but there are other resources that are equally as important, such as flexibility, access to key decision-makers, and, above all, equity. Under the current arrangement, the QCGN deals with the Department of Canadian Heritage at the regional level. We are seen as simply a regional provincial association. While it is true that our membership cannot by definition cross the borders of Quebec, we believe this is a limiting, restrictive implication for the QCGN and our member organizations and communities.
The English-speaking communities of Quebec have proven to be key partners for the government in promoting the Canadian values of linguistic duality and bilingualism. As the latest census data indicates, 70% of anglophone Quebecers were bilingual, almost double the level reported in the 1970s. Among the 15 to 24 age group, this figure jumped significantly to 84%.
In the promotion of these Canadian values of linguistic duality and bilingualism, the English-speaking communities of Quebec wish to be key partners with the federal government. We believe we have developed a certain expertise over the years that we want to share with our national partners in the federal government, as well as with key stakeholders at other levels of government and pan-Canadian organizations.
The QCGN met with Mr. Bernard Lord and presented him with a brief in his national consultations for renewal of the action plan on official languages. We were delighted to see some of our comments reflected in his report. We shared with him some of our expertise on issues that are important to members of our communities, and also, I believe, made a contribution to the national discussion on official languages.
We will continue to offer our expertise, opinions and, above all, our willingness to cooperate with the federal government in moving the national debate forward. It is important to remember that there are English-speaking Quebecers also spread out across Canada who are interested in this debate. All of us are looking forward to Minister Verner's final report and decisions.
By placing the QCGN on the national stage, we think we will have a more effective partnership with the federal government. We, like the Fédération des communautés francophones et acadienne du Canada and Canadian Parents for French, need access to key decision-makers who help shape policy that directly affects individuals in our communities. The decision-makers in Ottawa would then be put in a more direct relationship with us and would have the opportunity and would have more policy input from us on how to promote these key Canadian values.
The English-speaking communities of Quebec are blessed with strong institutions that are deeply rooted in the province. It's the old cliché of “What's the problem? You're in Quebec. You have everything.” Our health care and education institutions, for example, do play key roles in the lives of many people in our communities. It is seductive to think that simply because of our strong institutions our communities face no community development challenges.