Official Languages Committee on Nov. 29th, 2011

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

What was the funding allocation per province for those activities? I'm not asking for exact figures, but an approximate response. Was that allocation proportionate to the distribution of francophones? How did that work?

[Guy Le Blanc]

I can give you the figures by province for the period from 2008 to 2011. The amount was $520,000 for Prince Edward Island, $750,000 for New Brunswick, $520,000 for Newfoundland and Labrador, $520,000 for Manitoba, $2 million for Ontario, $334,000 for Nunavut, $519,000 for British Columbia, $520,000 for Alberta, $520,000 for Saskatchewan and $334,000 for the Northwest Territories. As for the RDÉE du Yukon, the amount was $334,000, whereas it was $520,000 for Nova Scotia. For Canada, it was $1.9 million.

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

So the larger shares went to New Brunswick and Ontario, as is the case for most of your activities, which take place in those provinces.

Those aren't small amounts of money in the small provinces. What were the investments? What in fact can we do to change the fate of francophones in those regions?

[Guy Le Blanc]

There were various projects in certain provinces. In Nova Scotia, we worked a lot in the tourism field and with entrepreneurs. For example, there are lobster fishermen in my region. They are the best lobster fishermen in Canada.

[Some voices]

Oh, oh!

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

That's debatable, but—

[Guy Le Blanc]

We also worked with young fishermen to form businesses, cooperatives and find better markets. As you know, that's good for consumers, but the price of lobster won't be very high, depending on what we can see on the Nova Scotia market these days. I hope that will be reflected in Toronto and that you can eat some.

There are also agriculture projects. In British Columbia, the organization Femmes d'affaires en mouvement is a shared activity. There was an agriculture and agri-food partnership in Saskatchewan. There was intervention with individuals and entrepreneurs, approximately 200 in that community. The goal is to do things in French. That was the project for newcomers to the communities, particularly in Saskatchewan. There are also bilingual forums on renewable energy. In Ontario, there are a number of projects, such as Place aux jeunes en région. These are projects and activities. In New Brunswick, they have the Rendez-vous Acadie-Québec. There are exchanges between those two provinces and new business opportunities for francophones. In northeastern New Brunswick, there is the knowledge economy development forum and there's an economic forum in Nova Scotia. Business participants were able to attend a round table to learn about all the services in French and to work toward developing others. There's the Faut que ça bouge! project in Prince Edward Island. It's a youth community leadership program for young people 14 to 17 years of age.

As Mr. Nadeau mentioned, Prince Edward Island and the regions of the Atlantic are probably francophone minority regions, like a number of rural regions in Canada. There is an exodus of our young people. We have to work with young people and encourage them from an early age to develop an entrepreneurial spirit in order to develop an economy that is less and less dependent on resources, which were traditionally the basis of the economies in those small regions. We have to equip our young people and create a culture of entrepreneurs, an economic culture that encourages them to live in our regions rather than move away to Alberta or Toronto, before coming back to retire in New Brunswick. I have nothing bad to say about Toronto or Alberta, but—

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

Thank you very much, but I'm just trying to understand your activities. Can we describe the largest part of your activities by saying that they are mainly training activities to help entrepreneurs find markets or to work with their suppliers, for example? That's their main activity. However, you are involved in training activities with entrepreneurs to develop their skills.

[Guy Le Blanc]

There are human resources forums. We try to help small and medium enterprises that may not have any personnel training expertise. We have courses.

In some provinces, we have cooperation forums, either with the university or with other economic development agencies, to respond to the needs of small and medium enterprises.

In some regions, there may perhaps be a need in the human resources field, whereas, in others, it may be another type of need that has been established by the community.

All the RDÉEs in each province and territory meet specific needs in their regions. So there are different actions and needs depending on the place.

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

Thank you.

The following question is for the Société de l'Acadie du Nouveau-Brunswick.

Although I'm an Ontarian and I've lived in various parts of Canada, I was trained in large part by Acadians.

[Jean-Marie Nadeau]

Ah!

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

I had very good teachers everywhere. So I feel like an Acadian in a way.

You mentioned the funding you pay to try to integrate immigrants or to encourage immigration to New Brunswick.

In Toronto, my city, the biggest role of the societies that work in immigration is really to enable people to learn English as a second language. Do you try to help immigrants learn to speak Acadian, to speak French?

[Jean-Marie Nadeau]

First of all, New Brunswick is a province that does not take in a lot of immigrants. Last year, there were 2,300 immigrants, 2,000 of whom have integrated into the anglophone community.

We have minor internal problems to solve because bilingual organizations were previously created. However, everything bilingual leans, somewhat like the Tower of Pisa, toward the anglophone side. So historically, the immigrant intake societies have been quite bilingual, and therefore anglophone. There is a bad reflex whereby even francophone African refugees are transferred to English-language schools. We're in the process of resolving that internally. That's why we need this kind of program so that we can take them in ourselves.

[The Chair, Conservative, Michael Chong]

Thank you.

Mr. Weston, go ahead, please.

[John Weston, Conservative, West Vancouver—Sunshine Coast—Sea to Sky Country, BC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thanks to today's guests.

I was quite interested by what my colleague told me. I don't have as much of the character of a Gaulois from Alberta or Toronto as he, but—

[A voice]

It will come!

[John Weston, Conservative, West Vancouver—Sunshine Coast—Sea to Sky Country, BC]

—I'm a francophile from British Columbia and I'm very interested by what you are doing to promote the vitality of both languages in Canada.

I'm interested in the economy. You deal with cooperatives, which are businesses. Unless I'm mistaken, cooperatives are all entrepreneurial businesses, aren't they?

[Brigitte Gagné]

Yes.

[Collin Bourgeois]

Yes.

[Jean-Marie Nadeau]

Yes.

[John Weston, Conservative, West Vancouver—Sunshine Coast—Sea to Sky Country, BC]

Can we advance the argument that, in business, knowing both language isn't just a bilingualism issue, but also an asset that gives us an economic advantage in an increasingly competitive world? Can we think that?

[Brigitte Gagné]

I believe the cooperative model has two purposes: an economic purpose and a social purpose. In economic development, it is very profitable, as you saw from the description of the movement as a whole, but it is also very profitable socially because it gives the community cohesion.

The cooperative model also helps support the efforts of people who otherwise could not be in a position to achieve positive results, be they minorities, immigrants or others. Moreover, that is why the cooperative model is often viewed as a tool for the poor, which I believe is a completely watered down perception; that isn't the true picture, but that is why it is viewed as such.

[John Weston, Conservative, West Vancouver—Sunshine Coast—Sea to Sky Country, BC]

Are there any other responses?

[Collin Bourgeois]

Thank you for your question.

RDÉE Canada's mission is first to find economic development opportunities, to promote them, to step them up and to give them that francophone flavour and colour. It isn't easy to encourage entrepreneurial youths to work in French. It is so much easier for people who open a store to put out signage in English and to sell in English. You can try it yourselves. Walk around the towns and villages that fly the colours of the francophone community, that say they are bilingual, and look for services in French. Look for that single individual who speaks French and English, who has gone off on vacation and who can't be found in the business for the next three months. Those people are lacking. The RDÉE Canada people are looking for young francophone entrepreneurs, and they are encouraging them to work in French in their rural areas, towns, villages and provinces. Work in French, please.

[John Weston, Conservative, West Vancouver—Sunshine Coast—Sea to Sky Country, BC]

We constantly tell young people that it is important to speak both languages. My three children attended a very fashionable French immersion school in west Vancouver. We often hear it said that it's very important in the business world.

Do you have a few words for young people? Can we think of a new Canadian world where everyone will speak both languages in 20 or 30 years?