Official Languages Committee on Feb. 7th, 2011

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

I'm not certain, but in Ontario, I believe all schools receive a certain amount per student. Is it the same thing in the Yukon?

[André Bourcier]

No, the Ministry of Education provides services to the school directly. So, everything is calculated by the Ministry of Education and the services are provided directly to the schools.

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

So, there is really no incentive to recruit more students. In our schools, the principals want more students, because they receive more money per capita.

[André Bourcier]

There is no financial incentive, but we believe in this. We have many different reasons to want to increase our numbers.

[The Chair, Conservative, Steven Blaney]

Thank you, Mr. Lauzon. You're right: it does work on a per capita basis. The more students a school has, the more money it receives. That is not the case here?

[Lorraine Taillefer]

It's a proportional calculation, meaning that the more students there are, the more staff we have.

[The Chair, Conservative, Steven Blaney]

So, it does have an effect on the staff numbers.

[André Bourcier]

In small schools like ours, it's complicated. At the high school level, for example, it works on the basis of groups of 20 students. Therefore, if that number is not achieved at certain levels, it gets complicated.

[The Chair, Conservative, Steven Blaney]

I've heard the acronym SOFA mentioned several times today. Could you tell me what organization it refers to, please?

[André Bourcier]

It's the Service d'orientation et de formation des adultes.

[The Chair, Conservative, Steven Blaney]

Is that a service under the Yukon government?

[Sylvie Geoffroy]

No, not the Yukon; it's through the Centre de la francophonie.

[André Bourcier]

And the AFY.

[The Chair, Conservative, Steven Blaney]

Perfect; thank you.

I would just like to mention to everyone here that Mr. Yann Herry of Espace France-Yukon has just joined us. Welcome.

We will finish off our fourth round with Mr. Godin.

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

Thank you.

You say there are 125 Francophones in Dawson?

[Julie Leclerc]

Yes.

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

But according to the statistics, there aren't any?

[Julie Leclerc]

No, there aren't any.

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

So how then did the school board… Is it the Yukon government saying that or the federal government?

[André Bourcier]

As I said earlier, it's the Government of Canada.

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

It looks like the long-form census may not have been mandatory for quite some time now.

[André Bourcier]

It's one in five. In Dawson, if there are 125 Francophones, we need to be able to identify 25. If we identify 10, that changes the result.

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

Yes, but when there is a census, it's clear that there are Francophones.

[André Bourcier]

Not when the rule is one in five.

[Marie-Ève Owen]

Not necessarily, because when you don't have access to services in French in health care centres, at the post office, and so on, they say the language of communication is English. So, that is the way Statistics Canada assesses them.