Official Languages Committee on May 11th, 2010

[Mauril Bélanger, Liberal, Ottawa—Vanier, ON]

I certainly do, Mr. Chair.

I would like to go back to Ms. Mills.

Madam Mills, I loved our last exchange, so I want to continue. This may surprise you, because I'm taking some exception to Monsieur Nadeau's line of questioning. He and I see things quite often on the same wavelength, except for the ultimate question, of course.

But I have to compliment Nova Scotia, as opposed to criticizing here. On the act that you referred to, can you tell me if it was Minister d'Entremont who got it passed?

[Elizabeth Mills]

That's correct. It was the French-language Services Act, and we are very proud of that act. The Nova Scotia government has been working very hard to fulfill the terms of that act.

We have a coordinating committee. Each department has a French-language services representative appointed to sit on that committee. Joëlle is our representative. In our Office of Immigration, which is very tiny, we have a designated francophone position. We have a minister's advisory council made up of 13 individuals. Two of the seats on that council are francophone seats.

Each year we put together a new plan that we must submit to the House of Assembly, indicating what we plan to do that year to improve access to French-language services for persons living in Nova Scotia and what we're doing to build our capacity in our respective departments and offices.

[Mauril Bélanger, Liberal, Ottawa—Vanier, ON]

You have one school board for your whole area. I know this is not really part of our topic this morning, but, if you have the answer, could you tell me how many francophone schools there are in the province? I am not talking about immersion, but schools.

[Joëlle Désy]

There are 19 wholly francophone schools.

[Mauril Bélanger, Liberal, Ottawa—Vanier, ON]

Great! Is that number going up, or down, or staying the same at the moment?

[Joëlle Désy]

It is increasing, especially in the metropolitan area. We have to build a new school there soon because we have a high demand.

[Mauril Bélanger, Liberal, Ottawa—Vanier, ON]

Have attempts been made to improve court services?

[Joëlle Désy]

The Association des juristes d'expression française de la Nouvelle-Écosse has responsibility for that.

[Mauril Bélanger, Liberal, Ottawa—Vanier, ON]

There is an active bar association too? Wow!

[Joëlle Désy]

Yes, it is really active. It also sits on the Francophone Immigration Steering Committee. It is working on it.

[Mauril Bélanger, Liberal, Ottawa—Vanier, ON]

Assimilation is a fact. It is everywhere, even in Ottawa, believe it or not. I would even say that it exists in the Parliament of Canada, but we are working to reverse the trend. Whatever, we must not always see the glass half empty. We have to see what positive things can be done.

So I will turn back to Ms. Mills.

Madam Mills, I urge you to seriously consider incorporating into your strategic plan an objective of higher than 4% for francophone immigration. And the reason for that should be fairly obvious.

If indeed the act that you are referring to--I'm not talking about the federal act, but your act--calls for an improvement on a yearly basis, I would argue, and I would hope you'd agree with me, although we'll see... I'll give you some time to respond, with a short response, though, because I'm afraid of what you might do to me.

[Voices]

Oh, oh!

[Mauril Bélanger, Liberal, Ottawa—Vanier, ON]

I would hope you'd agree it stands to reason that if indeed the objectives of your act are to be attained, it has to be measured in objectives that are higher than the current level.

And I would transpose that to immigration. If the percentage of the population is 4% and you realize yourself that you have a retention difficulty because you're still only at 60%, your objective, therefore, should be in the neighbourhood of the one in Manitoba, at 6% or 7%. Would you agree to that?

[Elizabeth Mills]

I think it's a very plausible argument and I appreciate that you brought it to my attention. I think it's well worth looking at, but I cannot make a commitment in this room.

[Mauril Bélanger, Liberal, Ottawa—Vanier, ON]

No. I am not asking you to.

[Elizabeth Mills]

The development of the strategy is not mine alone. It has gone through a detailed process. I'll certainly bring this back. It has not been finalized yet, though it is in its nearly complete stages. I will certainly bring this discussion to my minister.

But I want to say something very important, and that is that immigration is new. You mentioned why we are only starting with our francophone recruitment now. Well, the truth of the matter is, we weren't doing any recruitment before 2005, anywhere, so we started our recruitment in francophone countries in 2005 as well as in Europe and other places.

[Mauril Bélanger, Liberal, Ottawa—Vanier, ON]

I am aware of that.

[Elizabeth Mills]

So we are building capacity.

[Mauril Bélanger, Liberal, Ottawa—Vanier, ON]

I'm aware of that and I appreciate it.

[Elizabeth Mills]

The other thing is that every day I have immigrants come to my office and those individuals are saying to me that they're having a tough time finding employment. So we have to focus our efforts on engaging employers so that more employers are open to hiring immigrants. That is where our focus is.

[The Chair, Conservative, Steven Blaney]

Thank you very much, Mr. Bélanger.

Mrs. Boucher has not had a chance to speak and she would like to question the witnesses.

[Sylvie Boucher, Conservative, Beauport—Limoilou, QC]

Good morning, everyone.

Unlike some of my colleagues, I would say that the glass is half full, not half empty. I am not going to see only the negative and I think that you are doing an exceptional job. In 2009, Manitoba had an increase in francophone immigration of 260% compared to 1999 and an increase of 32% in 2009 alone. This is excellent and no one can say that it is not. It is excellent, you are always moving forward, you are looking to the future.

But our young people and the next generation are much more open to the world. So the language is not necessarily a focal point any more.

When you say immigrants, are you also on the lookout for other francophones, like Quebeckers, to help your francophone minority communities? Do you have occasion to develop interprovincial links?

[Joëlle Désy]

Immigration Québec has a completely different policy, and its understanding is also entirely different. There is often secondary immigration from Quebec. They are francophone immigrants who move to Quebec and then make another move to other provinces in Canada.

As for assistance, when we go to Destination Canada—the annual event held in France or Belgium—Quebec is there. All provinces and territories are represented, except Nunavut. That is another opportunity for us to have a lot of dialogue with Quebec, but there is no interprovincial exchange as such. Perhaps Elizabeth can add something.

[Elizabeth Mills]

No, I think that's accurate to say. In Atlantic Canada, we tend to work closely with our Atlantic partners: New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, and Newfoundland. We work collaboratively in that regard.

I think we tend to be closer to Manitoba than some of the other provinces.

[Sylvie Boucher, Conservative, Beauport—Limoilou, QC]

I would like to congratulate you on your work. I know how much more difficult things are in your provinces today. We mentioned Manitoba and the extent to which bilingualism is important. I was pleased to see on TV today that, in Quebec, 66% of Quebeckers would like to have access to an English school, but 61% of francophones do not have that access because they are not anglophone. That is good news. I am glad to see that people are opening up to the world more and more.