Official Languages Committee on Dec. 6th, 2011

[Jean-Luc Racine]

I think it would be in terms of maintaining funding for health care. It is crucial that the federal government maintain its investments in health. If that happens, it will be possible to develop strategies.

Right now in Alberta, minor projects are leading to bigger ones. That is why we need to maintain the funding. Without it, things become a lot harder.

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

Thank you very much.

I have a quick question for the BCRC.

You were telling us that you now have a five-year strategic plan. Could you tell us a bit more about this, about the main priorities that were identified in that plan per se?

[Dorothy Williams]

Actually there are 10 areas, 10 sectors, if you will: education, health and environment, employability and training, justice, organizational support and development, heritage and history, arts and culture, research, volunteerism, and communication. Every single sector is elaborated according to its objectives, its advocacy and policy issues, organizational partners we want to bring in to help us achieve our goal, project partners we may already have on board, and potential financial resources to help us in these sectors.

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

Do you see the objectives of your plan reflected in the current road map?

[Dorothy Williams]

Oh no. Certainly not all of them, no.

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

Were you involved in any consultation before?

[Dorothy Williams]

Yes, and BCRC is involved in QCGN from the top, so the president of our board is actually on the board of QCGN. The executive director, Akute Azu, is on the executive director's committee of QCGN, and many times we have given QCGN our staff to work on committees to have some kind of inroad or impact within the English-speaking black community.

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

I am switching back to French now. This question is for all three groups. It comes back to the level of involvement in future consultations in relation to past assessment processes.

If I understood correctly, Ms. Williams seemed to be saying in her presentation that the people at the BCRC would really like to be involved in the consultations and in the program assessment processes that follow.

The AFFC representatives talked about how difficult it was to determine which investments really came out of the roadmap because of all the overlap with Canadian Heritage.

Would helping to develop assessment indicators to measure outcomes and success allow you to address some of the shortcomings when it comes to the transparency and relevance of roadmap initiatives? The question is for all of you. Please keep your answers brief, as I don't think I have much time left.

[Louise-Hélène Villeneuve]

Quickly, I can say that a cooperative approach to administration would certainly benefit everyone. If we worked with the government, things would definitely be clear. You could determine exactly what our needs were and, as Dorothy was saying, develop shared success factors.

[The Chair, Conservative, Michael Chong]

Thank you.

Mr. Menegakis, you have the floor.

[Costas Menegakis, Conservative, Richmond Hill, ON]

Welcome. Thank you for being here today and for making your presentations. I found them very useful and informative.

Before I pose my questions, I want to refer back a little bit to CBC/Radio-Canada.

For what it's worth, I think it's important to note that our government has taken a very strong position in support of the CBC/Radio-Canada. In fact, Minister Moore, the Minister of Heritage, last week publicly commented on his support and the government's support for CBC/Radio-Canada. It's unfortunate that there's misinterpretation as far as that is concerned. But I can assure you the government is not in any way entertaining abolishing Radio-Canada, which we know is very important to the francophone community across the country, and particularly in those regions where there is no other media availability.

Another worthy note is that in the present structure of the government cabinet, there are 18 women who are either ministers or parliamentary secretaries. Of course, we'd like to see that number be higher, but certainly it's a strong indication of where we are going. I think it's very important.

I listened to your presentation with great interest. I think our government is continuing to demonstrate the importance of women in particular and everyone to be represented properly in government.

As you know, we're studying the road map for linguistic duality. It's a very important investment our government made in 2008. It's a $1.1 billion investment, so we're interested in hearing some of your comments as far as its progress to date. It's a little bit more than midstream; that's why we're studying it. We want to see the positive impacts or any impact it's had in the communities at large.

I do also want to congratulate you, Mrs. Raeburn-Baynes. In a previous presentation here we were given some documentation, one of which was the Sheila and Victor Goldbloom award. Your resumé was very impressive, so congratulations on that recognition there.

My question is to the BCRC. I know you don't have memberships per se, but how big is the black community in Quebec and Montreal?

[Dorothy Williams]

Now, officially, according to Stats Canada, from the last census, it's approximately 169,000; however, we figure it's probably closer to 220,000 because that really depends on how people are counted.

[Costas Menegakis, Conservative, Richmond Hill, ON]

Yes, I would think it would be more than even that.

One of the things that I've always believed is that the cultural programs are very important, particularly for our youth—

[Dorothy Williams]

Absolutely.

[Costas Menegakis, Conservative, Richmond Hill, ON]

—and for our elderly. Could you elaborate a little bit on how the road map has helped in some of the cultural programs that are available throughout Montreal?

[Dorothy Williams]

Throughout Montreal...?

[Costas Menegakis, Conservative, Richmond Hill, ON]

Throughout Quebec, I guess.

[Dorothy Williams]

Well, as far as I know—

[Costas Menegakis, Conservative, Richmond Hill, ON]

Can you give us some examples?

[Dorothy Williams]

In terms of culture, I know that QAHN has availed itself of some funding. I'm not sure if the Quebec Drama Federation and its members have been able to avail themselves of some funding, but as far as I know, I'm not aware of any other groups that get funding for culture through the road map.

[Costas Menegakis, Conservative, Richmond Hill, ON]

I would think that cultural programs are major things that attract youth, would they not?

[Dorothy Williams]

Yes, they are. There are people in the community who recognize that. Again, I can only talk from the black community's experiences. In terms of culture, other than the kinds of events that come from groups like Playmas or our youth hip-hop groups, dance groups, steelpan, etc., one thing we can't or don't promote, because we're unable to, is black heritage in Canada, because it's not recognized at all.

[Gemma Raeburn-Baynes]

It isn't. I can speak about that because we did apply a few years back to Heritage Canada to promote the black heritage of Canadians. We do have a lot of black Canadians who were born here, and we were turned down. It's quite difficult as a black community to get funding from Heritage Canada.

[Costas Menegakis, Conservative, Richmond Hill, ON]

I'm a little bit disturbed with the fact that you're having a difficult time getting your charitable status. I hadn't realized that it changed a lot after 9/11.

[Dorothy Williams]

Yes, it did.