Official Languages Committee on April 2nd, 2009

[Richard Nadeau, Bloc, Gatineau, QC]

Sorry.

I will address that to Ms. Lauzon.

[Sylvie Lauzon]

Registration is left up to the students. However, we are seeing a change. There are more and more Francophones deciding to stay in the French system and register in French at university. There are few Francophone students who decide to register in English-language programs at university.

[Richard Nadeau, Bloc, Gatineau, QC]

I understand. I was afraid that there could be a negative result from an initiative that is trying to do good.

[Sylvie Lauzon]

I would just like to come back to our experience in Saskatchewan. What you described is something that many parents have also told us. A major promotional effort is needed there to bring home to people that there is value in pursuing one's studies in French. In Ontario, the results of math and literacy tests are released every year for both primary and secondary schools in French and in English. Since promotional campaigns have been underway, we have noted an increase in the number of students registering in French schools, because it has become clear that students are just as successful in French as they are in English. So, promoting and valuing studies in French is an important part of this. There are just as many opportunities to get a job afterwards, because it is well known that in minority communities, young people are bilingual.

[Richard Nadeau, Bloc, Gatineau, QC]

What you have said is fundamentally important. As part of our study, we are focussing on the capacity of our universities to train bilingual graduates.

In the federal public service, there are people whose usual language is French but who almost always speak English at work, which is perfectly abnormal. They feel pressured to speak English because their superior does not understand French. It is fine to say that deputy ministers are all bilingual; the fact is that there are different levels of bilingualism.

I would like to take this analysis one step further. To be a minister, you have to be bilingual and set an example for your employees. That should be the reality in a bilingual country, a country that claims to have a bilingual federal public service able to provide services in the language of the individual wanting to speak to a minister, deputy minister or other official.

If the prime minister is bilingual and ministers are bilingual, then we will have demonstrated that capacity. You have to lead by example.

[The Chair, Conservative, Steven Blaney]

Please be brief, Mr. Nadeau.

[Richard Nadeau, Bloc, Gatineau, QC]

It is extremely important to highlight the need to avoid losing Francophones who are studying in French, and who could become people who see themselves as bilingual but end up working in English.

[Sylvie Lauzon]

Yes, exactly.

[The Chair, Conservative, Steven Blaney]

Thank you, Mr. Nadeau.

That completes our three rounds of questioning.

Mr. Godin, you have one final question.

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

Thank you. I agree with Ms. Lauzon, who was saying earlier that, at the University of Ottawa, people have an opportunity to practice both languages. I believe the problem really arises when you go to other regions of the country. I believe there is some difficulty in that regard at the University of New Brunswick in Saint John. I was talking to some students there last week, who were telling me that no one promotes French. A student from Nova Scotia was saying that she had left Nova Scotia to come to New Brunswick, thinking she would have an opportunity to learn French, but she is studying at the University of New Brunswick in Saint John and does not have that opportunity.

I just want to add as well that we were able to secure French schools, colleges and universities only after court challenges. For example, the Collège Boréal in Sudbury is doing very good work; a lot of young people are registering to study at that college.

Mr. Chairman, I would like to ask our researcher to prepare a list of all the current deputy ministers along with their level of bilingualism.

[The Chair, Conservative, Steven Blaney]

Is that a question or a request?

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

It is a request.

[The Chair, Conservative, Steven Blaney]

Perhaps we could look at that.

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

We were told two things repeatedly: our deputy ministers are all bilingual and…

[The Chair, Conservative, Steven Blaney]

We can ask our analyst to prepare an answer to that question. We can talk about this at our next meeting. I simply want to take full advantage of the witnesses who are with us today. Mr. Chong is the driving force behind this study.

By the way, I would just like to remind colleagues that the list of witnesses, including this morning's witnesses, was provided to all members of the committee. I wanted to point that out and commend people for trying to reconcile our main study with subjects such as the one we were reviewing on Tuesday.

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

In the end, it turned out quite well, Mr. Chairman. We had a good discussion.

[The Chair, Conservative, Steven Blaney]

Yes, and you were closely involved in it, Mr. Godin. Thank you.

Mr. Chong, you have the floor.

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

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I have a brief question for Ms. Lauzon. Have other universities communicated with you, at the University of Ottawa, to find out what you have been doing to promote bilingualism at the university level?

[Sylvie Lauzon]

The seven bilingual universities that are part of the Francophonie in Ontario are all working together. We know what is going on in each of the other institutions. We are also in touch with the Association of Universities of the Canadian Francophonie, which represents all Francophone or bilingual institutions outside Quebec. We are part of that network. We are also part of the Agence universitaire de la Francophonie. So, we have connections to other universities, who see what we are doing. We also have connections at the international level. Not so long ago, we hosted visitors from Ireland, who are also dealing with linguistic duality. We definitely have connections with many other universities as regards research in this area.

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

And what about English-speaking universities?

[Sylvie Lauzon]

We have very few connections there. We really don't have any to speak of with Anglophone universities, in terms of language proficiency. As a general rule, universities do not have that mandate. Like all universities, the University of Ottawa's primary function is education, knowledge dissemination, the generation of new knowledge through research, and in our case, this other special mandate. However, that is not part of the mandate of many other universities.

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

Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Steven Blaney]

Thank you very much.

Mr. Gaffield, please.

[Dr. Chad Gaffield]

I have one last comment or word of encouragement.

Last year we recognized that we had real potential to contribute to the federal public service renewal effort, in the sense that our graduates are such a huge proportion of the pool of potential recruits. As you know, we occupy about 60% of the university campuses, and so on. So we contacted the clerk and offered to help by ensuring there was better contact between the recruitment efforts of the federal government and our scholarship winners, fellowship winners, key researchers, and so on.

I can tell you about the details of those efforts. Just as an example, in the coming weeks, the Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences, which gathers together graduate students and researchers from across Canada and around the world, will be here in Ottawa, and the federal government will be present there in terms of recruiting students.

Given that the language question is at the very core of the humanities, our students are well equipped to meet that need. We are working hard to improve the recruitment process. Thus far, we note that the progress achieved in collaboration with our colleagues seems encouraging.

[The Chair, Conservative, Steven Blaney]

We have to find a new generation to replace the baby-boomers. This is something that is causing concern.

I would like to thank all of you for being here this morning and contributing to the work of this committee.

The meeting is adjourned.