Evidence of meeting #17 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 universities.
A recording is available from Parliament.
9:40 a.m.
Conservative
9:40 a.m.
President, Commission nationale des parents francophones
I'm finding it hard to understand your question.
We have funding from Canadian Heritage which keeps us alive from year to year. We have to file applications in order to get it. The funding that we have under the Roadmap has helped us move forward on francophone early childhood. I agree with you on that. However, that will end in December 2011, which means that everything will suddenly stop.
9:40 a.m.
Conservative
Joyce Bateman Conservative Winnipeg South Centre, MB
What are your sources of funding? For the Association des universités de la francophonie canadienne, for example, what are the main sources of your funding? Is it the Government of Canada?
9:40 a.m.
President, Association des universités de la francophonie canadienne
The main source of our funding is Canadian Heritage, which provides us with operating funding every year. There are also contributions from the member universities of our association.
9:40 a.m.
Conservative
Joyce Bateman Conservative Winnipeg South Centre, MB
Now I turn to the Commission nationale des parents francophones. What is your main source of funding?
9:40 a.m.
President, Commission nationale des parents francophones
It's Canadian Heritage.
9:40 a.m.
Conservative
Joyce Bateman Conservative Winnipeg South Centre, MB
All right.
Is that your only source of funding? Do you have any others?
9:40 a.m.
President, Commission nationale des parents francophones
It's currently our only source.
9:40 a.m.
President, Commission nationale des parents francophones
Our organizations' dues, which are $200 a year, would not get us very far, since we only have 12 organizations. So it's our only source of funding to speak with francophone parents, to work with francophone parents, to ensure that the vitality of the francophone community continues. That's what we do, through our federations and parent associations. Every year we get funding from Canadian Heritage, after applying for it, obviously.
9:45 a.m.
Conservative
Joyce Bateman Conservative Winnipeg South Centre, MB
Thank you.
As a parent of two children, I very much appreciate your work with our universities. With regard to the two organizations here, I imagine your consultation process is the key to your success.
Could you please explain your consultation process? Could you also tell me your key information source? I'm speaking to either of the two organizations; I'm interested in both.
9:45 a.m.
Director General, Réseau pour le développement de l'alphabétisme et des compétences
To whom are you speaking?
9:45 a.m.
Conservative
Joyce Bateman Conservative Winnipeg South Centre, MB
It's as you wish. I hope to get an answer from both.
9:45 a.m.
Director General, Réseau pour le développement de l'alphabétisme et des compétences
All right.
9:45 a.m.
Conservative
Joyce Bateman Conservative Winnipeg South Centre, MB
All the organizations are very important to me.
9:45 a.m.
Director General, Réseau pour le développement de l'alphabétisme et des compétences
Our main source of funding is Human Resources and Skills Development Canada. Our sources of information—
9:45 a.m.
Conservative
9:45 a.m.
Director General, Réseau pour le développement de l'alphabétisme et des compétences
We have a number of structures. Our organization has members in all provinces and territories which enable us to support ourselves. We sit on various structures, CMEC, for example and others, which enable us to support ourselves. At the national level, there is a structure that comprises all anglophone, francophone and aboriginal literacy organizations. That helps keep us up to date.
In the francophone community, there is what we call the Forum des leaders, which involves all the groups across the country. It's a primary institutional source, I would say. Adults who are learning on their own are another source. When they take part in various programs, they provide us with local and provincial information. Then that moves up to the national level. We are putting in place a Canada-wide monitoring and evaluation system that will provide food for thought, but that will also ensure monitoring and enable us to see whether progress is being made: if an adult starts at a given level, will he one day reach a higher level? There are various structures such as forums, AGMs, board of directors. You know all that; I won't list them for you. There is a series of structures which allows for consultation. There are, for example, websites, intranets and so on. You see what I'm talking about.
9:45 a.m.
Conservative
Joyce Bateman Conservative Winnipeg South Centre, MB
What percentage of your funding for universities comes from immersion programs for Government of Canada employees, for example? Is it 5%?
Mr. McRoberts, you said you had a lot of full-time immersion programs for public servants and, I imagine, for other interested persons.
9:45 a.m.
President, Association des universités de la francophonie canadienne
First of all, I spoke about students from immersion school programs. Among our institutions, a large number of students have studied at immersion schools and are now at the university level. So these are francophile students. It's also true that some of our members—this is the case of Glendon University in particular—have contracts to teach federal government employees a second language.
9:45 a.m.
President, Association des universités de la francophonie canadienne
That's an activity that is mainly coordinated by the Canada School of Public Service.
When I mentioned immersion, it was mainly to talk about the possibility for francophile students from immersion schools to pursue university studies in French at our institutions.
9:45 a.m.
Conservative
Joyce Bateman Conservative Winnipeg South Centre, MB
That's only for Glendon, but there is the same program at the Collège universitaire de Saint-Boniface, in Manitoba.
9:45 a.m.
President, Association des universités de la francophonie canadienne
All our institutions are either francophone or bilingual. Either all programming is in French or it is in English and French. Most of our students are francophone, but that varies considerably from one institution to the next.
At an institution like the Université de Moncton, virtually all students are francophone. At an institution like the University of Ottawa, I know there is a large percentage of anglophone students and a minority of francophone students. That varies considerably from one institution to the next.
However, what we offer immersion school students is the opportunity to study in French in a bilingual or francophone environment at the university level. Our institutions are the only ones that offer that opportunity outside Quebec.