Official Languages Committee on May 7th, 2009

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

It's nice to see you, too.

I have a minute, so I just want to give you a very brief message, because I think you have a leadership role to play in this. As a former cabinet minister and a privy councillor, you know we employ 263,000 people, and 70,000 of those are eligible for retirement in the next three years. We currently are hiring 10,000 to 12,000 new public servants a year, and over the next 10 years we'll hire over 100,000 public servants.

General Motors in Canada employs about 10,000 people. In other words, we are hiring 10 General Motors in the next decade. This is a huge opportunity for young Canadians, for new Canadians, to join a vibrant workforce.

My message to you is that you and your university administration should communicate to your governing body that there is a huge need in the Government of Canada for bilingual graduates. And we encourage the University of British Columbia, as one of the largest universities, to play a leadership role in ensuring that we meet those requirements.

[The Chair, Conservative, Steven Blaney]

Thank you, Mr. Chong.

[Stephen Owen]

Thank you for that advice. I can tell you I'm very pleased to receive that advice and very pleased to pass on that strong message to my colleagues.

[The Chair, Conservative, Steven Blaney]

And I would say that you still have the full day to do it. Thank you for starting off this day so early with us, Mr. Owen. We wish you the best, and have a good Olympics. Thank you.

We're now going to vote on Mr. Lemieux's motion, the purpose of which is to invite an additional witness.

Are there any further comments?

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

We haven't finished discussing the matter.

[The Chair, Conservative, Steven Blaney]

Are there any other comments on Mr. Lemieux's motion?

We'll have to suspend in about two minutes and then we can discuss other matters.

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

The university is located in Mr. Lemieux's riding, and he should have moved it at the start. The committee has been studying this matter for two months. He told us at the last minute that the university could give the course. He's not telling us how the system can change; he's just telling us that it can give the course. I congratulate the university. In addition, I invite them to send a brief stating what is available. Our committee isn't a promotional committee; it's a committee that is trying to determine how we can change the system to facilitate the entry of anglophones and francophones into the public service.

For years, Mr. Chong has asked us to conduct this study. We have given him a lot of time because we've been studying this issue for two months. Today, there are equally pressing matters, such as national defence, which does not comply with the Official Languages Act in 60% of instances. We have all kinds of subjects. I find it hard to believe that there are no witnesses we can invite on May 26 or 28.

We are going to meet next week to set the agenda and see what is available. I absolutely don't agree that we should delay that. We have to hear other witnesses between now and when they submit their brief. We've completed our spring business, and we have only examined one issue.

Mr. Chairman, we don't really have the time. In all sincerity, I invite Mr. Lemieux to tell his group to send committee members a brief, which will be well received.

[The Chair, Conservative, Steven Blaney]

Mr. Lemieux, I'm going to let you have the final word of our meeting this morning.

[Pierre Lemieux, Conservative, Glengarry—Prescott—Russell, ON]

Thank you, Chair.

I really don't understand why Mr. Godin is so agitated about this. It's simply a positive suggestion.

Here we have a college that actually has a program that addresses Mr. Chong's final remarks regarding the fact that the public service will be hiring thousands upon thousands of young Canadians in the next ten years. We have a college here that has taken the initiative to put in place a program to form its students for the public service. This is right in the domain that we are studying. Does Mr. Godin want to have a full report or a full study or not? It sounds as though he does not.

This is a positive initiative. That's it.

Chair, you said we have some space on May 26, and the analyst, I noticed, has said that he can start work on the report right now. I do not see this as derailing this committee at all. In fact, I see it as completing a very good study that we have undertaken. Once again, I don't understand the agitation of Mr. Godin. This is supposed to be a helpful suggestion to help us complete our study of this important subject.

[The Chair, Conservative, Steven Blaney]

Thank you, Mr. Lemieux.

Since there are still some comments, we'll discuss this motion further at the next meeting.

Thank you.

Thanks to our witnesses.

The meeting is adjourned.