Official Languages Committee on Oct. 29th, 2009

[Tilly O'Neill-Gordon, Conservative, Miramichi, NB]

I know that when you were in my riding and had the round table, those people were very appreciative and were so happy to know that you were there and took the time to meet with them. I appreciate that too, Mr. Minister.

Can you explain how the recommendation panel works and how it is appointed?

[James Moore, Conservative, Port Moody—Westwood—Port Coquitlam, BC]

Judith, do you want to say what the recommendation panel is about, the process as it goes forward? And Hubert wants to talk about that, as the architect.

[Hubert Lussier]

Quite briefly, I can say there are three phases. There are the applications where the agent, the analyst on the ground, helps the organization finalize the proposal, the application. Sometimes it takes a while, because there are some perfections to be done. Then the second phase is evaluation and recommendation. I must point out that with the official languages program we're talking about today, there's a special step that involves the community and takes a few weeks, which doesn't happen in other programs in the department.

There's an evaluation by the analyst. It goes to the community table, which makes a recommendation to the department, and then the recommendation is finalized by the department.

In the third phase it goes to the headquarters, and there's a final quality check, if you want, by our centre d'expertise before it goes to the deputy and the minister.

[Tilly O'Neill-Gordon, Conservative, Miramichi, NB]

Do you believe these panels should stay?

[Hubert Lussier]

The communities like these panels. It is at their request that they exist, and 12 out of 13 provincial and territorial communities have these panels.

[Tilly O'Neill-Gordon, Conservative, Miramichi, NB]

I know you explained the extra steps that are taken. Why are these extra steps taken in setting up the panels?

[Hubert Lussier]

Are you talking about the extra step involving the community itself?

[Tilly O'Neill-Gordon, Conservative, Miramichi, NB]

Yes.

[Hubert Lussier]

The communities want to have a say in what goes to the minister in terms of priority of projects. They hold that principle very dearly. One community has decided not to get into that detailed analysis, but 12 others have.

[The Chair, Conservative, Steven Blaney]

Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. O'Neill-Gordon.

We'll finish with Mr. Godin.

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

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Now that the minister has calmed down a little, I would like to ask him an important question and to get an answer, or else the officials can answer me.

I'm going to talk about the delays that the communities tell us about. If they receive the money too late, they don't have time to carry out the projects they had planned and they have to return that money to the government.

Minister, you said that funding was allocated, but how much money goes back to the government because people didn't have the time to carry out the projects they had planned? How much time did they have to return it? Is there a deadline?

This is a source of major concern for the communities. It's all well and good to give the communities money, but they are required to return it because the project couldn't be carried out because they didn't receive the money on time. All too often, they have to carry out their projects too quickly and they lose their manpower.

[James Moore, Conservative, Port Moody—Westwood—Port Coquitlam, BC]

That's a very good question, and we're prepared to give you some figures.

[Tom Scrimger, Assistant Deputy Minister, Citizenship and Heritage, Department of Canadian Heritage]

From April 1, 2003 to March 31, 2009, the ministers signed contribution agreements worth $260 million. At the same time, we received repayments of $190,000, which represents approximately one-tenth of 1% of the total contributions made by the department.

We have submitted the answer to the committee's motion on the same subject, with the requested details, to the clerk.

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

As regards the new way of proceeding, the multi-year agreements, what will make a difference?

If you enter into a three-year agreement, that means that you know the groups. Will the people receive all the money, and not just the 25%, on April 1, after the budgets have been adopted? These are three-year agreements. Will the next agreement, perhaps for the next three years, start early enough so that what happened this year won't reoccur?

[James Moore, Conservative, Port Moody—Westwood—Port Coquitlam, BC]

It's automatic and it gives the organizations certainty.

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

When will people receive the money, if there is a multi-year agreement?

[Judith LaRocque]

In the first year, they'll start by receiving the 25%.

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

In April?

[Judith LaRocque]

Yes. Then the payments would be well established in the contribution agreement signed with those people. The payment would be made automatically. Depending on the speed with which they renewed the agreement, three years later, it would probably be the same thing. It would be 25% or 30%.

We're seeing whether we could increase the first payment. Subsequently, we would make regular payments.

[James Moore, Conservative, Port Moody—Westwood—Port Coquitlam, BC]

Your question is very relevant. When I held my round tables, the first thing all the organizations asked was for multi-year agreements to be established. We're going to deliver—

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

You're going to “deliver the goods”.

[James Moore, Conservative, Port Moody—Westwood—Port Coquitlam, BC]

We're going to “deliver the goods”.

In closing, I would like to mention to committee members that, after consulting the Fédération des communautés francophones et acadienne, the Quebec Community Groups Network and the Canadian Bar Association, we appointed the members of the Panel of Experts of the Language Rights Support Program, the LRSP. I want to give you the names of the members of that panel because you know a number of them.

The committee consists of: Johanne Dumas, from British Columbia; Neil Turcotte, from Saskatchewan; David Dandeneau, from Manitoba; Gilles LeVasseur and Michelle Vaillancourt, from Ontario; Richard McConomy and Brad McDonald, from Quebec; Maurice Bourque, from New Brunswick; and Ali Chiasson, from Newfoundland and Labrador.

[The Chair, Conservative, Steven Blaney]

Thank you very much.

That completes this first part of our meeting.

Minister, thank you for telling us about some concrete solutions with regard to the multi-year agreements.

[James Moore, Conservative, Port Moody—Westwood—Port Coquitlam, BC]

The threshold has been increased from $30,000 to $50,000, the 25% policy will remain in place, and we now have multi-year agreements.

[The Chair, Conservative, Steven Blaney]

We'll now suspend proceedings. Then we'll continue with the department's representatives.