Official Languages Committee on Nov. 17th, 2011

[Denis Vaillancourt]

The Mouvement Desjardins has obviously gotten involved in Ontario. It has undeniably become a partner in the development of SMEs and in economic growth. The movement is a partner in a number of projects in our communities. As a result, it is a source of funding for young entrepreneurs and small businesses. It has played and continues to play a role.

In Ontario, there's also the Alliance des caisses populaires de l'Ontario, which is another movement. It moreover is involved in the cooperative movement.

Perhaps Mr. LeVasseur can add something as he knows more about that subject.

[Gilles LeVasseur]

In the cooperative environment, the associations in French-speaking Ontario are independent. Even though they share services with Desjardins, it's an independent community that is responsible for itself. We maintain relations. In the financial sector, we have developed our own avenues, our own financial services and our own internal financing capability. That's what's important and that's what's emerging. That doesn't mean we don't experience any influence from the outside, from Quebec, for example. However, you should know that this affords a significant degree of local control in French-speaking Ontario for our development.

[Jacques Gourde, Conservative, Lotbinière—Chutes-de-la-Chaudière, QC]

Desjardins' financial model has thus been introduced and is very well accepted in the francophone communities.

[Gilles LeVasseur]

It's very well accepted. However, I want to make it clear that, even though we share and buy services from Desjardins, those services are managed by francophones, for their own interest, based on their situation and in accordance with their mandate. That doesn't mean we don't abide by the policies since we belong to a major network where we share IT services and everything else. We're accepted, we are established and we believe in French-speaking Ontario.

[The Chair, Conservative, Michael Chong]

Thank you.

Mr. Harris.

[Dan Harris, NDP, Scarborough Southwest, ON]

Thank you.

I'm going to go back to a comment that Mr. Vaillancourt made about the difficulty involved in keeping Franco-Ontarians in Ontario. Even in our caucus, we have elected four new Franco-Ontarian members, but I'm the only one who was elected in Ontario. Would you have any suggestions for retaining more francophones in Ontario?

[Denis Vaillancourt]

They say that our Franco-Ontarians leave the province to go elsewhere. On the one hand, that's unfortunate for us. On the other hand, it shows that the system and life in French are good. Our citizens can go and work internationally. We don't necessarily need to retain them. Instead we should ensure we continue to cultivate this dynamism. That's our youth. More often than not, many stay home. We have to continue, even though we know that some will go elsewhere. Our challenge is to encourage them as much as possible to contribute to their community, without however preventing them from developing elsewhere. The idea is also to maintain everything that has enabled young people to grow and develop in their language, become proud of their language and carry on their profession. We clearly need these young people in Ontario. Efforts are being made in that area, but we also must not penalize them. It is the strength of the system that enables people to become international citizens.

[Dan Harris, NDP, Scarborough Southwest, ON]

I'm going to share my time with Ms. Michaud.

My question is open to everyone. Again on the same subject, do you believe there is enough investment in education and in the community to enable you to continue your good efforts?

[Denis Vaillancourt]

In education, even with the contributions from the OLEPs in Ontario, there are still deficiencies in access to primary and secondary schools, for example. There are still certain issues regarding access to postsecondary education. In postsecondary education, more partnerships should be established so that we can receive federal funding.

At the community level, Ontario will definitely always need more investment. We need a larger community to serve and, in any case, its diversity is what characterizes virtually all regions of the country.

[Sylvain Groulx]

With regard to education, in a consultation that our organization conducted a few years ago in partnership with the Conférence ministérielle sur la francophonie canadienne, we asked young people what concerned them and what were priorities for them. Postsecondary education is one of the things that emerged strongly. We are still being asked to find information and to act in this area. There is a lack of access to postsecondary education and problems with regard to the quality of that education.

Consequently, before deciding to make more investments in postsecondary education, if other investments had to be made, the government would do well to consult young francophones or French-speaking young people who want to do postsecondary studies in French or to conduct a survey of them. It must determine what they are lacking and what they need. That will enable it to meet its obligations to the public and to make good investments.

For French-speaking youth, postsecondary education is something we must invest in.

[Dan Harris, NDP, Scarborough Southwest, ON]

Thank you very much.

I hand the floor over to Ms. Michaud.

[Élaine Michaud, NDP, Portneuf—Jacques-Cartier, QC]

Thank you.

I told you I would come back to the various consultation mechanisms that you would perhaps like to see established under the a future Roadmap. Have you thought, in more concrete terms, of certain mechanisms that you would like to see put in place? If so, I would like to hear what you have to say on that subject.

[Alexis Couture]

In an ideal world, I believe the model that was adopted in health is extremely promising for funding management with the Société Santé en français, which can manage part of it. What is particularly interesting in this approach is that all the work is done in cooperation with the government. The idea is not to provide a budget and say thank you. We're working together to see how we can optimize that money and how we can maximize the return on it.

I believe that the youth network—Sylvain talked about this a little earlier—is extremely effective in realizing the potential of every dollar invested because we in fact don't have as much money as that and we have some major challenges. So I believe that moving toward a collaborative management approach such as this one is extremely promising, which could produce absolutely phenomenal results in the long term.

[Sylvain Groulx]

As regards the youth network, there is one point regarding the Roadmap, and that is the need to work with youth organizations when there are youth initiatives. This means that the organizations that work with youth have been extremely taxed by the requests for partnerships to work with them without there being any results. So if we involve them in a process from the outset, it will be easier to see to the management of those projects.

[Denis Vaillancourt]

I would like to add that, for the Assemblée de la francophonie, there is a protocol that we call "the circle of collaboration with Heritage". On behalf of our members and all sectors in the province, we occasionally sit down to define major needs. Our community's strategic plan will be the cornerstone of that conversation in order to orchestrate programs and to ensure that all our members and all sectors have a clear idea where to knock for development projects.

We would all like to spend more time on this, but I believe there is a basis on which we can discuss the matter.

[The Chair, Conservative, Michael Chong]

Thank you.

Mr. Galipeau, go ahead, please.

[Royal Galipeau, Conservative, Ottawa—Orléans, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

The Fédération des francophones de la Colombie-Britannique appeared before us earlier this week and discussed the direct contact between the francophones and francophiles of British Columbia. B.C.'s francophiles provide a strike force to francophones that they would not have without them.

What kind of mechanisms do you have for forming alliances with Ontario's francophiles?

[Denis Vaillancourt]

For the Assemblée, this is an area where we've considered action to expand the francophonie. The downside is that there is a risk of falling into what we call watered-down bilingualism. Where the minority is involved, we have to protect the francophone community in a very controlled manner. Otherwise we can fall into that trap and, if we aren't articulate enough, we'll switch over to the language of the majority. One of the New Brunswick researchers discussed watered-down bilingualism.

In fact, there are places where this affinity and closeness are useful. I'm thinking, for example, of the postsecondary sector. When programs are being offered and there are students from French-language schools and a good immersion program, twinning the two communities at the postsecondary level to offer a program a French makes sense. If we talk about a single perspective on early childhood in bilingual environments, we fall into the watered-down aspect, that is to say that we don't promote the language well. And when we talk about expanding the community and the electronic waves, it seems appropriate to move closer to the francophile community and to all the people who have come out of the immersion programs. We have articulated that, but may be in the early stages in the case of the Assemblée de la francophonie de l'Ontario.

[Royal Galipeau, Conservative, Ottawa—Orléans, ON]

I'm pleased that you're talking about education.

When I was a student at the University of Ottawa 40 years ago, the percentage of francophones there was larger than it is now. I admit a number of my friends were from Hull. Since the Université du Québec en Outaouais has been in existence, francophones from western Quebec feel less of a need to come to the University of Ottawa. The francophone presence at the University of Ottawa has declined as a result.

I believe that a good way to counter that is to attract francophiles, but strategies must be developed. Thirty years ago, there was a meeting between your predecessor, ACFO, and an anglophone minority organization from Quebec, the predecessor of the Quebec Community Groups Network. It wasn't Alliance Québec at the time as that was before it was established. We met at a hotel in downtown Ottawa to establish ties.

Do you have any ties with the Quebec Community Groups Network?

[Denis Vaillancourt]

We have no formal ties. There have been a few conversations since I've been president, but we haven't yet developed any operational ties.

Just to answer you—

[Royal Galipeau, Conservative, Ottawa—Orléans, ON]

Canadian Parents for French...?

[Denis Vaillancourt]

We've also had conversations with them, but there's no firmly established protocol. However, with regard to the University of Ottawa, we've celebrated the fifth anniversary of a series of programs designed to get closer to the immersion world and to make it possible to offer programs in French at the University of Ottawa that can benefit both francophones and francophiles.

Establishing dialogues with QCGN or the Canadian Parents for French is part of our plan for expanding the francophone space.

[Royal Galipeau, Conservative, Ottawa—Orléans, ON]

Do you know that the new RCMP commissioner is bilingual?

[Denis Vaillancourt]

Yes.

[The Chair, Conservative, Michael Chong]

Thank you very much, Mr. Galipeau.

Mr. Bélanger, go ahead, please.