Official Languages Committee on Dec. 6th, 2007

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

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.

Minister, I'd like to thank you for coming to meet with us today and for sharing your point of view with us. My colleague began a discussion about Mr. Lord, and I'd like to ask you this:

what does he bring to the table in terms of these consultations, in particular with respect to his experience, perhaps, or things that he might have done previously?

[Josée Verner, Conservative, Louis-Saint-Laurent, QC]

First, it should be kept in mind that I made a commitment at the Sommet des communautés francophones et acadienne in June to conduct a broad consultation on action to be taken on the present Action Plan for Official Languages.

Mr. Lord will conduct the consultations and report to me. Other consultations are scheduled, and there is an ongoing dialogue with groups across the country. Mr. Lord was Premier of the only bilingual province in the country. We are sure he has the experience, skill and listening ability required to hear the viewpoints that will be expressed during the consultations.

Allow me to add that the themes selected are very definitely important and current. They are issues that the various groups are concerned about across the country. These are themes that were selected in cooperation with FCFA. We're talking about demographics, economics, new technologies and governance.

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

I'd like to know whether you think the consultations are important. I ask the question because my colleague Mr. Godin told the House this week that the consultations had been conducted by our committee, that a report had been prepared and that the consultation period was over.

[Josée Verner, Conservative, Louis-Saint-Laurent, QC]

Thank you.

As I emphasized in my address, we very clearly appreciate all the work that has been done. Here I'm talking as much about the committees and summits, such as that of the FCFA, as about the reports submitted by the Commissioner of Official Languages. However, we also wanted to consult other groups. That's important for us. We thought that was a positive measure taken by our government, and, as stated in the Throne Speech, we wanted to be sure that everyone could take part in the next phase of the Action Plan for Official Languages.

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

Thank you.

Mr. Bélanger said that you should act and take real measures. I'd like to talk about two important components. First, you announced that $30 million was intended mainly for the official language minority communities and an amount of $30 million was allocated to Canadian Heritage for festivals.

Back home, L'écho d'un peuple and a number of other festivals celebrate the vitality of our heritage. So we also have access to the $30 million allocated to Canadian Heritage.

I would like to know what kind of feedback you've received from the communities concerning the two $30 million amounts.

[Josée Verner, Conservative, Louis-Saint-Laurent, QC]

They've been very well received. The first $30 million amount will be used to provide direct assistance to the communities, particularly young people. As I said in my address, the idea is to fund projects designed by and for youth. The objective is for young people to feel very much alive in their community and to be able to express themselves. We want them to be able to contribute to the vitality of their community.

We're also aiming at projects on linguistic duality. We are convinced that there are enormous needs in this area as well and that, for the vast majority of Canadians, Anglophone and Francophone, the two official languages are important. We want to fund this kind of project and, those that have proven themselves, that is to say infrastructure projects.

[The Chair, Conservative, Steven Blaney]

Thank you, Minister.

We'll now begin our second round with Mr. D'Amours.

[Jean-Claude D'Amours, Liberal, Madawaska—Restigouche, NB]

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you for being with us this morning, Minister.

I'm going to ask you some relatively easy questions. I expect brief answers because they shouldn't be complicated.

With regard to your consultation, you said earlier that you wanted as many people as possible to be able to provide you with information. Is that correct?

[Josée Verner, Conservative, Louis-Saint-Laurent, QC]

Yes.

[Jean-Claude D'Amours, Liberal, Madawaska—Restigouche, NB]

Minister, your consultations are not open to the public; they're restricted. When the Standing Committee on Official Languages went to meet with the communities, public invitations had been sent out. You said earlier that participation in your consultation was limited.

Is that participation open or limited? I think it's easy to answer that question.

You also said that you wanted to gather ideas. Minister, I don't know whether it was your parliamentary secretary once again, but when we conducted our consultations across the country, at virtually every meeting, your parliamentary secretary asked the people who were making presentations whether they had any suggestions or ideas to give the government. You're telling us now that you want to do the same thing.

Didn't you take the time to read what the witnesses told us at that time?

Then, Minister, you said that you had had consultations with FCFA.

Did you inform it that the meetings would be in camera or did it ask you that they be in camera? I'd like a brief answer please.

I'll repeat quickly, Minister. You said that you had discussed the matter with FCFA. Did you inform FCFA that the meetings would be in camera or did FCFA ask you that they be in camera?

[Josée Verner, Conservative, Louis-Saint-Laurent, QC]

Mr. Chairman, I'm going to answer the member's three questions or statements—

[The Chair, Conservative, Steven Blaney]

With your permission, we can do a five-minute round for each of the witnesses—

[Jean-Claude D'Amours, Liberal, Madawaska—Restigouche, NB]

May I finish?

I'm going to finish asking all my questions, Minister, then you'll have a chance to answer them.

[Josée Verner, Conservative, Louis-Saint-Laurent, QC]

I don't know if—

[Jean-Claude D'Amours, Liberal, Madawaska—Restigouche, NB]

I have two left.

In your address, you said: “This spring, we will propose...” In my mind, there's a difference between proposing and implementing. When the Dion Plan for Official Languages expires, it won't be the time to propose; it will be the time to implement something else immediately. You say you're only going to “propose”. Why will there be a gap between the end of the Dion Plan for Official Languages and the introduction of a new plan? The official language minority communities are going to fall into a void. Can you explain that to us?

In closing, you mentioned a linguistic duality project. Can you explain to us what that linguistic duality project will be?

Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Steven Blaney]

Go ahead, Minister.

[Josée Verner, Conservative, Louis-Saint-Laurent, QC]

Mr. Chair, as there were a number of questions, I'll give a number of answers.

As regards the process, it is open. For operational questions and questions discussed with the various parties, there is a limited number of groups. They are invited, but the process is open. I would recall that online consultations are underway at the same time. Everyone has a right to speak out on these consultations which will lead us to the second part of the Action Plan for Official Languages.

You talked about the various suggestions, various viewpoints that were expressed during the committee's tour. I said that our thinking process would take into account all the reports that had been prepared by various committees and associations. We hope to conduct the broadest, most extensive consultation possible.

As regards the technical details of the negotiation with FCFA, I will forward that answer to you. I didn't negotiate, but I will ensure that someone from the department provides you with the answer.

As to your fourth question, or statement, no, there will not be a void after what you call the Dion Plan, which we call the Action Plan for Official Languages. Our government has made a firm commitment to promote linguistic duality. It acknowledges the importance of the various linguistic communities across the country, and no one, apart from the member, has understood that were abandoning the communities at the end of that plan.

[The Chair, Conservative, Steven Blaney]

Thank you very much, Minister, for answering those questions in sequence.

We'll go over to the government side now.

Mr. Michael Chong.

[Michael Chong, Conservative, Wellington—Halton Hills, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I want to thank the witnesses for appearing in front of us today--Minister, Madam LaRocque, and Monsieur Lussier.

It's interesting that we're having this meeting right now, and you've made reference to this in your report, that we are increasingly living in a diverse country. The 2006 census highlights the increasing diversity of this country, a country that is one of the fastest growing in the world and one where one in five Canadians now is foreign-born, a number that is only going to increase in future years.

I commend you and your department for starting to tackle the challenge of diversity while, at the same time, trying to preserve our institutions and some of the values on which our nation has been founded, values like official bilingualism and linguistic duality. So I commend you in that work and I strongly encourage the department to continue tackling that challenge, because I think it will be one of the biggest challenges we face in the coming decades--how to accommodate that diversity while preserving some of these cherished institutions and cherished values on which our nation has been founded.

In that context, a very important part of maintaining some of these values, like bilingualism, has been the action plan for official languages, which we all know is expiring in March of next year. My questions for the minister and the deputy minister are these. Maybe you can describe to this committee what steps will be taken between now and April 1 of next year to renew the action plan for official languages. And when might we hear about the successor to the action plan for official languages?

[Josée Verner, Conservative, Louis-Saint-Laurent, QC]

Thank you.

There are indeed challenges, realities with regard to linguistic duality in this country. Our government is very sensitive to what is going on. It is especially very determined to comply with the Official Languages Act, of course, but also to promote linguistic duality across the country. I repeat: the reports prepared by the various groups, whether it be the committee, the FCFA summit or others, as well as the recent Statistics Canada data, will definitely fuel our thinking.

A solid and clear commitment was made in the Throne Speech. In that speech, we said that the next phase of the Action Plan for Official Languages will be implemented. It must be understood that, for reasons of liability, we first had to ensure that we conducted an evaluation of the various programs proposed in the plan, consult our partners to determine what worked well and what worked less well. That evaluation is still under way.

Of course, the consultations are taking place as we speak. There will be a summing up in January, which will enable me, among other things, to receive Mr. Lord's report on the results of consultations that have been conducted across the country. At that point, we'll be able to get to work to begin the next phase of the Action Plan for Official Languages.

[The Chair, Conservative, Steven Blaney]

Thank you.

You have 30 second left.

[Michael Chong, Conservative, Wellington—Halton Hills, ON]

Thank you.

I guess the first we might hear of this might be in budget 2008-09, about phase two, possibly afterwards.

[Josée Verner, Conservative, Louis-Saint-Laurent, QC]

It's impossible for me to tell you what the next budget—

[The Chair, Conservative, Steven Blaney]

So we'll have to wait for it to come out.

Mr. Gravel, go ahead, please.

[Raymond Gravel, Bloc, Repentigny, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

To my short question, I'd like to have a long answer.

First, I would like to make a comment, since this is not the first time I've heard Ms. Verner talk to us this way. A little earlier, she told my colleague that the Bloc Québécois had voted against the Throne Speech, recalling a beautiful sentence contained in the speech, that is to say that the French fact was a founding aspect of our big beautiful country. As though we had to vote in favour of the Throne Speech because of a beautiful sentence it contained! I have trouble accepting that.

I'm a new member; I've been here for only a year. However, it's not because a beautiful sentence was slipped into a Throne Speech that you necessarily have to support the entire speech. In my opinion, it is dishonest to constantly remind us of that, as she has done in the House on a number of occasions. I think she does well when she does that because she doesn't answer the questions.

Furthermore, my colleague asked a good question on assimilation a little earlier. For years now, we've been fighting to preserve French, and the quality of the language, not only in Quebec, but across Canada as well. The government tosses out ideas, but absolutely nothing happens.

Could the minister tell us what assimilation represents for her?