Official Languages Committee on Dec. 13th, 2011

[Mauril Bélanger, Liberal, Ottawa—Vanier, ON]

I am certainly going to give it a try. As this is the only turn I get, I will signal you if I succeed before the end of this meeting. How much time do I have left? I have 5 minutes left? I don't believe it!

I made a promise to my colleague, Mr. Menegakis. I am going to read him a little excerpt from the Globe and Mail's business section last Saturday.

As the deadline for work approaches, Conservative MP Brent Rathgeber told The Globe and Mail that he and other members of the Conservative caucus are urging cabinet ministers to cut more aggressively. “Everything should be on the table,” he said, listing federal funding for the CBC and the Royal Alberta Museum as areas where savings can be found.

I will pass it over to you, Mr. Menegakis.

I'm surprised they want to cut the Alberta museum; usually they're pretty strong on dinosaurs.

Sorry, that's a cheap shot.

I have to ask: in the efforts you are making, does Radio-Canada/CBC have any significance as an institution?

[Jean Fahmy]

The answer is a resounding “yes”.

Let me tell you the story of Radio-Canada's wonderful Prix des lecteurs. A Radio-Canada host in Sudbury started them there in 2001; he wanted to encourage literature and culture by establishing a readers' prize for Franco-Ontarian authors. So he asked his bosses for permission and they approved it. First, the prize was just for Ontario. Six members of the public were chosen to read books sent in by publishers. A winner was then chosen at a big ceremony. In the first two years, the ceremonies were held in Sudbury and then in Ottawa. They were broadcast on the radio. More and more people began to tune in and to hear our books talked about.

All of a sudden, a lot of other people outside Ontario became interested. I don't know what kind of negotiation went on, but one day we woke up to find that Radio-Canada had decided to extend it across the entire country. So today, six or eight readers, coming from every province, from Quebec, from the Maritimes, from Ontario and from the west, read books from all over the country and debate about them on the radio. There are even short items on television. It's great because you hear about someone in Moncton who has written a wonderful book, or someone else who has produced an amazing essay at Western, and so on.

If it were not for Radio-Canada, none of that would have existed. To answer your question more directly, sir, I should tell you that our broadcaster covers the entire territory. We have Radio-Canada in Sudbury, and in Toronto, and here. Radio-Canada covers the whole territory. People in Sudbury hear about issues that affect Sudbury. People in Toronto hear about issues that affect them. We hear about issues that affect us here.

I can say without any hesitation that Radio-Canada is indispensable in reflecting ourselves, in telling us who we are, what we do, and what we contribute to the country.

[Mauril Bélanger, Liberal, Ottawa—Vanier, ON]

What do you think, Mr. Turbide?

[Yves Turbide]

I totally agree with what my colleague said. Radio-Canada is essential for literature and for all other areas of artistic creation, whether the contribution be in the development of dance, the visual arts, or theatre or music. Think of the APCM music gala, for example. I feel that Radio-Canada has been an absolutely essential player in promoting Franco-Ontarian music through its association with APCM. It is more than essential, it is vital for French-speaking Canada.

[Mauril Bélanger, Liberal, Ottawa—Vanier, ON]

Are any of our books translated for the English-Canadian market, or even for sale abroad?

[Jean Fahmy]

Very few Franco-Ontarian books are translated. Actually, that is one of our difficulties. As I am sure you know, under the present roadmap, there is a $5-million program to translate works in French into English and works in English into French. That is great for our country's duality.

But the Quebec publishers have benefited most because they are bigger and stronger, and so on. As far as I know, we do not have many translations.

[The Chair, Conservative, Michael Chong]

Thank you, Mr. Bélanger.

Mr. Menegakis, over to you.

[Costas Menegakis, Conservative, Richmond Hill, ON]

Thank you for your presentation. I found it very interesting.

I would like to talk a little about CBC and Radio-Canada.

I want to thank my friend from across the floor for bringing up his reading material from the weekend, because it gives me the opportunity once again to set the record straight as far as Radio-Canada and the CBC are concerned.

As you may very well know, and certainly as all members of the House of Commons who are here with us today know, all members have an opportunity to voice their opinion and discuss what they would like to see. Government policy, however, is made at the cabinet level, and the representative responsible for the CBC in the government is the Minister of Canadian Heritage and Official Languages, Minister Moore. In his testimony to the heritage committee he was very clear about the government's position on Radio-Canada and the CBC, and I want to read what he said because I don't want to leave anything lingering. We all understand how important Radio-Canada is to the francophone community across this country.

Without further ado, this is what Minister James Moore said:

...the CBC, through their board of directors, has approved their 2015 plan. This is a plan that we support and have been pushing for and hoping that the CBC would implement for a long time. It is: staying in regions; digital technology; and protecting their mandate to ensure that it's all-Canadian programming.

Those are the three things that we wanted the CBC to do. They've done it with their 2015 plan. ...in the budget, they will have enough funding to deliver that plan.

That is the official government position on the CBC, and while it makes good talk, perhaps even—I don't want to use the word “fearmongering”—a good conversation piece to bring up with all deputants who come to the committee here, this is the official government position. Individual members can speak their minds and say what they like, but the government is very cognizant of the importance of Radio-Canada to the francophone community, and, quite frankly, the contribution of the CBC nationally from coast to coast to coast in Canada.

I want to make that very clear.

My question for you is as follows.

As you know, we are studying the Roadmap for Canada's Linguistic Duality. I would like to hear your comments on the roadmap specifically. Can you share with us some examples of the way in which the roadmap has helped your organization and the francophone community in Ontario?

[Yves Turbide]

Without a doubt, we are absolutely delighted with it. In terms of the roadmap, we endorse practically the entire presentation that the Fédération culturelle canadienne-française made to you last week. Clearly, because of the cultural development fund, the francophone community in Ontario, and in a wider sense, in Canada, has benefited from funds that were absolutely necessary.

In literature, we were a little surprised to see the national translation program for book publishing in the present roadmap. Although this is an excellent program and an excellent initiative, I do not believe that we formally asked for a translation program.

We support what the Fédération culturelle canadienne-française presented to you when they were here. That is, it would be very interesting, and very much appreciated, to see the establishment of a stream purely for arts and culture in the next roadmap. In that way, more attention could be paid to cultural development, to artistic infrastructure and to artists themselves by keeping artists present in a dynamic pool all across Canada, in cultural industries and in access to the arts.

The Association des auteures et auteurs de l'Ontario has benefited from several of the roadmap's programs. We were able to establish programs that have allowed our artists, writers and authors to reach out to the people, to become involved in community projects, to go and work with the people and to cultivate that appetite for literary creation. It has been absolutely vital for us.

I repeat that, having become aware of the presentation that the Fédération culturelle canadienne-française made, we endorse it. We feel that the roadmap should have an arts and culture stream.

[Costas Menegakis, Conservative, Richmond Hill, ON]

Thank you.

Mr. Chair, seeing that it's almost 10:30 and we have a lot of business to discuss, I move that we go in camera for our next meeting.

[The Chair, Conservative, Michael Chong]

The motion is in order.

[Yvon Godin, NDP, Acadie—Bathurst, NB]

A point of order, Mr. Chair.

[The Chair, Conservative, Michael Chong]

There's no point of order.

I'm going to call the vote on it because that's procedurally the correct thing to do.

I want to thank members of the—

[Yvon Godin, NDP, Acadie—Bathurst, NB]

Mr. Chair…

[The Chair, Conservative, Michael Chong]

I have the floor, Mr. Godin.

[Yvon Godin, NDP, Acadie—Bathurst, NB]

I know that you have the floor, but you are taking away all our democratic rights. This is the worst Parliament I have ever seen in 14 years.

[The Chair, Conservative, Michael Chong]

All those in favour of the motion will please—

[Mauril Bélanger, Liberal, Ottawa—Vanier, ON]

I ask for a recorded vote.

[The Chair, Conservative, Michael Chong]

I'll pass the floor to the clerk for a formal recorded vote.

(Motion agreed to: yeas 6; nays 5)

[The Chair, Conservative, Michael Chong]

We'll suspend for two minutes to allow our witnesses to depart.

I want to thank our witnesses for their presentations and their testimony. Thank you very much.

[Jean Fahmy]

Our thanks to everyone, Mr. Chair. It has been a pleasure and an honour.

[The Chair, Conservative, Michael Chong]

We are suspended.

[Proceedings continue in camera]