Official Languages Committee on Feb. 7th, 2011

[Francine Blais]

In 2013.

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

Is it a public document? May we have a copy of it?

[Francine Blais]

We don't yet have it on our website, but it's a public—

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

—document.

[Francine Blais]

It's on the federal government website. We submitted the document in late March. It's being reviewed by the financial services of Canadian Heritage. I don't know whether there will be any other questions. That's why we haven't yet made it public. It's coming. I can ask if I can submit it to you.

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

Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Steven Blaney]

In the documents submitted to you, you should check the documents relating to the agreements.

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

Yes, I know there are documents relating to that, but I'd like to see the document itself.

[Francine Blais]

I'll enquire about it and bring it to you, as my office isn't far away.

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

Thank you, madam.

[The Chair, Conservative, Steven Blaney]

Thank you, Mr. Bélanger.

We'll continue with Ms. Guay.

[Monique Guay, Bloc, Rivière-du-Nord, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. It's a pleasure to meet you. Thank you for coming in such great numbers to meet with us and to inform us about what is happening in the francophone community in Whitehorse. I have a lot of questions to ask. So I'll start right away and come back later on.

You said that 82% of francophones live in Whitehorse. How many individuals does that represent?

[Francine Blais]

I don't have the—

[Monique Guay, Bloc, Rivière-du-Nord, QC]

Generally speaking, how many people live in Whitehorse?

[Francine Blais]

It varies. Sometimes it's 25,000, sometimes 28,000. I don't know.

[Monique Guay, Bloc, Rivière-du-Nord, QC]

It's between 25,000 and 28,000 inhabitants.

[Francine Blais]

That's correct. There are approximately 34,000 inhabitants spread across the territory as a whole, among Dawson, Mayo, Watson Lake and all the other places.

[Monique Guay, Bloc, Rivière-du-Nord, QC]

The majority are concentrated here.

You said that 82% of francophones live in Whitehorse. That means approximately how many francophones in Whitehorse?

[Janet Moodie, Deputy Minister and Cabinet Secretary, Executive Council Office, Government of Yukon]

I would say about 1,000 or 1,200.

[Monique Guay, Bloc, Rivière-du-Nord, QC]

Roughly 1,200.

[Francine Blais]

As I said, it's about 1,245 persons.

[Monique Guay, Bloc, Rivière-du-Nord, QC]

It's important for us to have figures because that gives us an idea of the evaluation.

You also say that 11% of residents speak French.

[Francine Blais]

Indeed. Approximately 3,545 persons can speak both languages.

[Monique Guay, Bloc, Rivière-du-Nord, QC]

Do you offer services in French in all areas, at Passport Canada, among others? I also saw that you're having problems offering health services in French.

[Francine Blais]

I could hand over to Mr. Living, who represents the Department of Health.

Passports are more a federal matter. As for health, health services used to be provided by the federal government. As no agreement had been reached with Canada, there was no money when the services were transferred to the Government of Yukon.

We've done everything since 1997. We've met with representatives of Canadian Heritage and Health Canada. We consulted the community. We prepared a lot of implementation plans. In spite of that, we have had no success on the funding end.