Official Languages Committee on May 13th, 2010

[The Chair, Conservative, Steven Blaney]

Thank you, Mr. Nadeau.

We'll now move on with Mr. Godin.

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

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Welcome to our witnesses from New Brunswick, Manitoba and Ontario.

Let's hope the reception centre isn't the Moncton casino because francophones are too well received there. For example, if there are four francophones and one anglophone seated at the table, everything happens in English. I had no choice but to mention that. For those who don't know it, that subject has been in the newspapers back home for a week now. The language spoken at the casino is English, and there are no bilingual machines. It's incredible. These people haven't discovered the button that gives you the option for English or French. I had to mention that; it was right on the tip of my tongue, and it came out in French.

Who is responsible for the $10 million provided under the Roadmap for New Brunswick over the next five years? Is it the province or ACOA? If it's ACOA, how do you go about getting the funds? If it's the province, how are they used? For example, earlier you mentioned Caraquet, Bathurst, various regions in the province. Do they have access to that funding? What is the program?

[Monique Drapeau-Miles]

I knew the question would be asked so I prepared. You're asking who is responsible for managing those funds. In fact, the Population Growth Secretariat is responsible for the program's day-to-day management. The Société de développement régionale is our banker; that's where the money is deposited.

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

So it's at the provincial level?

[Monique Drapeau-Miles]

Yes, it's at the provincial level.

However, ACOA has a role to play. There are guidelines for the way the funds are used. So it's not a free for all. A plan has been developed. In fact, a certain amount is allocated to recruitment and promotion. Some amounts are set aside for the opening of regional centres that would not be just in the cities, but in the rural areas as well.

The Population Growth Secretariat is responsible for managing the program, but there is a steering committee that assists us in supervising and moving files forward. As I mentioned in my address, that committee includes representatives of the federal and provincial governments. The agreement that was signed provides for very specific measures concerning the funding that must be paid.

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

You say it isn't a free for all, but ACOA is also taking part in the process.

Does the province have to submit a project to ACOA, which validates it or not, and which forwards the guidelines? Or is it free to do what it wants to do?

[Monique Drapeau-Miles]

There is a framework for the guidelines. We have a very specific mandate and the secretariat consults ACOA, where a particular project—

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

Do you get the impression it's well shared within the province? In New Brunswick, the north is always against the south.

You know there's a target francophone population in the northeast and northwest.

[Monique Drapeau-Miles]

Depending on the settlement framework looked at, we'll essentially enhance services in the three urban centres, that is to say Moncton, St. John and Fredericton.

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

They aren't in the three urban centres?

[Monique Drapeau-Miles]

We're not going to fund what's already there. We'll provide additional funding to improve services offered to francophone immigrants or to immigrants who speak French.

Mainly, in addition to increased funding for recruitment and promotion—funding will be allocated across the province—we're considering establishing regional centres in the northwest. Services will be established in Restigouche. In Bay of Chaleur, we've already established a centre. There's the Acadian Peninsula. We're also considering the southeast, the Kent region, but we're still considering what services might look like.

[The Chair, Conservative, Steven Blaney]

Thank you very much, Mr. Godin.

We'll now move to the third member from New Brunswick, Ms. Tilly O'Neill-Gordon.

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

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Welcome to all of you, and a sincere welcome to New Brunswickers.

Being a New Brunswicker myself, I guess these people deserve an extra-special warm welcome.

I'm from the Miramichi, and I'm happy to have you here today.

As a New Brunswicker, I have to say, too, that it was very encouraging to see that our government, through ACOA, assigned $10 million to our province to promote the francophone immigration. As we all know here, New Brunswick is our only bilingual province, across Canada. So our government is happy to work with the province in promoting this objective, and I was happy to hear you tell Mr. Godin that it is being well supervised and monitored for the good of all New Brunswickers.

My question has to do with New Brunswick being a member of the Citizenship and Immigration Canada francophone minority communities steering committee. What is your assessment of the strategic plan to foster immigration to francophone minority communities?

[Monique Drapeau-Miles]

To answer that, I really want to build on what my colleague talked about. Immigration is not a stand-alone initiative. Interprovincial, intraprovincial, and federal-provincial-territorial—and let's not forget the community—engagement and collaboration is critical for our success. It's one of these files where we really have to work together to seek success.

Oh, I started talking and I lost the question here. Please repeat it.

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

What is your assessment of the strategic plan? Is it working?

[Monique Drapeau-Miles]

Oh, yes, I find that the strategic plan is really giving us a good framework to work in collaboratively. We're an active member of that committee and we always welcome the participation of that committee for the exchange of best practices. It's certainly a good way to collaborate and even find out which other regions have experimented or have some significant initiatives.

I go back to the previous comment; in rural Canada, there are special circumstances. If somebody sees a success, that's a forum in which that experience can be shared. But the framework also gives parameters. It gives some very specific themes and priorities, and we really welcome the opportunity to be part of that forum.

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

As we all know, arriving in a new community, one of the main things is to be able to communicate with the people around you. Does the province provide language classes for these immigrants, and if so, could you describe those programs and explain what part French plays in the language training of these immigrants?

[Monique Drapeau-Miles]

In terms of language training, in addition we talked about this $10 million for participation in Feuille de route. That complements additional funding from Citizenship and Immigration Canada. We can't forget the contribution of that department. They also provide funding through settlement services that provide language training in our immigrant-serving agency.

Again, the $10 million to Feuille de route is to augment what's in existence, and based on the community need, will develop language training in partnership with the local service delivery agency.

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

On this $10 million that is assigned from ACOA, does the province monitor this? Are they in charge of this? Who is in charge of it?

[Monique Drapeau-Miles]

The daily management of the fund is with the Population Growth Secretariat. It's part of the Department of Post-Secondary Education, Training and Labour, but we do have a steering committee that assists more in the monitoring of the progress, because this is all new to the province. Given that we're the only officially bilingual province, I'm sure all other jurisdictions are watching with a really close eye our progress, our success, our indicators.

I think this multi-level steering committee is very helpful in monitoring this. I mentioned earlier that ACOA is a funding partner and an active member of that steering committee.

[The Chair, Conservative, Steven Blaney]

Thank you, Ms. O'Neill-Gordon.

Now we can start the second round of questions with Ms. Zarac.

[Lise Zarac, Liberal, LaSalle—Émard, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Good morning to our witnesses.

My questions will be for Ms. Drapeau-Miles.

The target for your province is 5,000 immigrants a year until 2015. Do you believe that's a realistic target for a province where immigrants constitute only 1.5% of the population?

[Monique Drapeau-Miles]

It's a vision, a target. I can ask my colleague Mario Boisvert to provide more details on that subject, but so far this year, we've reached approximately 2,000. We've recently seen a significant increase.

The Population Growth Secretariat was established in 2007. We previously had an immigration program, and I'm going to ask Mr. Boisvert to describe it.

[Lise Zarac, Liberal, LaSalle—Émard, QC]

I don't want to address the subject too extensively. I just want to know whether you think it's realistic to achieve that percentage.

[Monique Drapeau-Miles]

I believe other witnesses mentioned the issue of employment. Economic integration is critical.