Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Ladies and gentlemen members.
First of all, we are very pleased that the present Conservative government has continued this effort to develop and implement an action plan to reinforce this fundamental value of our country, linguistic duality. Now let's hope that developing this kind of plan for official languages becomes a normal and important thing for all parties at the bar of the House in Ottawa.
In preparation for our testimony today, we conducted a survey of our members. We received 20 responses from FANE's 29 member organizations, slightly more than two-thirds of our members, which is a fairly reasonable sample.
The findings indicate that 81.3% think the Roadmap has been an asset for the community. The existing and recurring government programs designed to support the communities are not enough to enable the communities to develop and grow fully in Canadian society. So this plan helps a great deal.
People thus think that this edition of a Roadmap or Action Plan for Linguistic Duality is of prime importance and enables the community to do work that it would be unable to do under regular programs. This survey also shows that nearly three-quarters of our organizations, that is 73.7%, have received funding under the Roadmap. Here we are also thinking of investments in a few sectors such as early childhood, the Grandir en français program and the construction of community school centres.
With regard to schools issues, the Roadmap has enabled our school board, which is experiencing a sharp increase in registration, to improve the offer of its services through additional funding, because the current funding formula of Heritage Canada's Official Languages Support Program does not favour our school board for historic reasons. The Roadmap has therefore made it possible to correct that situation.
As you know, the Acadians and francophones of Nova Scotia did not get their homogenous French-language school system until 1996. Now the provincial Conseil scolaire acadien enables young francophones in our province to make enormous educational progress in French.
In addition to opening new schools and new community school centres, a lot of work has had to be done—and much work remains to be done—to access services in our language. We must continue to reach the largest number of rights holders. Approximately 50% of our rights holders are said to be registered. Consequently we still have to go after the remaining 50%.
The community school centres that have been supported by the Roadmap have received major contributions. The governments of Nova Scotia and Canada have invested in four communities: Truro; Rive-Sud, which is the Lunenburg region; Par-en-Bas, the region of the Pubnicos, Tusket and Wedgeport; and, lastly, Halifax. It is now important for funding to be available so they can operate.
As you know, the Acadian and francophone community is a burgeoning community. New regions have developed and new schools have been built at the request of parents and the community. Those schools must also be able to enjoy adequate funding.
Our survey also shows that our members credit the Roadmap for the Cultural Development Fund. The Enterprise Cape Breton Corporation, which is associated with the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency, has also participated to a greater degree. That effort has enabled the economically disadvantaged region of Cape Breton to take a more active part in the economy. In that regard, note that we have a lot of work to do to achieve equality with the anglophone community.
The survey also revealed that 17% of francophones 15 years of age and over have less than a grade 9 education. Consequently, we still have a lot of work to do on literacy. That percentage is distinctly higher than the figure for anglophones, which is only 8.6%, a gap of 8.4 percentage points. That's virtually twice that figure.
In addition, 28.5% of francophones 15 years of age and over have an education ranging from grade 9 to grade 13. That figure is 8 percentage points less than that of the anglophones in the province, which is between 35% and 36%. There is a genuine education gap. It is often people who have not had access to French-language schools who now have literacy challenges in their everyday lives. They have difficulty taking part in the economy as they have literacy levels lower than those of the anglophone majority.
We have obviously had successes with the Roadmap as regards French-language services, thanks, among others, to the Réseau Santé – Nouvelle-Écosse, which is supported by the Société Santé en français. With the aging of the population, the challenges will also continue.
Our Réseau Santé, which is supported by the Roadmap, has been able to support some excellent initiatives, such as early childhood services, speech therapy screening and family services program. The Roadmap has also helped improve our capacity to offer French-language health services in the Annapolis Valley and, of course, to work on recruiting health professionals.
With regard to health professionals, we want to recognize the efforts of the Consortium national de santé en français.
In francophone immigration, the Roadmap has also helped increase collaboration between the Acadian and francophone communities of the Atlantic, which has vastly increased our capacity.
I would like to say that the Roadmap has supplemented other federal investments. It has also enabled us to work more closely with anglophone agencies. We're now working with anglophones on both immigration and economic issues. This has really had complementary effects, which, for us, are structural effects in the very long term.
It is difficult to see how the Roadmap is progressing. As the FCFA mentioned, we do not have that much data to determine its actual impact. I believe it is important that the departments concerned by the Roadmap engage in a sustained dialogue with the communities. That is perhaps what is somewhat lacking. That might be consistent with subsection 43(2) of the Official Languages Act, which refers specifically to consultation. It would therefore be desirable to conduct more consultation because we have overall development plans. There is one at the national level, and the provinces have them as well. It is important to align the two. Consequently, communication and dialogue with the departments are very important.
It is also important for the departments and agencies investing in the current Roadmap not to drop the ball once funding is exhausted. We suggest that they find ways to continue their engagement with the communities. Allow me to explain.
For us, one concrete example of this situation has been the withdrawal of Industry Canada, which was identified in the previous plan, the Action Plan for Official Languages. Industry Canada was working very closely with the community because that department had money from the Action Plan for Official Languages. However, when the money disappeared, the department completely withdrew. Unfortunately, we now have very little contact with Industry Canada in Nova Scotia. And yet there are some major issues in which Industry Canada could support the communities. So attention must be paid to that.
We also believe that the community relies on a well-organized community network, which is a strength and promotes the bilingual nature of our country. We would like the federal government to continue strengthening this network because it is the backbone of our continued existence.
Now I would like to hand over to our president so he can tell you about our recommendations.