Evidence of meeting #26 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 roadmap.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Liberal
Mauril Bélanger Liberal Ottawa—Vanier, ON
When was the decision not to hold formal consultations made? I'm talking about the renewal.
Senior Director, Official Languages Secretariat, Department of Canadian Heritage
It was in looking at the progress of the committee's work, the testimonies. We're running a little behind. Before the holidays, we looked at it and asked ourselves how we could best bring together a consultation exercise. We are already arranging everything I spoke about earlier, and I'm not going to go over it again. So how to best articulate our formal mechanism…
Liberal
Mauril Bélanger Liberal Ottawa—Vanier, ON
Mr. Gauthier, I'm going to interrupt. As you may have noticed, my questions were short. I'd like your answers to be short as well, if you don't mind.
Senior Director, Official Languages Secretariat, Department of Canadian Heritage
Okay. I am just trying to give you the best information I can. I will keep things shorter.
Basically, the decision was made a little before Christmas and I informed the communities directly so that they would not be surprised when they came back from holidays.
Senior Director, Official Languages Secretariat, Department of Canadian Heritage
Basically—
Liberal
Mauril Bélanger Liberal Ottawa—Vanier, ON
Do you agree that consultations require a degree of professionalism?
Senior Director, Official Languages Secretariat, Department of Canadian Heritage
Yes, of course.
Liberal
Mauril Bélanger Liberal Ottawa—Vanier, ON
Do you think that we have the training to hold consultations?
Senior Director, Official Languages Secretariat, Department of Canadian Heritage
Well—
Liberal
Mauril Bélanger Liberal Ottawa—Vanier, ON
Do you think that holding consultations is part of the committee's mandate?
Senior Director, Official Languages Secretariat, Department of Canadian Heritage
I think that the committee is fulfilling its mandate by conducting this study.
Liberal
Mauril Bélanger Liberal Ottawa—Vanier, ON
No, I want to know if, in your opinion, we have the mandate to hold consultations.
Senior Director, Official Languages Secretariat, Department of Canadian Heritage
The committee can give itself the mandate it wants. The witnesses that you hear from—
Liberal
Mauril Bélanger Liberal Ottawa—Vanier, ON
With all due respect, Mr. Gauthier, the mandate that the committee took on, as I recall, did not include holding consultations for the secretariat.
Senior Director, Official Languages Secretariat, Department of Canadian Heritage
I quite agree.
Liberal
Mauril Bélanger Liberal Ottawa—Vanier, ON
So you unilaterally decided to use what we had done as official consultations and not hold any yourselves. Is that correct?
Senior Director, Official Languages Secretariat, Department of Canadian Heritage
Yes, we decided to take advantage of the testimony that you were gathering and use it to provide us with information.
Liberal
Mauril Bélanger Liberal Ottawa—Vanier, ON
You were eavesdropping. So when you do that, do you warn people? Do you tell them that is the equivalent of an official consultation? Can you prove that?
Senior Director, Official Languages Secretariat, Department of Canadian Heritage
Yes. To make sure that it was clear, I spoke to people from two key organizations whose members appeared before you.
Liberal
Senior Director, Official Languages Secretariat, Department of Canadian Heritage
Really? How so?
Liberal
Mauril Bélanger Liberal Ottawa—Vanier, ON
The act requires that consultations be held. It does not require that the committee hold your consultations for you.
Senior Director, Official Languages Secretariat, Department of Canadian Heritage
There are no requirements in the act about the form the consultations take. A lot of consultations were held, whether here or in other meetings.
Liberal
Mauril Bélanger Liberal Ottawa—Vanier, ON
Mr. Gauthier, I find it absolutely deplorable that the department made that decision unilaterally. Questions here are asked in a highly political atmosphere. You could see that last autumn. Most of the questions I asked then dealt with Radio-Canada. What does that have to do with the Roadmap? You propose to interpret that testimony and those questions as if they were official consultations about the renewal of the Roadmap. Do you think that is reasonable?