Official Languages Committee on Feb. 7th, 2011

[Guy Lauzon, Conservative, Stormont—Dundas—South Glengarry, ON]

In the past 10 years?

[Francine Blais]

Yes.

[Guy Lauzon, Conservative, Stormont—Dundas—South Glengarry, ON]

The number of francophones who live in Yukon has virtually doubled. Is there a reason for that increase?

[Francine Blais]

I can't speak on behalf of the people who come and settle here, but I suppose that, as was my case, they come and work for a few months and don't want to leave.

[Guy Lauzon, Conservative, Stormont—Dundas—South Glengarry, ON]

Can those 1,245 individuals live in French in Yukon?

[Francine Blais]

That's a question that the francophone community, through the AFY, could answer better than I could. These people have access to many government services in French. They speak French. When you talk around Whitehorse, you hear a lot of people speaking French. So we have to continue our efforts to improve services. However, we obviously still have a lot of work to do on health services, as I explained to you earlier.

[Guy Lauzon, Conservative, Stormont—Dundas—South Glengarry, ON]

Thank you. I'm going to hand over to Mr. Galipeau.

[Royal Galipeau, Conservative, Ottawa—Orléans, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Lauzon.

Earlier I referred to the fact that the status of the official languages in Yukon stems from the Northwest Territories Act. Yukon was detached from the Territories in 1898, in the same way as Nunavut was detached from the Northwest Territories in 1999, Manitoba in 1870 and Alberta and Saskatchewan in 1905. All that used to be part of the Northwest Territories, which were immensely larger than now.

Earlier, Ms. Hine,

you mentioned that more than half of the 5,000 students were in either French as a second language or French immersion. How many are in French immersion?

[Pamela Hine]

I don't have the exact number. There are probably around 500 to 600, when you look at elementary school and high school, but that's just my guess.

[Royal Galipeau, Conservative, Ottawa—Orléans, ON]

I find that in many areas where French is a minority language, more and more there are as many anglophones who can speak French as there are francophones who can speak French--or sometimes more. In Ottawa, where we're from, there are about 125,000 francophones who can speak French, but there are close to 200,000 anglophones who can speak French. Of course, that's the result of French immersion over the last 40 to 45 years.

Is that having an impact here too?

[Francine Blais]

There are 1,245 francophones and 3,545 persons who speak French, so virtually three times as many. So that must be the result of learning French as a second language.

[Royal Galipeau, Conservative, Ottawa—Orléans, ON]

Yes. Thank you very much.

[The Chair, Conservative, Steven Blaney]

Thank you, Mr. Galipeau.

Before closing, Mr. Bélanger would like some information.

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

Ms. Blais, earlier I asked you for a copy of the agreement on services. We have it here, but it's missing Annex B, the one concerning the strategic plan. That's probably very important. It comes from Yukon. Could you send it to us?

In addition, the agreement on education, which we also have, is missing Annex 3 as well. That's the action plan, the one from Yukon as well. The entire agreement is based on the action plan. Could you also send us the action plan?

Lastly, with regard to education, I would like to get a breakdown of certain figures. There are amounts for various components, but I imagine the breakdown must be quite easy to do. As for services, I agree with my colleague, Mr. Galipeau, that $1.75 million a year is not an extraordinary amount, particularly since, from what I can see, it's not indexed.

[Francine Blais]

It has been since 1988. The amount increased from $1 million to $1.2 million—

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

Yes, but the 2009-2013 agreement states $1.75 million a year. There's no indexing. So that means that there's a reduction every year. Whatever the case may be, is it possible to get a breakdown of this as well?

[Francine Blais]

On how the funding is distributed?

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

Yes. According to the agreement, you have to report on how the money has been used. Can you send us that breakdown, that report?

[Francine Blais]

With your permission, I'm going to contact the people at Canadian Heritage because they are still preparing the cheque.

[The Chair, Conservative, Steven Blaney]

Thank you.

Before leaving our witnesses, who have to leave us very soon, we'll go to Ms. Zarac.

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

I'm going to discuss another topic.

In the case of the remote regions, it is important to find solutions to bring citizens closer. I'm talking about the Internet and especially about high speed Internet.

Do you know whether that service is adequately provided, whether it is accessible and whether it meets people's needs?

[Francine Blais]

Are you talking about websites?

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

No. I'm talking about access to high speed Internet service.

Are there any places where that's a problem?

[Francine Blais]

I'm not sure.

[Dr. Harvey Brooks, Deputy Minister, Department of Economic Development, Government of Yukon]

Every community is connected. We have about 98% connectivity to communities and families, so we are extremely well served. Price and competition are issues, but access is very good.