Mr. Chair, committee members, thank you for the invitation.
As the chair just said, with me is Aline Bouffard Cohen, the director general.
The Société Saint-Thomas-d'Aquin was created in 1919, and the organization is the official ambassador for Prince Edward Island's Acadians and francophones. Its mandate is to work on behalf of all Acadians and francophones so that they can live and grow individually and collectively in French on Prince Edward Island.
In 2010, the Island's Acadian and francophone community developed the 2011-2016 global development plan, which proposes a common vision that would be used to guide the action of community partners and governments, while making everyone's efforts cohesive.
What is interesting in the process that the community undertook in creating its global development plan is that the Société Saint-Thomas-d'Aquin also approached the provincial government to establish a joint development plan. It defines what the Acadian and francophone community and the provincial government hope to accomplish in the future and how they intend to do it. The process and the planning support are both as important as the planning document itself.
The reason we are talking to you about this process is that this collaboration is a first in Canada. We would hope that, when the federal government sets out the next roadmap, it takes into account this kind of model, where minority communities and the government work together to attain common goals. But each development plan needs support. Creating a dynamic is necessary to coordinate, create partnerships and produce results. On the Island and in all Acadian and francophone communities, we need support from Canadian Heritage to help us implement our development plans.
If this idea is used, it will be extremely important to work with the government on performance indicators and for the roadmap to strengthen the community's ability to gather results better.
A very important objective for the Island's Acadian and francophone community that stems from the roadmap is the improvement of access to services for official language minority communities.
On April 1, 2000, the Government of Prince Edward Island enacted in part the French Language Services Act. The legislation, overdue since the 1990s, marked the start of a new era in relations between the provincial government and the Acadian and francophone community. Although the act guarantees services in French, the act is being implemented little by little. For example, it sets out that government agencies offer a minimum of services in French.
Although notable progress has been made since the early 1990s, particularly with respect to services in French in certain provincial departments and bilingual road signs on the Island, there is still far to go before the French Language Services Act is fully implemented. This seems to be the case in the areas of health care and justice, among others.
Providing services in French on Prince Edward Island is an important issue, which is why it is absolutely important to continue making it a priority of the roadmap. The provincial government is facing the same challenges we are: finding a sufficient number of qualified, competent human resources in the right places, and who can provide the service in relation to the needs. Promising a service is one thing; finding the human resources to provide it is another.
The roadmap enabled us to create an important agency: the Réseau des services de santé en français de l'Île-du-Prince-Édouard. It's an initiative of the Société Saint-Thomas-d'Aquin, in collaboration with the province.
As we know, access to health care services in a person's own language is a matter not only of respect, but also of health and safety. This is why we feel it is essential that Acadian and francophone users be able to benefit from services in their own language because we know very well that a population that does not have access to services in its own language will perceive itself as less healthy than the rest of the population.
People age 65 and older make up a particularly large segment of the Island's Acadian and francophone population. It is more important for seniors to be able to communicate in their own language. The lack of bilingual staff working in retirement residences, among other places, is glaring.
These people say they aren't as healthy as the other residents on the Island. Not having health care services in French or services in French in all areas of intervention, whether it involves a loss of independence or human services, adds considerable stress to the elderly francophone population, which just adds to the stress of becoming less independent, aging and the lack of resources.
In addition to services in French, there are a few other issues that are priorities under the roadmap that are able to rise to some of our challenges and for which support through an initiative like the roadmap is still necessary.
Among other things, the aging population, the declining birth rate and the exodus of young people are growing phenomena in the Acadian and francophone community. We have noted the results of statistical studies on the lower literacy level among francophones and the limited participation in postsecondary studies that, of course, compromises sustainable employability. Since the median age of Prince Edward Island's Acadian and francophone community is 48 years, basic renewal is a challenge, and the rapid decrease in the number of workers available on the labour market is creating a vicious circle.
To change this trend, the community has taken measures that need to be sustained. We are targeting individuals, such as newcomers and francophiles, to strengthen the Island population. The demographic challenge is an issue that is far from being resolved, which is why it's important to continue to invest in the immigration of French-speakers. However, it is important to ensure that the provinces are not all treated in the same way. It's difficult for Prince Edward Island to compete with the much larger provinces, which is why we would like strategies put in place that are specific to each province.
The school-community centres are essential in our communities to ensure that our culture and our language grow. It's through the language that a culture expresses itself best. It remains the cornerstone of each person's identity. These centres are places for French education, with high-quality programs, and places to spread our culture.
Since 2002, Prince Edward Island has increased its number of francophone school-community centres from two to six. We are very proud of the official opening of the sixth centre, which will take place tomorrow, December 9, in Rustico. We would never have been able to do it without the federal government's funding and support through the roadmap. But it's important to note that the school-community centres don't all offer education from nursery school to grade 12. It's also important to note that it's still very difficult to obtain funding for community infrastructures because the concept of a school-community centre is not recognized.
The daycare centres in each of these school-community centres are growing rapidly and do a very good job of welcoming our children all over the Island. However, the lack of trained teachers is glaring.
So far, the roadmap has enabled us to organize ourselves and, today, it is allowing us to grow. Tomorrow, it will enable us to live in French. The idea of a roadmap like the one currently in place is absolutely essential to ensure the spread of linguistic duality. We cannot say enough just how important it is that the roadmap be renewed in 2013 by the federal government.
However, it is necessary to ensure that the priorities of the provincial and federal government are established and worked on together, in connection with the priorities of the minority communities. It is also essential to ensure that a clear, specific, transparent and responsible implementation process is established.
Thank you.