Official Languages Committee on Feb. 28th, 2012

[Jean-Pierre Corbeil]

We are conducting more and more studies on that subject. As you know, in 2001, the Canadian census, for the first time, included two questions on languages used at work. We are currently studying—

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

I'll interrupt you because I want to add a brief question. How do you go about reaching people who are on job sites? They arrive by aircraft on a landing strip in Fort McMurray, Alberta. They have no telephone. How can the Statistics Canada people determine the language spoken by those workers? How do they take their tests?

[Jean-Pierre Corbeil]

If we can't reach people by telephone, we nevertheless have census officers in the field. We identify all the places where people are. We can count people even in Fort McMurray.

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

You say that Statistics Canada people go onto the job sites in Fort McMurray to see what people work there, whereas women from my constituency can't get cleaning jobs in Alberta. And yet people from other countries who speak neither English or nor French have cleaning jobs because they don't need to speak either of those languages. They are there, but the others are not. Are you going to check on the job sites what language is being spoken by the workers?

[Jean-Pierre Corbeil]

The purpose of the census is to enumerate the entire Canadian population. In every census, of course, there is undercoverage or overcoverage. However, the aim is to enumerate all Canadians, regardless of where they work in the country.

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

These aren't Canadians; they are foreign workers and they aren't registered.

[Jean-Pierre Corbeil]

These are people who are in our country. We are therefore in a position—

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

Could you give us the statistics on the camps in Fort McMurray, Alberta.

[Jean-Pierre Corbeil]

We will try to see what we can do about that.

[The Chair, Conservative, Michael Chong]

Okay, thank you. You can give it to the clerk, as I've asked the other departments to do.

Monsieur Bélanger.

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

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Mr. Corbeil, thank you for your presentation and its rigorous approach.

My first questions concern the Department of Canadian Heritage. Representatives from that department appeared before us a few weeks ago, and they told us once again that we were doing their job. They also said they could not give us any vital statistics for the purpose of evaluating the action plan or roadmap. In fact, the issue of education was central to those two government initiatives. That concerned francophones and second-language learning.

When I asked them what the percentage of rights holders was after nine years of the action plan and roadmap, they did not have any statistics.

Are there any at Statistics Canada?

[Jean-Pierre Corbeil]

As you are no doubt aware, the only statistics we have on that subject are taken from the Survey on the Vitality of Official-Language Minorities. In the fall of 2006, we observed that 56% of children of rights holder parents were attending a French-language school and that 15% were in an immersion program at an English-language school, which yielded a total of 71%. That's what we had in the fall of 2006.

As for the data we have on bilingualism among young Canadians, we do not have the 2011 figures. They will be released on October 24. We also found that, between 2001 and 2006, there was an increase of 78,000 young people who were able to speak both languages in Canada.

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

We'll see where we stand in October.

You troubled me a little this morning. You said there was a three-percentage-point decline in French second language learning, from 16.3% to 13% for youths 15 to 19 years of age. That is a three-point drop, but a 30% drop. The roadmap was supposed to double the number of youths. We are not doubling; we are declining. You are confirming all that for us.

[Jean-Pierre Corbeil]

That is correct.

In fact, it is interesting to see that there is a decline. We observed that there had been a decline since 1996. The calculation is done for a 10-year period. Indeed, among youths 15 to 19 years of age, whose mother tongue is English—

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

I believe we've just answered Mr. Trottier's question in which he insinuated that we do not need another roadmap.

On Mr. Williamson's questions on the immigration aspect—and I thank him for raising them—would you, sir, agree with the statement that tendencies in a population, be it migration or immigration, have to be evaluated over a fairly lengthy period of time in order to establish if it's a real trend or not?

[The Chair, Conservative, Michael Chong]

Thank you very much, Mr. Bélanger.

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

That's it?

[The Chair, Conservative, Michael Chong]

Yes.

You can go ahead and answer the question.

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

I thought I had five minutes, Mr. Chairman.

[The Chair, Conservative, Michael Chong]

Well, we're running up against—

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

You promised me five minutes.

[The Chair, Conservative, Michael Chong]

I did promise you five minutes, but unfortunately I miscalculated the time.

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

So I'm the victim of your miscalculation.

[The Chair, Conservative, Michael Chong]

Unfortunately, you are. But I will allow Mr. Corbeil to answer the question.

[Jean-Pierre Corbeil]

My answer will be quick.

Every year Canada receives something slightly under twice the population of P.E.I. in terms of immigration. Obviously, over a five-year period we're talking about one million people. So for sure we need over—