Official Languages Committee on May 13th, 2010

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

Ffunding is important, but what could the government do to promote francophone immigration?

There's a family in my region you've perhaps heard about, the Ledieu family. These are immigrants who came as a result of the promotion done for the Province of New Brunswick. They said they might be sent back to France and that their children would not be able to go to school there. Is there any cooperation between the federal and provincial governments to assist families in this kind of situation? This case went on for a number of months, and I had to get involved in it. It was a case from Moncton.

[Monique Drapeau-Miles]

I'm going to repeat myself. We've just obtained funding to try to improve the situation. I believe we could give you a much clearer answer in six to eight months. We're prepared to create new services. If, in six months, you tell me the situation is still disastrous, I'll be very concerned.

My vision is based on cooperation between the community, the provincial government and federal government. I believe there is a will, but we have to know how to ensure that we improve what exists to eliminate—

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

If I understand correctly, you're doing exploratory work with them to try to establish standards.

[Monique Drapeau-Miles]

That's correct. We've received a lot of support from the federal government. Now we're prepared to put these programs into effect. In six months, I believe I'll be in a much better position to answer that question.

Mario, do you want to answer it?

[Mario Boisvert]

I'd just like to add that the phenomenon of francophone immigration back home is very recent. We're still in the early stages; we're learning.

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

I agree with you. It's true. We remember when the SAANB and a lot of people said we would be better off starting to attract immigrants in our home province. I agree with you; there is work to do.

[Monique Drapeau-Miles]

We're working with partners. We aren't perfect, but we're really trying. The SAANB sits on our advisory council on population growth. There are a lot of other members, like the Conseil économique du Nouveau-Brunswick and the Association francophone des municipalités du Nouveau-Brunswick. We have strong partners in New Brunswick on the francophone side. There's also the Fédération des jeunes francophones du Nouveau-Brunswick, but we still have work to do.

You asked what the needs are for the next 10 years. Give me six months and I think I can give you a much clearer answer, Mr. Chairman.

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

In the meantime, the government could go international and say that Acadia exists.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Steven Blaney]

Thank you, Mr. Godin.

Mr. Nadeau, do you want to add something?

[Richard Nadeau, Bloc, Gatineau, QC]

Yes. Going back to the very first question, earlier we were talking about assimilation and linguistic erosion, which are issues you rightly mentioned in your documents. I want to go back to what I previously said when I was talking about retention and you talked about the integration of newcomers.

This may be more of a comment than a question because you aren't decision-makers, but you're definitely thinkers. You're also practitioners in the field.

I think the entire dilemma is that we're inviting francophones to come and live in francophone minority regions while telling them that they will be living their lives in English. This is the entire Canadian dilemma in this area when you move away from Quebec, from Acadia in the northeast and the Ontario region bordering on Quebec. There's this whole difficulty. The message we send them is twofold and contradictory. We tell them that they are francophones and so much the better, but that they'll have to learn English because, otherwise, they won't be able to live in those regions and won't necessarily have jobs.

I'm aware of the fact that, for example, when we talk about the republic of Madawaska, of Caraquet, the part of the region of eastern Ontario that is closer to Montreal than to Ottawa, since demographics have also changed in that region, the French fact can exist. Perhaps you can have a little job in Hawksbury or Ste-Anne-de-Prescott if you don't speak French, but I'm not sure you get have a job if you don't speak English in Ottawa or even Orleans, which is one of the 11 amalgamated cities in Ottawa today.

I don't know how you do your promotion, but the contradiction definitely persists. You're telling francophones to come to Canada, that we're happy to have them in our communities, that they can speak French in their homes, but without forgetting that they have to learn English if they want to survive.

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

It's like in the Supreme Court.

[Richard Nadeau, Bloc, Gatineau, QC]

I submit that to you. If you have anything to say on that, I'd like to hear it.

[Guy Jourdain]

The entire immigration file has been adopted by the ministerial conference as a national priority. This is a will that was stated in the report entitled, Canadian Francophonie: Issues, Challenges and Future Directions, of which you spoke a while ago. It was reaffirmed at the conference in Vancouver last September.

That said, we're telling immigrants that they can come and settle in our francophone communities if they want, because there is a significant degree of vitality there. They'll be able to live in French, send their children to French-language school and take part in community activities in French. However, knowledge of English is essential in the labour market. That doesn't prevent French from being very useful in the everyday life of those people or in their professional activities.

[Richard Nadeau, Bloc, Gatineau, QC]

I want to tell my fellow member from British Columbia that I'm sorry for the Canucks. My heart doesn't bleed.

[The Chair, Conservative, Steven Blaney]

Thank you very much, Mr. Nadeau.

That concludes our meeting this morning. I thank the witnesses who have travelled from east and west to come and meet with us.

We'll now close our meeting. I need to see members of the steering committee briefly once we've said goodbye to the witnesses. Thank you.

The meeting is adjourned.