Official Languages Committee on April 21st, 2009

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

Yes, that's Tourism BC.

In appendix A of an agreement reached between the federal government, the Province of British Columbia, the City of Vancouver, the Resort Municipality of Whistler, VANOC, the Canada Paralympic Committee and the Vancouver 2010 Bid Corporation, Canada's official language requirements are outlined.

If it is not covered, could it be a voluntary omission? I can't imagine such a thing. Canada has two official languages and the Government of Canada is spending some $26 million on advertising for the Olympic Games. But despite all this, an agency that belongs to British Columbia has no official language obligation. The Olympic Games do not only represent Vancouver, but all of Canada. All the languages are there but French.

Sometimes we wonder why we have to pass legislation to ensure that the judges on the Supreme Court are bilingual. Maybe we should pass a law to ensure that in future, the Olympic Games are presented in both official languages.

I would like to hear your comments on this subject.

[Graham Fraser]

First, we received a complaint about BC Tourism, and thus I will have to limit my remarks because of the need for confidentiality. All I can tell you is that I have been in contact personally with BC Tourism and the representatives assured me that they are working on this file in cooperation with the British Columbia Economic Development Corporation in order to rectify the situation.

I can't go into any more detail, but I take this matter seriously. We are doing everything possible, both officially and unofficially, to exert pressure, offer encouragement, and shake things up in order to achieve our shared objectives, for example, those regarding linguistic duality for the 2010 Olympic Games.

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

In that case, Mr. Chair, I would say that the federal government did not do its duty when it signed agreements with British Columbia knowing full well that we are in a bilingual country and that both languages must be respected. In my opinion, the government failed to do its duty at the time the agreement was signed, if the necessary provisions are not there.

Also, Mr. Chair, I would suggest perhaps that our committee send a letter to BC Tourism to express our dissatisfaction with this matter and ask them to rectify the situation as quickly as possible. And that does not mean after the Olympic Games, Mr. Chair.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Steven Blaney]

Thank you, Mr. Godin.

We have some committee business right after the appearance of the commissioner. But we'll come back to this subject.

Mr. Chong, the floor is yours.

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

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I'd like to first ask a question about the broadcasting of the 2010 Vancouver Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games. In your opening remarks, you indicated that while the consortium has put in place encouraging measures to address access for minority communities to broadcast in their language of choice, they're not enough to ensure complete nationwide coverage. It's a hypothetical question I'm going to ask you. If the public broadcaster had been awarded the games, would this have been a non-issue or less of an issue?

[Graham Fraser]

It would not have been an issue. The public broadcaster has 100% coverage.

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

Thank you.

The other question I had concerns the volunteers and the staff who will be on the ground during the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games. Will there will be a sufficient number of volunteers and staff people who are bilingual to ensure that visitors to this country or francophones from other parts of the country will be able to access services in the language of their choice? Are you confident that this is going to happen?

[Graham Fraser]

Confident is a very strong word, Mr. Chairman. I am hopeful that will happen. I know that VANOC is devoting substantial effort to recruiting bilingual volunteers and that there have been agreements with Quebec and New Brunswick. There were some rough patches in this process. People who applied submitted their CVs in French and were asked to resubmit their CVs in English. I think the problem has been cleared up.

At this point, I'm not prepared to use the word “confident”. I'm raising this issue as often as I can and in as many ways as I can. I am hopeful. I am certainly working, we are all working, so that everybody can be aware of the challenges and everybody can do what they can to ensure that those challenges are met.

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

How many volunteers are we looking at in terms of the Olympic and Paralympic Games?

[Graham Fraser]

I don't have a number on the tip of my tongue.

It's actually in the report on page 22. They estimate that they will need about 25,000 volunteers.

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

Have all of them been recruited at this point? Or does that recruitment continue right up to--

[Graham Fraser]

As far as I understand, that recruitment process is going on as we speak.

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

Okay. Do you have any idea how many of those will be bilingual?

[Graham Fraser]

I think it's unfortunately not a high enough target. Their target was 12%, or 3,000.

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

Are they going to meet that target, do you know?

[Graham Fraser]

I don't know that.

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

My last set of questions concerns signage--municipal, provincial, federal signage--around the games. You indicated that Whistler has decided that it will put up bilingual signs, that it will provide bilingual services. What have the other municipalities in the lower Vancouver mainland decided? Have any of them decided to go in that direction?

[Graham Fraser]

My understanding is that those discussions are still under way.

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

Okay. In terms of the other partners involved with this, have they entered into those discussions as well?

[Graham Fraser]

I think so.

Carsten.

[Carsten Quell, Director, Policy and Research, Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages]

Sorry. Have other federal partners...?

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

We're talking about the non-municipal partners in the games. Have they also considered ensuring that their services are available in both official languages, whether they be staff persons, signage, or literature?

[Carsten Quell]

We don't have any information on that right now, but as a follow-up to our study, we will be going back to the people who were interviewed as part of the study. So we hope to have more information on the implementation in the fall.

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

The final question concerns the opening and closing ceremonies.

[The Chair, Conservative, Steven Blaney]

Mr. Chong, we will have to proceed.

I think it is now time to consult the committee members. We have completed the first two rounds, so we could do a third and final round and then thank our witness. We have a great deal of work to do with our current business. Do the committee members wish to proceed to a third and final round? Fine, let's go ahead. We'll begin with Ms. Zarac.