Official Languages Committee on April 21st, 2009

[Lise Zarac, Liberal, LaSalle—Émard, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Good morning, Mr. Fraser. In your December report, you referred to a lack of funding in the areas of translation and interpretation, and you spoke about this once again today. Your report was made public in early December and since that time, we have been hit by an economic crisis that has changed matters somewhat. You asked that Canadian Heritage, in order to overcome the major obstacles that you mentioned in your report, provide additional support.

I have a question in three parts. First, given the current economic context, do you have concerns? Second, have you received a reply from Canadian Heritage? Does the minister intend to provide additional support? Third—and this is important, because the government is faced with this crisis, but so are our partners—have things been confirmed with our partners to ensure that there will not be any cuts in the area of linguistic duality?

[Graham Fraser]

Yes, I have concerns, one of which is that the government's investment in infrastructure, to kickstart the economy, seems to focus on very concrete things and be carried out in a fairly traditional fashion. Tourism is one of these fairly significant sectors and, as I said in my preceding answers, francophone tourism is one of the only tourism sectors on the rise in British Columbia. I think that the Olympic Games represent a major opportunity, not only for physical infrastructure, but also to strengthen Canada's linguistic duality and to establish—if I may put it this way—the human infrastructure required to welcome francophones who may wish to visit us. If we miss the opportunity, I think it would be a real shame.

To answer another of your questions, we have not received any answer, as far as I know, from Canadian Heritage concerning additional funding.

[Lise Zarac, Liberal, LaSalle—Émard, QC]

Are you going to go back to Canadian Heritage to ensure that linguistic duality is respected? I understand that the infrastructure must be in place, but it's important that we don't miss the boat on this one. I think that very close monitoring must be done to ensure that the funding is there for linguistic duality. Are these efforts being made?

[Graham Fraser]

There are measures in the budget. Yes, we have done monitoring and the Economic Action Plan provides for subsidies for the Canadian Tourism Commission to support promotional and advertising activities. I believe that in the tourism sector, the amounts are already designated. We do have the intention of reminding both Canadian Heritage and the Canadian Tourism Commission that a portion of these funds must be used to underscore the importance of linguistic duality.

[Lise Zarac, Liberal, LaSalle—Émard, QC]

You will be publishing a report on the monitoring you have done and make it public in November of this year, I believe. If there is a problem of underfunding at that time, will there still be time to take the measures required before the Games?

[Graham Fraser]

I certainly hope so. We will make an effort to ensure that this report is ready as soon as possible this fall. All of our recommendations have been designed to be useful, and several of them have been followed and appreciated, so I don't want to give the impression that there is any resistance. We recommended that a committee be created, and that was done. The deputy minister and the former prime minister of France are both members of that committee. I think the will is there, and we are monitoring the situation as closely as possible.

[The Chair, Conservative, Steven Blaney]

Thank you, Ms. Zarac.

Mr. Galipeau, do you wish to put a question to our witness?

Mr. Chong.

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

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I have a brief question about the opening and closing ceremonies for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games. You made no mention of them in either your recommendations or your opening remarks. These are probably the singular most important events of the games, because that's when the audience in attendance will be the greatest and the television audience will be the greatest.

Have you reviewed the preparations and planning for the opening and closing ceremonies to ensure they reflect the linguistic duality of the country?

[Graham Fraser]

I have not. There is an entirely appropriate shadow of secrecy around the preparation for these ceremonies. The Olympic committee, like previous Olympic committees, wants it to be a surprise for viewers around the world. But the consultant for the committee--which in addition to the people I mentioned also includes a representative from the francophone community--will be involved in approving the content of the ceremonies.

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

I have no further questions.

[The Chair, Conservative, Steven Blaney]

Is that fine for you?

Ms. Guay.

[Monique Guay, Bloc, Rivière-du-Nord, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Mr. Fraser, during your presentation, you said the following:

VANOC has implemented part of Recommendation 17 by forming an official languages advisory committee. As I recommended, Canadian Heritage will prepare a formal quarterly progress report.

You say that you will be tabling a report in September, therefore in a little over three months. I believe we will be coming to the conclusion that significant efforts will have to be made. We want to make sure that we will not appear to be poorly organized in the eyes of the world. Remember that there are provisions on official languages in the Olympic Charter, in Rule 24. I would like to know if it would be possible for you to table reports with us much more frequently, every quarter if necessary, so that we can react. By waiting until September, we will have very little time within which to react. Year 2010 is not far away. Moreover, I want to remind everyone that China had no problem holding Olympic Games in Beijing in the two official languages. I do not see why we could not do so at home.

[Graham Fraser]

We take note of the members' request. I am glad that she has made reference to the Beijing experience. I find it encouraging that a former French prime minister, Jean-Pierre Raffarin, who sits on the advisory committee, was the Grand Témoin de la Francophonie in Beijing. I expect that the francophonie will announce the Grand Témoin for the Olympic Games in Vancouver by the end of the month.

This person would be an important participant who would push for the Olympic Games to be a success in terms of linguistic duality.

[Monique Guay, Bloc, Rivière-du-Nord, QC]

Mr. Chairman, I would like the committee to make an official request for quarterly reports from Mr. Fraser's office, so that we can see where we stand. If we can do so in the case of Heritage Canada, we should also be able to do so for official languages. In this way, we will be kept up to date.

I am not alone in this. Ms. Zarak shared her concerns with the committee as well. The committee must be aware of what is happening in order that it be able to react by speaking to those involved or inviting them to appear before us so that they can explain why things have not moved forward quickly and methodically, with a goal to being ready for the Olympic Games in 2010.

[The Chair, Conservative, Steven Blaney]

Thank you, Ms. Guay.

As the saying goes, “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure”. That is the theme that is emerging from our meeting this morning.

We thank the witness and his team for having come to discuss the Olympic Games with us. Your report will be published on May 26. As we are dealing with the issue of post-secondary education, we will certainly have the opportunity to see you again during the next few weeks.

Mr. Fraser, I thank you for having participated in the committee's work.

We will suspend for a few minutes before continuing our work in camera.

[Meeting continues in camera]