Evidence of meeting #35 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 games.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Commissioner, Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages
Nothing is guaranteed with regard to the municipal level or linguistic obligations.
Bloc
Monique Guay Bloc Rivière-du-Nord, QC
I need to know because there are people who will be living around Vancouver. The city will of course never be able to receive all of that population. Those people will have to go outside, to other small municipalities. I know they don't have an obligation to offer bilingual services, but you can nevertheless bring pressure to bear for that to happen.
Commissioner, Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages
Absolutely. That's an aspect I'm going to emphasize. Mr. Chairman, I want to thank the members—
Bloc
Monique Guay Bloc Rivière-du-Nord, QC
Mr. Fraser, I hope that, if ever we need you to come back before the end of November, if we have questions and have to call on you, you'll be available to come and meet with us because time is of the essence.
Commissioner, Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages
I'm always available to appear before the committee. However, as I told you, I await the committee's request. It will take some time before we can get other information. Coming back next week won't provide much additional information.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Steven Blaney
Thank you, Ms. Guay. As the saying goes, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.
You have a point of order, Ms. Glover?
Conservative
Shelly Glover Conservative Saint Boniface, MB
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I have a point of order, but I didn't want to take away from the member's time, so I decided to wait until the end.
I want to say very clearly, Mr. Chair, that when the member from the opposition, the Liberal Party, addressed me directly, it was inappropriate, it was against the rules, and it was unnecessary, and I feel that we must follow the rules.
The rules say that I can cite public statements and they can defend them. I don't choose whether Mr. D'Amours is here or not; they do. But I felt it was totally inappropriate and it should not have been done.
I would ask the chair to remind members that they speak to the chair, and not to chastise one another directly.
Thank you.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Steven Blaney
Thank you, Ms. Glover.
I think you're right. We have to address our comments through the chair, so I would invite all members to do so.
I want to thank our witness, the commissioner.
Thank you for being our watchdog, especially for the Olympics. We appreciate your work and we'll work to have a success as a result.
We're going to suspend for two minutes because in camera business is on the agenda. I need some intelligent advice from members concerning future business. So we'll be back in two minutes after the microphones have been adjusted. Thank you.
[Proceedings continue in camera]