Mr. Chair, members of the committee and dear partners, on behalf of the Alliance des femmes de la francophonie canadienne and its members, we would like to thank the House of Commons Standing Committee on Official Languages for giving us the opportunity to share our perspective on the Roadmap for Canada's Linguistic Duality 2008-2013.
My name is Louise-Hélène Villeneuve. I am the president of AFFC, and I am here with Manon Beaulieu, our director general. Our presentation includes a brief overview of AFFC, its priorities, its assessment of the roadmap, along with concrete examples of accomplishments, and some recommendations.
AFFC is the only national group consisting of French-language minority women's associations. The alliance includes 15 associations from across the country, from the Maritimes to the territories, with a common interest: improving the sociological and economic situation of francophone women so that they can directly contribute to the development of their communities. Our priorities are to improve the economic situation of women, to support and recognize caregivers, to promote and incorporate gender analysis and exogamy, and to develop the leadership of women. Through the diversity of its members, AFFC represents women of all ages and from all walks of life who work together and greatly contribute to the priority sectors of the roadmap. Let us give you some examples.
In health care, AFFC has been a leader since 2006, given that women represent between 70% to 80% of caregivers. The alliance works with member associations and provincial and national partners in order to move discussions and initiatives forward, and in order to improve access to French-language services for caregivers. Provincial health care systems are increasingly seeking to keep seniors and people who are ill at home. But there is only minimal planning to set up support and training programs to expand home care and respite care. The women from communities are the ones who commit to meeting those needs.
In terms of justice, eight member associations are working directly on developing and making French-language resources available for women who are victims of violence. These associations are also familiar with social and legal services offered in French in their area, and they are able to properly direct the victims towards those services. But it is important to point out that French-language services for victims in minority communities are practically non-existent. Only three provinces have a francophone reception centre for women who are victims of violence. Our members have to take the initiative to contact anglophone centres in order to find employees who speak French and who can help the victims.
In immigration, our member associations are very familiar with the isolation francophone immigrant women experience when they arrive in predominantly English-speaking communities. Some of the associations provide specialized services to newcomers, be they individuals or families. Among other things, our members give them training, and they help them buy food, manage their mail, fill out forms, make long-distance calls, and so forth.
In economic development, eight member associations work with francophone women from all ethnic communities to help them with their employability. They provide them with information and networking opportunities that will help them find their place in the job market. Our member associations have also been offering workshops, such as home-based child care management, to increase women's financial, political and economic literacy.
Cultural activities include essay contests, radio broadcasts on topics of interest to women, and a forum called “L'Art au féminin”. More specifically, this forum has enabled women to become familiar with social media and applications for funding. They have also been able to benefit from one-on-one career management counseling and, therefore, have acquired concrete tools to increase their artistic activities.
In terms of youth, the priorities of our member associations are the next generation and working with young women in the communities. There are many projects on mentorship, intergenerational meetings, leadership training and education.
Dear members of the committee, the activities and services that we have listed and that have had a direct impact on francophone Canadians are carried out by 15 AFFC member associations jointly with some of our partners.
Only seven of our member groups have full-time employees; the other eight only have part-time employees or volunteers. In total, almost 200 volunteers contributed more than 65,000 hours of work to enable the roll-out of those activities in which over 8,000 women participated.
AFFC's key role is to support its members in all activities related to the priority sectors of the roadmap. AFFC is central to communication. It provides a network for sharing information and practices, and it works together with the staff of member associations. AFFC also plays a key role as an interface between its member associations and national and provincial sectoral organizations, both francophone and anglophone, including Quebec. This not only allows members and non-members to keep abreast of current cases or issues, but also to develop partnerships with sectoral bodies in their provinces or territories. So we all contribute to the advancement of francophone women in Canadian society.
In 2010-2011, six of our member associations received funding from Canadian Heritage. But it is difficult to determine whether the funding from Canadian Heritage falls under the roadmap. Only three member associations have received funding from Status of Women Canada, which is not listed under the roadmap departments. Others receive only very little funding from provincial governments, but most of them have to rely on other partnerships with local or regional community organizations, or even on the sale of lottery tickets.
If we look at the return on investment of our member associations, it goes without saying that the minimal amounts invested have almost miraculous results, but this insufficient funding does not allow francophone women groups to be equal participants, alongside other members of the francophonie, in the development and vitality of their communities.
On the morning of December 6—a national day of remembrance and action on violence against women sadly memorable because of the murder of 14 female students from the École Polytechnique in Montreal—let us be visionary and imagine what could be achieved if women groups were adequately funded.
We wish to share with you our strong recommendation to renew the Roadmap for Canada's Linguistic Duality, which has been and continues to be of paramount importance for the concrete development of our communities. Ideally, enhancing it would be even more desirable.
We also recommend that multi-year funding be the preferred approach in order to enable organizations to better plan their work in the field.
In addition, we recommend that each spokesgroup for minority communities receive funding in order to be able to work with minority life researchers so that an ongoing study is conducted on the impacts of investments.
Finally, AFFC recommends that the next roadmap makes women a priority sector. This commitment from the government will allow women to continue their pivotal role in the communicating French culture, developing community vitality and strengthening inclusion and social cohesion in Canada.
Ladies and gentlemen of the committee, on behalf of all francophone women living in minority communities, we thank you for your attention. We hope to have shown you that, like the federal government, women pledge their unwavering support for official language minority communities.