Evidence of meeting #16 for Official Languages in the 40th Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was languages.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Chair, Official Languages Advisory Committee, Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games (VANOC)
You are putting words in my mouth that I did not say.
Liberal
Pablo Rodriguez Liberal Honoré-Mercier, QC
Well, it is a logical conclusion, since things could clearly have moved more quickly, overall.
Now, there are eight partners in the organization. There is the Canadian Olympic Committee, the Canadian Paralympic Committee, the municipality of Whistler, the city of Vancouver, etc. Do you make sure that all those organizations include French in their communications, for example, on their Internet sites?
Chair, Official Languages Advisory Committee, Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games (VANOC)
What partners are you referring to?
Liberal
Pablo Rodriguez Liberal Honoré-Mercier, QC
We are talking here about eight partners that are contributing financially to the games, including the Government of Canada, the province of British Columbia, etc.
Chair, Official Languages Advisory Committee, Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games (VANOC)
I cannot answer that.
Liberal
Pablo Rodriguez Liberal Honoré-Mercier, QC
This information is in the notes provided by our researchers.
Director, Official Languages, Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games (VANOC)
We are not required to impose obligations on our partners that apply to us. It is their responsibility. Our mandate is to ensure that, under the multi-party agreement, the provisions concerning the games are carried out. Our mandate is to encourage our partners and provide them with the resources, if we can.
Liberal
Pablo Rodriguez Liberal Honoré-Mercier, QC
So if Tourism Vancouver decides to use only English on its website, along with a little Mandarin, Japanese and a few other languages, in others, no French at all, you have nothing to say about it. Is that right?
Director, Official Languages, Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games (VANOC)
Yes.
Liberal
Pablo Rodriguez Liberal Honoré-Mercier, QC
But could you check the sites? It might be good to make a recommendation or two to some of our partners that have nothing at all in French on their websites. The Internet is a major means of communication in 2009.
Mr. Matte, on the broadcasting issue, you indicated that negotiations were under way with 200 small private cable distributors. Is that feasible? That amounts to nearly one negotiation every day.
Executive Director, Canadian Foundation for Cross-Cultural Dialogue
The negotiating is not done by us but by RDS, the francophone party. They tell me that they are in the process of signing agreements with small cable distributors.
Executive Director, Canadian Foundation for Cross-Cultural Dialogue
They tried to reach an agreement with the Canadian cable distributors association on a framework agreement to cover all distributors, but it was not possible to do so. So they need to negotiate with each one, and they are doing so.
Liberal
Pablo Rodriguez Liberal Honoré-Mercier, QC
Can we rest assured today that Canadians, regardless of the region in which they live, will be able to watch the games in the language of their choice?
Chair, Official Languages Advisory Committee, Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games (VANOC)
Last week, Mr. Frappier made a presentation to our Official Languages Committee in Vancouver. He assured us that the games would be broadcast in French across Canada under agreements with cable companies, as Mr. Matte mentioned. So to respond to your question, the answer that we were given was yes.
Liberal
Pablo Rodriguez Liberal Honoré-Mercier, QC
The signals may be transmitted, but people do not necessarily have the right systems to decode them themselves and receive the image. That is my concern and that is why it is so important to negotiate with the distributors and other stakeholders.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Conservative
Bloc
Monique Guay Bloc Rivière-du-Nord, QC
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
I would like to thank the witnesses for being here.
Mr. Matte, I will start with you.
We have learned that 4% of Canadians would not have access to the broadcasts. We know that there is a community television network, so would it be possible to use that network, which is on the cable system, to ensure that the games are broadcast throughout Canada?
It would be terrible if Canada could not broadcast the games in both official languages, when China was able to do so. And people talk about Canada as being this wonderful bilingual country.
Would it be possible to use community television?
Executive Director, Canadian Foundation for Cross-Cultural Dialogue
Your question should really be addressed to the RDS representatives, and I believe that you intend to invite them here soon.
Executive Director, Canadian Foundation for Cross-Cultural Dialogue
So you will have a better picture of everything that is being done. I would like to correct you on one thing: it is not 4% of the Canadian population that will not have access, but 4% of francophones in Canada.
Bloc
Monique Guay Bloc Rivière-du-Nord, QC
I apologize. It is 4% of francophones, but that is still a lot of people.
Executive Director, Canadian Foundation for Cross-Cultural Dialogue
I grant you that. We are talking about 9,000 French-Canadian homes without access to the broadcasts in French. There are various reasons for that. Some people may refuse to be hooked up to television. That is a choice that people can make in our society.
Executive Director, Canadian Foundation for Cross-Cultural Dialogue
I know. I have discussed this issue with Mr. Frappier, from RDS. He is also concerned about this issue, and he will tell you so himself. We are looking with the cable distributors at the possibility of providing boxes free-of-charge for a three-month period, so that people will be able to watch the Olympic Games. We are taking all sorts of measures.
It is a bit like having a big sausage and cutting slices off it. We still have a little piece of sausage and we are trying to make it as small as possible.
