Official Languages Committee on March 24th, 2009

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

The associations and organizations that are at work in our communities have also been receiving money since April 1 of last year.

[Jérôme Moisan]

Yes.

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

Fine. Thank you.

Have I any time left?

[The Chair, Conservative, Steven Blaney]

You have two minutes left.

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

I would like some clarification about the funds that were earmarked for culture. Culture is very important in my riding just as it is in the ridings that have minority official language communities. What are the targets of the $14 million program for culture?

[Hubert Lussier]

I'll answer this question, Mr. Lemieux.

The program will be launched on April 1. It is already open for submissions. Basically, we will try to do two things. First, we want to support community cultural projects that can have a long-term impact on community vitality. Some projects are for all of Canada and others are local projects. We are trying to do something that will impact the retention and the development of the identity of the young generation, and to establish links so that schools will not be the only places where the minority language is used. This is the first category.

Regarding the second category, we would like to encourage other kinds of public support, from provinces as well as from municipalities, which are often already somewhat committed, and some are very committed—as is the case in New Brunswick and in Quebec—and in other places perhaps they are not committed enough. We would like to encourage the submission of projects that will encourage them to do more in support of minority cultures.

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

Thank you.

I would like to clarify that Heritage Canada provides funding for arts and culture across Canada. This $14 million worth of funding is specifically for official language communities. Do these official language communities also have access to Heritage Canada funding of arts and culture in general?

[Hubert Lussier]

They do absolutely, and it is over and above what you refer to when you say that the heritage programs and the agency programs already support minority community cultural projects.

[The Chair, Conservative, Steven Blaney]

Thank you, Monsieur Lemieux.

Mr. Gravelle, do you have a question?

[Claude Gravelle, NDP, Nickel Belt, ON]

Yes.

I am very worried about Radio-Canada. I am from northern Ontario where many Franco-Ontarians live. I get many phone calls from senior citizens who are worried that they may lose the services of Radio-Canada. The minister mentioned the fact that advertising revenue for Radio-Canada is decreasing, and this is also the case for private stations. CamWest has asked for help, and we will help them, as we have done for other broadcasting companies. However, it seems we either do not want to or we cannot help Radio-Canada. I would like to know whether we can do something to help Radio-Canada get through this difficult period. Could we grant it some temporary aid, could we give it some extra money to make it easier for Radio-Canada to get over this period, so that there would be no cuts? In many places in Canada, in small communities, especially in northern Ontario and elsewhere in the Canadian north, Radio-Canada is the company that people have access to. Now, because of the coming cuts, they risk losing this service. I would like to know if we can do something to help Radio-Canada get through this temporary period.

[Tom Scrimger]

Mr. Gravelle, I cannot add much to what the minister told you earlier this morning. He explained the conversations he has had with Mr. Lacroix and told us about the assurances he had received. As public servants, we are not in a position to discuss the decision which must be taken by the minister and his colleagues.

[Claude Gravelle, NDP, Nickel Belt, ON]

You can convey our concern to the minister.

[Tom Scrimger]

Yes.

[The Chair, Conservative, Steven Blaney]

Thank you, Mr. Gravelle.

That concludes this round. Mr. Chong, however, indicated he would like to ask a brief question. We will then adjourn.

Mr. Chong, you have the floor.

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

Thank you, Mr. Chair, and thank you to the witnesses for appearing.

I'd like to congratulate Mr. Scrimger for his promotion within the department.

I am disappointed that successive governments of different stripes have set targets with respect to the number of bilingual students in Canada and that we've consistently failed to meet those targets. I think this is an incredibly important issue and a long-term problem that we have. At this relatively quiet time in our country's unity, it's the type of thing I think we should put a lot more effort into.

My question is why we are not hitting these targets, why we are going in the opposite direction. Is it a question of money? Is it a question of the way these federal and provincial agreements have been structured? Is it a question of something else? Why are we not hitting these targets?

[Hubert Lussier]

If we knew the answer as well as we would like, we'd probably do better. It's a multi-faceted issue. Part of it is a question of the numbers of students who do learn the second language--and it varies across the provinces--and how they learn the second language. We know, for instance, that most children in Canada learn French—and I'm now talking about the kids in Quebec learning English—in what we call core French, which is not proving very effective. Immersion is much more effective, and the number of children who go to immersion keeps going up. Mr. Moore is a product of immersion, and he's very proud of it. But we need to emphasize and to better the techniques through which kids learn who are not in immersion, because you can't put everybody in immersion. You can still improve. You can increase the number of classes and teachers who do immersion.

Core French is not the success we'd like it to be. There's a new method called intensive French, which is a kind of halfway method between core and immersion that is proving quite effective and that is applied in a greater number of places.

The way children are taught is part of the problem. The other one is that when we have set targets maybe we haven't been realistic enough, and when we negotiate the agreements on education one on one with provinces, the targets that the federal government has set itself don't mean very much for them. What we're going to try to focus on in the next round of agreements is targets that belong to provinces themselves.

[The Chair, Conservative, Steven Blaney]

Thank you to our witnesses.

I would like to make a suggestion to committee members. In his presentation, the minister spoke to our study on post-secondary institutions. If, in our report, we want to refer to the minister's testimony, we would need unanimous consent. Otherwise, we will not be able to include what the minister said this morning in our report. The minister's comments are on the record; he spoke to the issue this morning. I'm putting out feelers. I would like to know whether there is unanimous consent to take into account what the minister said. I'll quickly go around the table. Fine. If I don't obtain unanimous consent, that settles the matter.

Thank you very much. Our next meeting is on Thursday morning.

The meeting is adjourned.