Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I would like to begin by welcoming everyone, in particular the members whom I did not have the opportunity to meet yesterday, Messrs. Lauzon and Galipeau. I think that I had an opportunity meet the other members yesterday.
I shall begin without further delay. A copy of the brief, of which I shall read you an abridged version today, will be submitted to the committee.
According to the 2006 census, over 3,720 residents of the Northwest Territories are currently able to speak French, which is 9.1% of the total population; 2.6% the population of the People of the North have French as their first official language out of a total of approximately 41,055 residents; 8 out of every 10 Franco People of the North were born outside the Northwest Territories; a little over 9% of French speaking People of the North were born abroad. Yellowknife has a population comprising over 110 nationalities from all corners of the globe.
There is still work to be done when it comes to the federal government’s role in affirming and promoting francophone communities in the north under Part VII of the Official Languages Act. Allow me to elaborate.
Our community infrastructures, as you perhaps noticed yesterday, are the poorest in Canada. We still lack a physical space where the dynamic forces of community development can gather in one place. These resources are currently scattered throughout the capital, by sheer necessity.
Regretfully, the federal government missed an opportunity to largely resolve our infrastructure problem by failing to purchase the post office in 2009.
A declared surplus space managed by Public Works and Government Services Canada was sold to a third party for $100,000 less than what was offered by our federation. Five federal departments and organizations were involved in the part VII process prior to us losing the bid. We sought redress in the matter and the file is still before the Commissioner of Official Languages.
On February 15, 2008, we conducted a small in house inquiry into Part VII and the federal institutions. We wrote a letter to every federal NWT official for a total of 22 letters to members of the federal Council. Our intention was to secure a face to face meeting in order to exchange information on the programs and services offered by each institution. Moreover, our application was explicitly based on part VII of the act and called on the responsible authorities to establish what amounted in many cases to initial contact. The objective was to get a better understanding of their policies and programs. The response spoke volumes: 25% of the officials scheduled appointments and met with us; 25% opted instead for a group meeting with us and their counterparts thereby giving stakeholders an opportunity to get to know each other better and submit documentation. There was no response from the remaining 50%.
As far as the implementation of the 2008–2013 Roadmap for Canada’s Linguistic Duality is concerned, we are very proud to note Justice Canada’s encouragement of our youth; Canadian Heritage’s support for the establishment of our Collège des T.N.-O., the first ever francophone post secondary institution in Canada’s North; ongoing backing by Health Canada; the development of a start up project to support francophone immigration in the Northwest Territories; Canadian Heritage’s financial contribution to our community organizations’ minimal operational expenses; the support of the Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages and of Canadian Heritage for a research project on the revitalization of the three Canadian Territories in conjunction with the Canadian Institute for Research on Linguistic Minorities in Moncton; the clear expression of support from the Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development for closer cooperation between the three territories’ economic and community development collaborative bodies.
The standards governing the management of federal policies and programs are nevertheless generally applied to the letter. For example, certain projects targeting youth require the participation of at least 400 young people. If our federal institutions do not relax the rule regarding the number of participants, and take into account our northern experience and the ways in which we are different, we will not qualify for funding. Although our population is comparable percentage wise to that of the other Canadian provinces, we may end up marginalized if certain program application rules are not adjusted.
Part VII of the Official Languages Act is nevertheless clear about the obligation of result. The right to fair and equitable treatment is perhaps different because different needs justify different treatment. The CALDECH decision clarified this issue. Here are our demands. We want all forms of communication and services to be adapted to our northern experience. The constraints that we face in many areas accentuate the impact of any budget cuts, administrative delays, or lack of awareness about how we live and the major issues that affect us.
It is worth recalling the federal government’s undertaking in 1984 when the NWT government adopted its official languages act, which was based on the federal act. The Canadian government committed at the time to covering the cost of services to the francophone community. The court demonstrated that negotiations with the federal government had, for many years, been financially disadvantageous to these communities due to a policy of confident delegation, in spite of the obvious lack of a plan to implement the Official Languages Act. Part VII sets out an obligation of result and ensures that positive measures are taken in order to effect change.
I will now discuss the federal territorial consultation mechanisms to promote dialogue concerning the development of the francophone community.
According to the territorial budget, the territorial government is financially incapable of supporting our community in the same way that the Albertan and Manitoban governments support their communities. The Northwest Territories needs more support from Ottawa. The public is chronically misinformed in the NWT. In fact, the Legislative Assembly and the government claim that there are 11 official languages for which services are provided, however that is clearly not the case. Aboriginal communities do not have access to language related services as we are led to believe. Furthermore, these communities have neither the same demands nor constitutional rights. We respect their approach, but it is clear that they put other objectives first.
The government is in favour of Canadian Heritage, the President of the Treasury Board and Justice Canada encouraging federal institutions to cooperate with provincial governments in order to guarantee the implementation of part VII. However, in our opinion, the language provisions in the agreements lack teeth. This was particularly evident to us when we missed out on the purchase of the Yellowknife post office. There is a lack of consistency among federal departments and no clear Treasury Board policy on the matter.
We put a request in writing to the departments of Canadian Heritage, Justice Canada, Indian Affairs and Northern Development, Public Works and Government Services, and the Treasury Board calling on them to intervene. The correspondence dates back to March 2009. We referred to their obligations under part VII, the community’s dire and urgent infrastructure needs. In spite of this, we missed out on the opportunity to purchase the post office premises after offering $1.2 million at stage two of the bargaining process, the list price. The building was ultimately sold for $1.1 million. And yet, it met the majority of our community’s needs and was situated at a strategic and central location in the community. We lodged a complaint with the Commissioner of Official Languages and have waited two years for a response.
In closing, we would like the federal government to consider a different operating model that takes into consideration the northern experience. The consultation and cooperation committee was created by the government and the Fédération franco-ténoise to establish, promote, evaluate and adopt a plan to implement the Official Languages Act of the Northwest Territories and guarantee the provision of information and services in French. As a member of this committee, we are proposing an innovative and economical solution that promises to be effective.
Rather than adopting a cookie-cutter approach to the federal model of bilingual and unilingual positions, which was clearly not as successful as expected, we favour the establishment of service teams. We are proposing a French language one stop shop for the community in which the federal government could set the tone and consolidate a number of federal services within a bilingual service centre, supported by the community. Territorial, and even some municipal services, could be incorporated. The centre would be loosely based upon the Manitoban model, only improved and tailored to the northern experience. The federal model of designated bilingual positions was not very effective at meeting the objective of guaranteeing services of equal quality, and was costly, thus the need to adapt it. The model is even less suitable for northern Canada largely because of the region’s high employee turnover. We may end up training bilingual employees only to lose them one by one. We would constantly have to start from scratch and, in the meantime, would fail to provide quality services.
If the government were to create a sufficient number of positions as part of a bilingual team, there would be a greater likelihood of consistently providing quality services. This would not preclude the strategic allocation of a number of bilingual positions in departments and agencies. Our community has expressed an interest in prioritizing services, and responding smartly and flexibly to support the gradual and systematic introduction of services. The expert panel reviews the development of this concept, its underlying principles, the rules governing its implementation, and the legal grounds that underpin it. The panel is comprised of high level outside experts, but is not currently sitting due to a lack of funding.