Official Languages Committee on Feb. 9th, 2011

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

Can you tell me, when somebody comes to the municipal offices--a francophone--do they get an offer of service in French? Or can they...?

[Laura Gareau]

My understanding is no, they don't. In the Northwest Territories we have legislation to establish municipal governments. We consider them separate third orders of government, so they--

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

So right now it's not a requirement.

[Laura Gareau]

That's correct.

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

Okay.

There are a couple of other things I want to ask about industry, tourism, and investment. I represent a community that has a significant minority French population. We border Quebec. Very recently, our tourism department did not have anything in the second official language, believe it or not, to attract tourists from Quebec, which is right next door. So with some promotion, our tourism information now is bilingual.

Quebec would be a great source for tourism, probably, and to get financial investment. Do you have a way to go out and reach into, say, the Province of Quebec or other francophones...?

[Sonya Saunders, Director, Department of Industry, Tourism and Investment, Government of the Northwest Territories]

Yes. Actually, we work quite closely with the organization CDETNO in particular. That's the Conseil de développement économique des Territoires du Nord-Ouest. They're going to be speaking with you this afternoon. We work with them closely on tourism and also on attracting people to live and invest in the Northwest Territories.

In terms of tourism, we work quite closely with them on translating materials and that kind of thing. Last year when we had Canada's Northern House in Vancouver during the Olympics, we had a representative from CDETNO at the house. We also always had someone who could provide services in French at the house.

We have a tourism marketing advisory committee, which is a territorial committee, and we have representatives of CDETNO on that committee providing advice on how to attract tourism from Quebec, but also from Europe.

A lot of our tourism marketing is actually done through Northwest Territories Tourism, which is our designated marketing organization, but the TMAC group I just referenced is a joint group between the government and a number of industry organizations, including CDETNO.

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

Thank you.

I'll just keep moving around here like a shotgun.

Mr. Gushue, you're involved with health care. I guess it's a valiant start that you have interpreters. If a francophone goes for health care services, there are interpreters, but we heard in Whitehorse that having interpreters isn't the ideal situation, because sometimes things get lost in the translation, especially when it comes to technical health care terms.

Has there been some thought given to the idea that if a francophone went to the emergency room it would be nice if they could at least explain their problem or their medical condition in French? Is that possible? Is it realistic to think that might be able to happen?

[Lorne Gushue, Official Languages Consultant, Department of Health and Social Services, Government of the Northwest Territories]

Thank you.

In the health and social services system right now at the various health authorities in the regions and at the department, there are any number of people currently employed who are receiving the bilingual bonus to provide service in the aboriginal languages and French. We do currently have, in addition to the interpreters, people who can provide service--nurses, specialists, doctors, etc.--who are bilingual, so it is currently happening. Part of the strategic plan, obviously, is to continue to recruit collaboratively with the Department of Health and Social Services more people who have that linguistic capacity.

There are a number of problems. It's no mystery that throughout the entire country, recruitment of health and social services professionals is an ongoing challenge. Recruitment of bilingual professionals is particularly challenging here.

There are also a number of people currently employed within the system who do have a linguistic capacity and who for various reasons are reluctant to self-identify as bilingual and therefore are unwilling to receive the bilingual bonus. I wouldn't care to speculate as to why.

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

One of the challenges that seem to be apparent is retention of francophones. You have a transient population. Has anybody ever looked at how you keep people here, especially if they're francophones?

[Lorne Gushue]

There was a previous comment about people leaving so quickly. A lot of the francophones--and there are other people who have greater expertise in this than I do--who come here are on term employment with the Department of National Defence or the RCMP, or they are coming to work in the resource industry for a short time, so it's expected that they will leave after a very short period of time. Obviously we'd like people to stay and raise their children and contribute to the community, so it's always a balance.

[The Chair, Conservative, Steven Blaney]

Thank you very much, Mr. Lauzon.

It's now time to conclude this great meeting.

I would like once again, Minister, to thank you for coming to our committee for this premiere. Thanks again also for welcoming us at the Legislative Assembly yesterday. The comments of your assistant, Mr. Boutin, were very instrumental in giving us a better understanding of your challenges.

[Jackson Lafferty]

He's a good man.

[The Chair, Conservative, Steven Blaney]

Yes, he sure is, and he speaks French.

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

He's been here for 21 years.

[The Chair, Conservative, Steven Blaney]

Yes, he has, for 21 years.

If we lose our language, we lose our identity and lessen who we are as a people, so thank you for promoting this. We can feel your attachment, especially to the native language.

Even though it's not the direct mandate of this committee, I think by promoting this linguistic duality here in the Northwest Territories, you make this country a better place.

Before we conclude, I have one favour to ask, and that is whether it is possible to have our picture taken with you once we sum up this meeting. Thank you.

[Jackson Lafferty]

Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Steven Blaney]

The meeting is adjourned.