Evidence of meeting #42 for Official Languages in the 40th Parliament, 3rd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was yukon.
Liberal
Brian Murphy Liberal Moncton—Riverview—Dieppe, NB
I wonder why no group has taken up the challenge associated with this issue in court. Has that previously been done or not?
Co-Executive Director, Association franco-yukonnaise
At the association, we submitted a request to the Court Challenges Program, the forerunner of the Language Rights Support Program, the LRSP. Our request was favourably received. We were told that we had very good cases and that we would be receiving funding. We have legal advisors and lawyers working on the case. We also tried to negotiate on a friendly basis to give the Yukon and Canadian governments a chance to act. To date, we've almost always won when we've filed an official languages complaint. For example, we won in the RCMP case over communications a few years ago. Then they decided to start over. Imagine the energy that takes. For example, we've been working on the RCMP case for 18 months.
We have a small team. We're wearing our people out. I have employees who are on sick leave. This is a real situation we're going through. The government doesn't place any advertisements in our only French-language newspaper. We filed a complaint and we were told that we were in the right and that it would stop doing that, but we filed another complaint and we were told that we were still right and that it would stop doing it and so on. In the meantime, employees become demoralized and are on sick leave.
Our newspaper may be in a financial crisis because there's less and less advertising as a result of social media. And when advertisements should be placed, we see what's going on. Take the Friday edition of the Yukon News. It's a great advertisement: it's in English on top and in French on the bottom; and it's an English-language newspaper. They want us to assimilate, to function in English and to buy the English newspaper in order to read the advertisements in French.
Conservative
Liberal
Brian Murphy Liberal Moncton—Riverview—Dieppe, NB
I'd like to ask another question about the Northwest Territories. It's clear in my mind, when I read the official language statutes that you need a commissioner of official languages in order to settle matters. As regards the deputy minister, it's not clear that there is a political will for that. I understand the political level.
Would it be useful for Yukon to have both things?
Co-Executive Director, Association franco-yukonnaise
Yes. We've been writing letters and making requests since the act was passed. Ms. Bernard has just written a letter. We got an answer from the Yukon Premier, Dennis Fentie, who said he didn't see any need for it because there's a process. Imagine! It's like giving prisoner the key to the prison. He told us they don't need an intermediary. The Yukon government is currently receiving money from the federal government, conducting its own analyses, preparing its own reports and carrying out its own evaluation without external sources.
Liberal
Brian Murphy Liberal Moncton—Riverview—Dieppe, NB
It was often a very pleasant tool for us in New Brunswick, to have the promotion of bilingualism for anglophones and the economic communities because you can win and get a lot more money. For example, the Northwest Territories have received more money than you in response to its requests, and that may be because they have language charters and commissioners and so on.
Do you think it would be a good idea for Yukon to have both things in the economic field?
Co-Executive Director, Association franco-yukonnaise
In Yukon, we form a larger population, an extremely active one, which requests services. We have made all these requests, but they have been denied at the political and administrative levels. And we refused to take part in developing the last reports because that wasn't an evaluation. They only cite the government's achievements. There are some good achievements, but, to measure change, you have to be able to say, for example, that the government has 26 websites, 13 of which are in French, and that the other 13 will be introduced next year. That would constitute a real evaluation for the purpose of determining whether equality is being established. If you simply say "bravo" because there are 13 websites in French, that's not right because perhaps there were 16 the previous year and three have been lost.
Conservative
Bloc
Monique Guay Bloc Rivière-du-Nord, QC
Yes, of course.
Since you're talking about websites or evaluations, Mr. St-Pierre, I'm going to wait.
Co-Executive Director, Association franco-yukonnaise
No, that's fine.
My wife says I can't do two things at the same time, but I can.
Bloc
Monique Guay Bloc Rivière-du-Nord, QC
It's because I don't have a lot of time; someone will be cutting me off.
Bloc
Monique Guay Bloc Rivière-du-Nord, QC
With regard to evaluations, you say there aren't really any fair evaluations in the case of francophones. Is that what you're in fact saying?
Co-Executive Director, Association franco-yukonnaise
Under the last agreements—and that's why you have a role to play as federal parliamentarians—the government, through its Heritage Department, signed an agreement with the Yukon government for linguistic services. There are two major bilateral agreements that concern education and linguistic services. Those agreements previously had to be evaluated by a third party. The last time, the Yukon Bureau of Statistics did it, even though it wasn't necessarily a third party.
As regards the last agreement, which expired in 2008, there was no third-party evaluation. We're still waiting for it. The last evaluation essentially stated three things.
Bloc
Monique Guay Bloc Rivière-du-Nord, QC
If I understand correctly, you're headed toward assimilation if things go on this way because there's no political will. Or perhaps you're headed toward a confrontation.
Co-Executive Director, Association franco-yukonnaise
Yes, a confrontation, because the community is growing stronger and, at some point, when you're strong enough, you pick your battles.
Bloc
Monique Guay Bloc Rivière-du-Nord, QC
Personally, it's the health issue that troubles me a great deal. I'm a francophone and sometimes I go to hospital to see a doctor. Even if he's a francophone, when he explains my condition to me, it's very complicated because he uses medical terms that are very hard to understand. So I can imagine that it must be quite terrible for a francophone who can't get care in French at a hospital.
Aren't there any francophone doctors?
Co-Executive Director, Association franco-yukonnaise
You have to draw a distinction between the services. We're looking for institutionalized services; we want that to be organized by the government. A lot of people speak French and provide service in the language chosen by the patient, but that's not institutionalized service. The Yukon government currently has 5,000 employees. How many positions do you think are designated bilingual? There are five.
Co-Executive Director, Association franco-yukonnaise
There are five out of 5,000. How do you want them to serve the population? That doesn't mean those five positions will still be filled next year. Mr. Bélanger did a good job of showing that: the budget envelope has stayed the same for years now. And yet the Yukon government wants to sign a pay increase agreement for all its employees.
They're entitled to pay increases; that's fine. However, when the pie remains the same size and more people eat it, there's a problem. For example, I was born to a family of 10 children. There were 12 of us in all. When there was just one pie for the 12 of us, we only got small pieces of pie. We also had guests who would come to eat at our place and there wasn't any more pie; so someone gave up his share. That's what they're doing: they're providing a service, and then, at some point, the service disappears. A nurse in a designated bilingual position for early childhood services leaves Yukon and her position isn't filled. She's replaced by an anglophone employee. At the Department of Health, which is obviously the most important department for health services, there's only one person in a designated bilingual position for the entire Yukon.
Bloc
Co-Executive Director, Association franco-yukonnaise
There are hundreds and hundreds. The department has a budget of approximately $250 million. The Yukon government had a budget of $400 million. The budget tabled last week had increased to $1.1 billion or $1.2 billion.
Bloc
Monique Guay Bloc Rivière-du-Nord, QC
There would have to be a better agreement between the Yukon and federal government. It appears the Yukon government is saying that it's the federal government that isn't providing the money. If I understand correctly, the Yukon government seems to be receiving money but not distributing it to the right places.
Co-Executive Director, Association franco-yukonnaise
It isn't our job to manage the Yukon government's money, but we know we should be receiving services that we aren't receiving. So we think that, if a good plan were put on the table to verify developments in the situation and, in the planning, obviously... A question was asked this morning as to whether we had developed a good plan including a specific amount of money and how much its full implementation would cost.
