Official Languages Committee on Nov. 29th, 2011

[The Chair, Conservative, Michael Chong]

A number of times members have questioned other members' commentary or questions to the witnesses. I'm going to give members a great deal of latitude in this committee to talk about the things they want to talk about. It's the right of a member to ask questions of the witnesses and to comment on things in general, and I'm not going to be too restrictive on the interpretation of the rules.

Monsieur Bélanger has the floor, so I'm going to allow him to use his time as he sees fit. But I would ask that if there is a point of order that relates to procedure—which I think you were originally bringing up, and I think it's relevant—you interrupt and ask the chair to ensure that the rules are respected. But when it comes to commentary on what other members are saying, or asking the chair to clarify a point of information, or asking a member to speak to the veracity of what they're saying, I'd ask that we respect members' time and allow them the floor, which they were given.

We're all given a short amount of time to speak here; often it's only five or seven minutes during the two-hour period. So in order to ensure the smooth functioning of the committee, let's ensure that we allow members the time they are given without interruption.

I'm going to pass the floor back to Monsieur Bélanger.

[Mauril Bélanger, Liberal, Ottawa—Vanier, ON]

I hope that hasn't encroached on my speaking time.

[The Chair, Conservative, Michael Chong]

Of course not.

[Some voices]

Oh, oh!

[Costas Menegakis, Conservative, Richmond Hill, ON]

It's all gone.

[Mauril Bélanger, Liberal, Ottawa—Vanier, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

That member who is absent today said that he had mounted the barricades because he agreed and was disappointed at the selection of a unilingual individual. Out of respect for the person who said that, I'm going to wait for him to return to the committee before introducing that motion.

I detest in camera sessions, and that is not customary for the committee. I have been sitting on this committee for years, and we have always conducted our discussions in public. I don't like to hear it said that it is customary to sit in camera. I refuse to allow anyone to impose this custom on us. That is not true. We are in the Parliament of Canada, and we have a responsibility toward Canadian voters to speak publicly. So I'm going to take advantage of the time allotted me to do that.

Here's a subject that also annoys the government. Are people aware that members of the government party are tabling positions in the House calling for the defunding of CBC/Radio-Canada? Are you aware of that?

[Jean-Marie Nadeau]

No.

[Mauril Bélanger, Liberal, Ottawa—Vanier, ON]

Do you have a comment to make on that subject?

We're talking about abolishing all funding. In their words, they want

to defund the $1.1 billion that CBC/Radio-Canada

receives. This is the nature of the positions they're tabling.

Do you have any comments to make on that?

[Brigitte Gagné]

May I make one? It will be very simple.

[Mauril Bélanger, Liberal, Ottawa—Vanier, ON]

Yes.

[Brigitte Gagné]

I've lived in western Canada for 10 years, in a particularly anglophone community. I was the francophone. I frankly have to admit that what attached me to my community was Radio-Canada. No other media outlet did that. As an individual—I'm not speaking on behalf of the council—that affected me deeply. So I wouldn't want that to happen in any case. That would be an enormous loss for all communities outside Ottawa.

[Mauril Bélanger, Liberal, Ottawa—Vanier, ON]

Thank you, madam.

[Collin Bourgeois]

On behalf of RDÉE Canada, I can assure that, when we talk about economic and partnership development, we are in fact talking about communication. There's nothing without communication. It has to be done in our language, in our language of choice, in French, please. French is fundamentally important in northern Ontario, all across Ontario and Canada.

Thank you.

[Mauril Bélanger, Liberal, Ottawa—Vanier, ON]

Mr. Le Blanc, what do you think?

[Guy Le Blanc, Administrator, Réseau de développement économique et d'employabilité (RDÉE) Canada]

The same is true for me. Without Radio-Canada, without that means of communication... It is important in the regions, especially in the rural regions, as Ms. Gagné said. The community radio stations are there, but that doesn't meet the full range of our needs. I'm not aware of the comments, but a cut in services to Canada's francophone population would be unacceptable.

[Mauril Bélanger, Liberal, Ottawa—Vanier, ON]

Thank you.

[Jean-Marie Nadeau]

We weren't aware of that, but we aren't surprised. Even if we didn't have increasing numbers of community radio stations, Radio-Canada definitely creates a network, a sharing of certain information. Radio-Canada is our only common radio and television network in Acadia in the Atlantic. That's why we like the fact that it's called Radio-Canada Acadie.

[Mauril Bélanger, Liberal, Ottawa—Vanier, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Nadeau.

Mr. Chair, this morning I received a letter from Mr. St-Pierre of the Commission scolaire francophone du Yukon, who appeared before the committee. I believe you and Mr. Godin received it as well.

Is it possible to distribute copies of that letter to all committee members?

[The Chair, Conservative, Michael Chong]

Yes, we'll do that.

[Mauril Bélanger, Liberal, Ottawa—Vanier, ON]

Thank you.

Lastly, I would like to request some information from our researcher.

On a number of occasions, we've heard comments to the effect that the Roadmap had increased the budget by 40%. In one sense, that's probably true, but in another sense, that may be misinforming people. I would like us to prepare a document for everyone on the Action Plan for Official Languages and its funding, but on an annual basis. From memory, I believe that the action plan's funding increased from year to year and that funding amounted to more than $200 million in the last year of the action plan. If, for example, we added to that RDÉE, which was attached to it at that point, and others, the funding largely exceeded $200 million. I believe it was $230 million, but we would have to check. So if you take $230 million and multiply it by five, that equals $1.1 billion. So we could argue that there has been no increase, as Mr. Nadeau said.

I would also like to know, based on the documents we have received thus far from Canadian Heritage, how much money has not been spent every year since the Roadmap was put in place. That would let us know what the actual figures are. If it were possible to have that document for all committee members and the public, I believe that would be very useful, Mr. Chair.

Lastly, I would like to tell you about a concern. I don't know how we will manage to get this information, but the president of the Fédération des communautés francophones et acadienne, the FCFA, made quite a disturbing comment last week. She said that the federation suspects—this isn't an accusation—that existing programs have been eliminated or cut because the Roadmap now covers 15 departments and that some of those departments receiving Roadmap money have withdrawn money from existing programs.

How will we be able to determine legitimately whether that is true?

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

[The Chair, Conservative, Michael Chong]

Thank you, Mr. Bélanger.

We'll now go to Mr. Trottier.

[Bernard Trottier, Conservative, Etobicoke—Lakeshore, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thanks to our guests for being here today.

I am a francophone from outside Quebec, for lack of a better description. I am a francophone from Ontario, from Toronto now, but I grew up in Alberta's high north. So I am a Gaulois from the Canadian Prairies.

My first question is for the representatives of the Réseau du développement économique et d'employabilité. I believe you said you receive $9 million in funding a year for housing. Is that correct?

[Collin Bourgeois]

Roughly, yes.

[Bernard Trottier, Conservative, Etobicoke—Lakeshore, ON]

You have operations in all Canadian provinces except Quebec. Is that true?

[Collin Bourgeois]

That's correct.