Evidence of meeting #11 for Official Languages in the 41st Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was alberta.
A recording is available from Parliament.
President, Association canadienne-française de l'Alberta
Exactly. And our CHFA was sold to Radio-Canada to ensure the private station's continued existence. So, of course, we don't want to see Radio-Canada disappear.
Liberal
Mauril Bélanger Liberal Ottawa—Vanier, ON
When there was a change of government in 2006, I put a question to Ms. Verner, who, at the time, was the minister responsible for the Action Plan for Official Languages, which subsequently became the Roadmap. I asked her whether, in its budget cuts, the government intended to protect the action plan. She clearly answered me, in the House, that it did. And it has to be acknowledged that there were no cuts.
The government is currently venturing into another series of cuts of 5% to 10%. So I put the same question to the current minister, Mr. Moore, to see whether he could assure us that the Roadmap will not be subject to budget cuts. He hasn't answered; he hasn't said yes.
Does the community have any concerns about what's coming in the next budget?
President, Assemblée communautaire fransaskoise
Some, yes. In fact, what will the impact be if the budgets of the departments of Canadian Heritage, Citizenship and Immigration, Human Resources and Skills Development, Health, Justice and so on are cut by 5%, 6% or 7%? Is it 5%, 25% or 35%? Already, the average employee in our network, regardless of what he does, earns 20% less than his counterpart who does similar work in the majority community. So imagine the staff turnover.
Liberal
Mauril Bélanger Liberal Ottawa—Vanier, ON
Pay inequity doesn't exist just between men and women, but also between anglophones and francophones. Is that what you're trying to say?
President, Assemblée communautaire fransaskoise
If you add women and the rural situation, for example, that complicates matters further.
So this is a major concern for us. It's true that we may have to look elsewhere for funding and to rationalize our activities. As I said earlier, it's hard to argue against virtue, but we're making our share of the effort, and have been doing so for a long time.
Liberal
Mauril Bélanger Liberal Ottawa—Vanier, ON
Ms. Nolette, you have 30 seconds. Then I'll have one final question.
President, Association canadienne-française de l'Alberta
That's a question in our minds. The Roadmap was put in place to promote linguistic duality. We believe that's still a Canadian value.
Liberal
Mauril Bélanger Liberal Ottawa—Vanier, ON
So it shouldn't be abolished.
With regard to child care services, an agreement was signed with all the provinces. There were language clauses in every agreement. I took part in those negotiations with my colleague Ken Dryden. That was eliminated. In fact, it was one of the government's first acts.
Do you have a comment to make on that point?
President, Assemblée communautaire fransaskoise
We know that, for every dollar spent on early childhood, $7—and now we're talking more about $8 or $9—has to be spent to have the same outcome later on, at the primary or secondary level. In addition, it has to be understood that the reality of today's society is that both parents work. We can't do otherwise. I would like it if there was still one parent at home to take care of and bring up young children, but that's not the case.
So it seems to me that denying this social reality is tantamount to preaching against virtue.
Liberal
Mauril Bélanger Liberal Ottawa—Vanier, ON
Lastly, I would like to thank you for the nice weather you've brought us.
Conservative
Conservative
Royal Galipeau Conservative Ottawa—Orléans, ON
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
I only have seven minutes at my disposal, but I have enough questions for you to take up nearly 20 minutes.
I too would like to welcome you to Ottawa, particularly Ms. Nolette, whom I thank for her welcome when I was in Alberta.
Mr. Heppelle, my first job was in Waskesiu. I have relatives in Saint-Brieux, which we call "St. Brew" more often than Saint-Brieux.
Conservative
Royal Galipeau Conservative Ottawa—Orléans, ON
My brother lives in Red Deer.
I was struck by a statement by Mr. Heppelle, who said earlier that there was a 20% wage gap between an anglophone and a francophone who both have the same qualifications and do the same work. Wow! Would that be a consequence of the reactions of the legislatures of the two provinces to the decision in the Mercure case in 1988? What is that? I don't think my brother earns less money than the guy next to him.
President, Association canadienne-française de l'Alberta
That's not the case in Alberta.
President, Assemblée communautaire fransaskoise
Sir, I was mainly talking about the employees in our network, such as the community director, the accountant, and so on. The problem is that we have to consider what we are asked to do. We're involved in rural development; we work with farmers, our youths, our schools, in immigration, in human resource development, and employability. We do all that with less than $2 million. It's incredible.
My wife tells me I work 65% of the time, but I'm a volunteer. I'm the one who goes to Mauritius, South Africa and Rwanda. You may say that's nice, but I have to travel 22 hours by plane and then spend 4 days in meetings with government and school authorities there. These aren't pleasure trips, far from it.
So we manage to do what we manage to do, but imagine what we could do if we could offer our people who work in the network a good salary, social benefits, professional training and so on.
Conservative
Royal Galipeau Conservative Ottawa—Orléans, ON
I understand, Mr. Heppelle. Thank you.
I'd like to go back to the decision in the Mercure case because I naturally liked it. However, I would have preferred it if Mr. Justice La Forest had not given the legislatures the opting-out formula. The legislatures opted out with the benediction of Gil Rémillard, who went to tell them that was fine, that Quebeckers were in agreement.
What, in your opinion, was the consequence of those acts that enabled them to opt out of the decision in the Mercure case, in Alberta and in Saskatchewan? Did everything stay normal, like it was before, or were there cuts?
Director General, Association canadienne-française de l'Alberta
The effect was that the only bilingual statute in Alberta at this time is the Act abolishing French before the legislature. Consequently, in the absence of any other statute, that is becoming the basis of the Alberta government's language policy. That is why there is currently a francophone in Alberta disputing the basis of that act. He is challenging the clause that you referred to and that appears in the Mercure decision. In fact, he claims it was unconstitutional to overturn the language regime in Alberta. So it's a constitutional clarification that's before the Alberta Court of Appeal.
Conservative
President, Assemblée communautaire fransaskoise
It's the same thing. We're nevertheless making progress on French-language services. There is a policy. We still have to see an actual and sustained implementation of the policy, but there has been progress. We are very far from having a range of services, even negotiable ones. We always tell the government we don't need all the acts. We need certain acts that concern the everyday lives of Fransaskois more specifically. We need targeted services. So we're not trying to make Saskatchewan bilingual tomorrow morning, not at all. We've always said it would be a step-by-step process, that it would be negotiable as far as possible, but with quite specific targets and expectations.
Conservative
Royal Galipeau Conservative Ottawa—Orléans, ON
The assimilation issue dates back a long time. I remember that, when I was at Waskesiu, I had visited all of Saskatchewan in 1965 and all of Alberta in 1966. I went to Saint-Albert. There was an anniversary, and Mayor Van Brabant gave me a book to mark the anniversary of Saint-Paul. Naturally the book had to be paid for. There were sponsors named in the book. They were typically local businesses. They showed the progress they had made by means of a photograph taken in 1905 and another one taken in 1965. You could see all the progress that had been made. Obviously, the building was bigger, but the signage had also changed. Although the family name was still the same, the description was in English. That was progress. I saw that in 1967. So I can imagine how it might be today.
However, there are two things: there are new francophones going to those provinces, and there are anglophones who are becoming francophiles.
NDP
