Official Languages Committee on Feb. 7th, 2011

[André Bourcier]

I did not receive a letter, but I met with Mr. Lussier in person.

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

And?

[André Bourcier]

Mr. Lussier told me that he had been reminded that education is an exclusive area of jurisdiction. As a result, his ability to participate in the debate was extremely limited. He also said that he would follow developments in the court case and see subsequently whether something could be done.

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

Did he tell you why funding had decreased by 30% compared to the previous agreement?

[Sylvie Geoffroy]

He told me that it was a decision made by the Yukon Ministry of Education. That is what the Yukon Territory had requested. For them, it was zero, so it was accepted.

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

I would like to come back to teleservices, either for health care or in other areas. When I want to check something with respect to my credit card and call customer service, I end up somewhere in India.

[A voice]

Or in Moncton.

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

No, not in Moncton. I recognize the Moncton accent.

[Voices]

Oh, oh!

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

You say that the Yukon Territory offers health care services via telephone. Have your association or community members considered whether it could be a good idea to enter into an agreement with other provinces in Canada that provide that kind of service—for instance, Ontario, New Brunswick and Quebec?

[Sylvie Geoffroy]

I believe there have been discussions with British Columbia. I don't know whether they have led anywhere, but I believe there was some progress with respect to jurisdiction—in other words, whether nurses would have the right to provide the service or not. It took the form of an exchange of views. The request was made and there was discussion, but I don't know whether it led anywhere.

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

With respect to television, I mentioned to Ms. Taillefer or someone from the school this afternoon that television could also be used, to have access to channels like TFO and Télé-Québec. If I'm not mistaken, the services of these distributors are now available on the Internet.

Today we were told by the Deputy Minister responsible for Economic Development that all across the Yukon territory, or almost, high-speed Internet service is available. So, people could access those television channels over the Internet. Is that being done now?

[Marie-Ève Owen]

Sometimes.

[Julie Leclerc]

We do receive the program La ruée vers l'or. People in Dawson are determined to watch that, but everyone ends up tearing their hair out because it takes time to see the images. And it's not as accessible as one may think. I was in touch with TVOntario's virtual services last week and we are currently looking at which of their resources we could use which would be beneficial for our community.

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

I strongly encourage you to talk to people at TFO, because it is educational television that focuses primarily on programming for children. They have a very good reputation.

Finally… and this comment is not aimed at our guests this evening; rather, it is directed to the people at the Yukon French Services Branch. I don't know whether they're listening, whether they will be listening at some point or whether someone will pass on the message. Personally, I'm very disappointed that they did not take the trouble to be here and listen to what we heard throughout the day. They were here this morning between 9:00 and 10:00 a.m. After that, they left. I know that when we hold committee hearings in Ottawa, the Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages makes sure that someone is there all the time. I'm very disappointed that the Yukon French Services Branch did not take the trouble to do the same.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Steven Blaney]

Thank you.

Ms. Zarac, you are done. We are going to wrap up the meeting very soon. We have two minutes left. I would just like to ask our witnesses if anyone wishes to add something. That will complete our visit to Whitehorse.

[Isabelle St-Gelais]

I just wanted to say something about speech therapists. They are English-speaking. Sometimes they come to the day care centre, but it's all in English. There are no Francophones. We are lucky that francization measures are in place and that someone from the school comes to see us from time to time. Otherwise, the speech therapist does come to the day care centre to help us, but everything takes place in English. It's very difficult, because I have some educators who do not speak much English. As a result, they have trouble communicating.

[The Chair, Conservative, Steven Blaney]

That is a concrete example.

[Isabelle St-Gelais]

I bring in Francophones so that we can speak French, but where speech therapists are concerned, it's difficult to explain to a child the difference between French and English. For the educator, it's also difficult. That's what I meant.

[The Chair, Conservative, Steven Blaney]

Thank you.

Ms. Taillefer, do you wish to add anything?

[Lorraine Taillefer]

There is still a problem at the school. In our case, it has to do with psychological or psychoeducational assessments of our students. There is a psychologist in Vancouver who comes to the school to do psychoeducational assessments and she is required, based on what the Ministry of Education has requested, to write her reports in English.

[The Chair, Conservative, Steven Blaney]

Thank you.

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

I asked a question this afternoon and perhaps Mr. Bourcier or Ms. Taillefer could answer it.

Is there someone in the Yukon Francophone community—primarily Whitehorse—who could be trained by the CNFS—the Consortium national de formation en santé en français—with a view to meeting your needs? The idea behind that is to train people who come from the communities in the hope that they will go back there. I would ask you to try and get more information about this, because I'm sure there is someone in Whitehorse who would be interested in taking those courses, either in British Columbia or elsewhere--

[The Chair, Conservative, Steven Blaney]

It is a very well structured program.

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

-- and coming back here so that you wouldn't be facing such a ridiculous situation.