Official Languages Committee on April 28th, 2009

[The Chair, Conservative, Steven Blaney]

Good morning to you all and welcome to the 16^th meeting of the Standing Committee on Official Languages dealing with the broadcasting and services in French of the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Games.

This morning we have the pleasure of receiving two groups that are actively engaged in preparing the Olympic Games, particularly with regard to the language component. I would like to welcome Guy Matte, Executive Director of the Canadian Foundation for Cross-Cultural Dialogue, and thank him for having accepted our invitation on such short notice.

We greatly appreciate that.

As well, from the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games (VANOC), we are pleased to welcome Jacques Gauthier, Chair of the Official Languages Advisory Committee, and Francine Bolduc, Director of Official Languages.

Without further ado, I would ask Mr. Matte to break the ice and give his opening remarks.

[Guy Matte, Executive Director, Canadian Foundation for Cross-Cultural Dialogue]

Thank you. I am pleased to break the ice on such a warm day.

I am the Executive Director of the Canadian Foundation for Cross-Cultural Dialogue. The foundation representations francophone and Acadian organizations in matters concerning the Olympic Games.

A few years ago, the Foundation, together with the Fédération des francophones de la Colombie-Britannique, signed a memorandum of understanding with VANOC committing us to promote the participation of Canada's francophones in the Games, something we take very seriously.

Since our last appearance, we have had numerous meetings with VANOC officials to study all aspects of service delivery at the Games, focusing particularly on language issues. In the wake of the report by the Commissioner of Official Languages, the foundation and the FFCB asked that a representative of the official language minority communities be given a seat on VANOC's board of directors, or at least that an observer position be created.

None of the signatories to VANOC's memorandum of understanding wanted to reopen it. The memorandum is a complex legal document, and this seemed to pose quite a problem. However, I give credit to Jacques Gauthier, who is sitting beside me and is on VANOC's board of directors, for suggesting the creation of an official languages committee within the board of directors. Members of that committee include Jean-Pierre Raffarin, the former Prime Minister of France, as well as a representative of the Foundation, Michel Matifat, and Serge Corbeil from the Fédération des francophones de la Colombie-Britannique.

Although this initiative does not fully satisfy our initial demand, it creates further ties between francophone communities and the board of directors. We will have to see whether the committee will really have full latitude to ensure that VANOC meets all its commitments regarding linguistic duality.

For example, although we have been assured that the opening and closing ceremonies will be models of respect for our two official languages, we will only be certain of that after the fact. We are confident, even though we still have some concerns. Would it not be possible to preserve the secrecy surrounding the ceremonies, while demonstrating that they will respect the two official languages of the olympic movement and of our country?

We are also concerned by the broadcasting of the games. We want to ensure that all Canadians have access to the same quality of broadcasting of the 2010 Games. We have close working relations with the CTVglobemedia consortium, which is responsible for the broadcasting, as well as officials at RDS, the Réseau des sports, because we want to ensure the best possible French-language coverage of the Games across the country. We are following the progress made by RDS in its agreements with the satellite and cable distributors.

Although all major companies have agreed to unscramble the signals for RDS and TQS free-of-charge for one month, agreements with some of Canada's 200 smaller cable distributors still need to be negotiated. These negotiations are done one at a time, but they are getting done.

We also raised the fact that francophone and Acadian communities would not be able to watch French-language programs promoting our athletes and the games in the months leading up to the opening ceremonies in February 2010. We are now also trying to find ways to resolve that issue as well. I think that we could be seeing great progress in that respect over the next few weeks.

The Foundation is taking its responsibilities regarding the broadcasting quite seriously and will continue to work with the consortium to ensure that Canada's francophones have equal access to the same quality of broadcasting.

Members of the committee, allow me to briefly report on other issues concerning the Vancouver Olympic Games. The Foundation and the FFCB are working hard to ensure that every community taking part in the Olympic Torch Relay recognizes the importance of promoting our linguistic duality in the celebrations surrounding that event. The FFCB is working with towns and villages in British Columbia, and the Foundation is dealing with the other 110 towns and villages outside Quebec. We are encouraging all of those municipalities to have one or more francophone representative of the community on their planning committees, which are called community celebration groups. To date, we have received a very positive response from almost every municipality we have contacted.

So far, 41 of those 110 towns and villages have at least one francophone in their community celebration groups.

We are encouraged by the commitment made by Minister Moore who stated the following when he appeared before the Senate Standing Committee on Official Languages on March 23:

With regard to the 2010 Olympic Games, you should know that official language minority community involvement is part of the conditions made for the money that Parliament approved for the torch relay....

That commitment will facilitate our work with those municipalities that are somewhat less attuned to our linguistic duality. Furthermore, through our various means of communication, we are encouraging francophones to register to become torch bearers.

We are also continuing to plan for the Place de la francophonie in Vancouver so that it can be ready for the games. We are encouraged by the federal, provincial and territorial governments' commitments, as well as by the interest in this initiative shown by some member states of the francophonie and the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie. We believe that the site will be a cultural showplace demonstrating the creativity and vitality of our francophone and Acadian communities to the world.

Schools will also be asked to contribute. Thanks to the support of the Ministry of Education, we are preparing an educational guide that will encourage both French and immersion schools as well as French second-language classes to promote the olympic values.

We have also collaborated with VANOC to find enough volunteers who can provide services in French. We will undoubtedly face crises, obstacles and resource problems in trying to ensure a French presence at the Olympic and Paralympic Games in Vancouver right up until the end of the closing ceremonies of the Paralympic Games.

The Canadian Foundation for Cross-Cultural Dialogue is committed and will continue to work to ensure that these beautiful and majestic games become a model of respect for the two official languages of the olympic movement and of Canada.

I would like to thank you for your invitation and I remain at your disposal.

[The Chair, Conservative, Steven Blaney]

Thank you, Mr. Matte, for your presentation.

We will continue with the Official Languages Advisory Committee and the presentation by Mr. Gauthier.

[Jacques Gauthier, Chair, Official Languages Advisory Committee, Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games (VANOC)]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I would also like to thank committee members their welcome this morning.

I have a well-prepared text on our commitment with regard to official languages within VANOC, but I would rather take a few minutes to talk to you about the Official Languages Advisory Committee that we established some time ago. I think that such information as well as the committee's objectives are worth putting on the record. I will therefore take a few minutes to tell you about the committee's underlying mission.

I agreed to chair the Official Languages Committee as a member of VANOC's board of directors. Basically, as Mr. Matte indicated earlier, we have been working over the past two years in close cooperation with various francophone groups from across Canada, including the Canadian Foundation for Cross-Cultural Dialogue. We also work with the Fédération des francophones de la Colombie-Britannique as well as all kinds of organizations from coast to coast. We are also working in partnership with federal government officials whose job is to ensure that we make all the necessary efforts to respect the multi-party agreement, which is at the heart of VANOC's commitment to official languages.

We came to realize—and this is something Graham Fraser understood as well—that we needed to create a formal framework within the committee so that the various francophone stakeholders involved in the discussions would be on the same page and have the same objectives. That is why we recommended that this committee be established. At the outset, we wanted to bring together Canada's francophone stakeholders. After much reflection and discussion with various political players, including Mr. Diouf, the Secretary General of the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie. We thought it would be a good idea to open the committee to international members, including Jean-Pierre Raffarin, who was pleased to be on the committee.

There was a reason for choosing Mr. Raffarin. As you know, he had been appointed the Grand Témoin (great witness) of the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie at the Beijing Olympic Games. Given that very recent experience, we thought that he could help us in our work. As recently as last Friday, the committee had its first official meeting in Vancouver, and Mr. Raffarin provided us with exceptional support. He gave us a lot of information, both general and at times quite detailed, on the issues he had identified in Beijing and with which we should be dealing. We greatly value his work with us.

We have also obtained the participation of Judith LaRocque, who is the Deputy Minister at Canadian Heritage. Here again, the goal was to make sure that the federal government, which makes representations in matters concerning the francophonie, be part of the committee in order to listen and criticize generally, but also regarding VANOC's objectives. I think that our working group truly represents all bilingualism stakeholders.

I read in the paper this morning that the Organizing Committee of the Olympic Games had struck the committee a bit late in the process after having decided that such a committee was needed to ease tensions. I have to say that that is not an accurate interpretation of the situation. In fact, we have been working with stakeholders for over two years, especially to solve problems regarding the francophonie and ensure our presence where need be.

At our first meeting last Friday, we acknowledged that some issues were outstanding—and I will let Francine talk to you about them in a few minutes—but that substantial progress had also been made. We are probably responsible for the fact that news about this progress was not conveyed properly. Therefore, our challenge is to inform all francophone stakeholders, including everyone in this room, of course.

Over the next few weeks, we will be implementing a very detailed action plan, which is based on the report done by the Commissioner of Official Languages, Graham Fraser. We will therefore use the report to draw up our work plan, including timelines but especially measures to rectify the remaining outstanding issues. I must say that we have addressed major issues in recent months, including French broadcasting and the partnership with the French-language print media. These are issues have been settled. Agreements were reached with Gesca for French-language coverage of the games in Quebec, New Brunswick and parts of Ontario.

As Mr. Matte indicated, CTV appointed Gerry Frappier as the francophone chef de mission for the French-language coverage of the games. There will be over 200 reporters and some 20 hours of French-language broadcasting for the duration of the games by francophone reporters on all Canadian networks. In short, some major issues have been resolved. Needless to say, there is still work to be done. We have to be vigilant, but pragmatic at the same time. That is the ultimate objective of the committee, which will provide the board of directors with regular reports, but in particular, it will meet with and inform all official language stakeholders.

I want to assure you that we will continue to work with the major stakeholders in the coming weeks. I will again be meeting with Mr. Diouf, the Secretary of the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie, to discuss the appointment of the next Grand Témoin, with whom we will be working hand in hand in Vancouver. The cooperation of our committee as well as each and everyone of you will be required.

I would like to thank you for inviting us to appear before you. I will now let Francine speak to you for a few minutes about the more concrete progress that has been achieved. I of course remain open to answer your questions.

Thank you.

[Francine Bolduc, Director, Official Languages, Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games (VANOC)]

Thank you, Mr. Gauthier.

I would like to give you an overview of the current state of preparation of the games. You heard about the Official Languages Advisory Committee, which is part of our strategy. Mr. Gauthier has already talked about the print media and broadcasting organizations. I will therefore skip over that, unless you have questions later on.

With regard to translation, we have found a better way to align our official language objectives with the linguistic services. We therefore transferred the translation service to official languages, in order to ensure a perfect alignment. We have identified the needs very specifically in order to obtain the appropriate resources to offer translation services during the games.

We want to ensure that the spectators, athletes and the whole Olympic family have access to bilingual services and experience the games in a bilingual environment. We are currently recruiting and training enough bilingual volunteers to fill the various positions in 2010.

We have to make sure there are enough bilingual volunteers. I believe it should be quite easy to attain our objective. We will also have to ensure that those people will be located where French will be used during the games, i.e., with the public, with the people and not behind the scenes.

As for communications, as you already know, our website is bilingual. We are now working on the signage at all of the Olympic sites. The same will be done for the tickets, medals and all announcements made during the competitions. We are currently selecting all the sports commentators and will ensure that they are adequately bilingual.

We also want to make sure that all scoreboards at the different sites will be in both languages and that the messages displayed during the games will be created in either French or English in order to really get the public involved during the competitions.

The program for the Cultural Olympiad began in 2008, and the activities were mainly local in nature. In 2009, there have been tours, which means that the program has become more national in scope. The program of the 2010 Cultural Olympiad will be magnificent. Today, we will be announcing the names of the first 20 artists who will perform during the 2010 Cultural Olympiad. Of that number, five will be francophones, including three who will present French-language performances. I can give you a scoop, here and now. Robert Lepage and his work The Blue Dragon will open the 2010 Cultural Olympiad. There will be three performances, the first of which will be in French. We are very excited about that.

Moreover, Jorane and the Festival juste pour rire will be performing in French. Those three names will be part of the first group of 20 artists who will perform during the 2010 Cultural Olympiad. There will be two other announcements made later in the year. We are pleased to make this announcement today.

[The Chair, Conservative, Steven Blaney]

You have one minute left, Ms. Bolduc.

[Francine Bolduc]

Much progress has been made since I last came here with Mr. Furlong. We are working hard to offer a bilingual experience to all visitors in 2010.

[The Chair, Conservative, Steven Blaney]

Mr. Gauthier, you have the floor.

[Jacques Gauthier]

I made an inadvertent mistake earlier when I said that RDS had committed to produce over 20 hours of television a week. I should have said 20 hours a day. My apologies.

[The Chair, Conservative, Steven Blaney]

Thank you for that clarification.

We will begin our first round of questions with Mr. Rodriguez.

[Pablo Rodriguez, Liberal, Honoré-Mercier, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Good morning to you all and welcome.

I just wanted to clarify the process leading to the creation of the committee. You said that the committee was struck a while back. However, this morning, we found out that the Official Languages Committee was established quite recently, whereas you say that it has been active for the past two years.

[Jacques Gauthier]

In fact, we have been meeting with the members who were appointed to the committee for over two years, but the committee itself was officially struck in the fall of 2008.

[Pablo Rodriguez, Liberal, Honoré-Mercier, QC]

So that is a year and a half ago.

[Jacques Gauthier]

Moreover, the draft terms of reference that I have here with me are dated November 6, 2008. So this is something we have been discussing for a while.

[Pablo Rodriguez, Liberal, Honoré-Mercier, QC]

Was the first meeting only held in April, this month?

[Jacques Gauthier]

Yes, officially, but, once again, I must point out that discussions had been held before the first meeting. We had to start by agreeing on our reference framework, provide appropriate information to the members, and so on.

[Pablo Rodriguez, Liberal, Honoré-Mercier, QC]

Is it not a rather long process, if it takes eight months to create a committee and develop the terms of reference before holding a meeting in April, which is less than a year before the games start?

[Jacques Gauthier]

It is not a long process, in that we are working with the Commissioner of Official Languages, Graham Fraser. He had told us that he would be producing his report in December 2008. Since we wanted our information on the Commissioner's concerns to be as up-to-date as possible, we had to wait for his report, and that is what we did.

[Pablo Rodriguez, Liberal, Honoré-Mercier, QC]

Do you not agree, Mr. Gauthier, that this could have been done earlier? This exchange with you has provided me with some new information. I though that the committee had been up and running for a long time, but I realize now that your first meeting was just this month. It was on April 23, right?

[Jacques Gauthier]

It was last Friday.

[Pablo Rodriguez, Liberal, Honoré-Mercier, QC]

It could have been held a little sooner.

[Jacques Gauthier]

At the risk of repeating myself, and I am doing just that, the work of our committee is driven by the recommendations made by Graham Fraser, the Commissioner of Official Languages. Mr. Fraser presented his report in December 2008. We are working in collaboration with him.

[Pablo Rodriguez, Liberal, Honoré-Mercier, QC]

So Graham Fraser did not act quickly enough. It is his fault.

[Jacques Gauthier]

I beg your pardon?

[Pablo Rodriguez, Liberal, Honoré-Mercier, QC]

He did not act quickly enough.