Official Languages Committee on March 6th, 2012

[The Chair, Conservative, Michael Chong]

Thank you.

Mr. Weston, go ahead, please.

[John Weston, Conservative, West Vancouver—Sunshine Coast—Sea to Sky Country, BC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thanks to our witnesses for being with us here today.

A number of themes have been discussed today, including the north and job creation. Here we are constantly thinking about the future of official languages in Canada.

Let's put ourselves in the shoes of a youth of 10 or 12, for example. Based on your experience in the north, what advice could you give that person? Do you believe it's worth the trouble for someone who is thinking about future to learn a second language, whether it's English or French? The north is our future, as we often say. Do young Canadians in the north believe that can work, that it's worth the trouble.

Mr. Robillard may answer my question first, then Mr. Davies.

[Michel Robillard]

I would like to talk about my personal experience. I have two young children. My daughter is quadrilingual; she speaks English, French, Polish and Spanish, and I don't need to tell her to learn a second language. We don't need to tell the young generation to learn a second language. Young people do it themselves because they are citizens of the world. Young people today know very well that they must be proficient in at least one or two languages in order to get along in the nearly borderless world we live in.

Youth who live in the high north, who are open to what is going on and who have means of communication, such as the Internet and so on, know very well that the world will open up to them if they are proficient in two or three languages, whether it be Spanish, English, French or, increasingly, Mandarin. These are increasingly useful languages. And I find it hard to see how I could try to advise young people. I can give them advice, such as that official languages are important.

Having lived in Europe for a number of years and seen that English and French are the two official languages normally spoken in all international institutions, I can see that being able to speak them is, in my opinion, a competitive edge.

This enables us not only to open up and to learn another language, but also to understand the culture. Language is what we are and is therefore also very cultural. When we are proficient in two or more languages, we can not only communicate, we are also able to better understand the culture of the other linguistic communities. So I believe that young people today are very open to learning a second language. You need only see the increasingly pronounced interest in immersion classes, both English and French. Increasingly…

[John Weston, Conservative, West Vancouver—Sunshine Coast—Sea to Sky Country, BC]

There are a lot of them in the north.

[Michel Robillard]

Yes. I know there are immersion schools in Yukon. I believe that people have taken that intellectual step and that the young generation is already engaged in learning a second and even a third official language.

[Mitch Davies]

One of the objectives of the economic development initiative is to take economic advantage of our linguistic reality. One of the components of the initiative is definitely to treat linguistic duality as an economic advantage for projects. At FedNor, we have a lot of examples of internship projects to enable young people to get a job in their community by working on a project funded by the economic development initiative program. This is a concrete example of a measure created to retain people in their community. According to the figures, this is one of the biggest challenges. The idea is to keep people in the economy because communities are strong when they have access to more young people.

Perhaps Mr. Dimatteo would like to talk about projects for interns because we've had a lot of them since the program was launched.

[The Chair, Conservative, Michael Chong]

All right, thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Weston.

Mr. Aubin, go ahead, please

[Robert Aubin, NDP, Trois-Rivières, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Welcome, everyone. Thank you for being here with us and thank you for your presentations.

My questions will be mainly for Mr. Robineau and Mr. Robillard. I assume that the fact that we are asking you so many questions must be symptomatic of the entire Canadian population's attraction to the north. I haven't yet had the opportunity to go there, and I still hope we will complete our study on the north by visiting the official language communities there.

First of all, I'm going to ask a few questions on the figures appearing in the roadmap. Your organization, which was founded in 2009, receives $400,000. Is that in fact the case? Do you consider that amount reasonable? In your opinion, does this mean that you are underfunded in view of your needs and what they actually cost? I suppose that, if the cost of living is twice as high in the north, carrying out activities there cannot be cheap either.

When I look at the expenditures column in particular, I see that there were no expenses in 2009-2010, but that's normal since your organization had just been established. We give you the time to get started. In 2011, you spent approximately $100,000. Do you believe you will exhaust your budget, that you will lack money or that you will have a surplus this year?

[Michel Robillard]

With regard to funding, we have received $400,000. We work with the money that is given to us. As I said earlier, the advantage is that we can use it to leverage other grants. We spent $100,000 in 2011; we also spent $100,000 in 2011-2012; and the same amount will be spent in 2012-2013. The $400,000 from the EDI will have been spent at the end of the roadmap.

We also invested $1.45 million under the SINED programs, for a total of $1.85 million in support of the francophone communities. I believe our francophone communities are adequately funded for the moment, in view of the number of projects under way. Some will not terminate until 2012-2013. As I mentioned, there are nine quite important projects. We can always spend more, but we also have to take into account the agency's capacity and the capacity available in the field.

[Robert Aubin, NDP, Trois-Rivières, QC]

Thank you.

I was very pleased to get page 15, by the way. The rest of the presentation made me think of what is on your website, which I consulted.

We are talking about the results of the roadmap 2008-2013. I imagine that this refers to the objectives set and that it is one way of clarifying the objectives you want to achieve. I note the following sentence: "…development of new expertise through innovation…" Personally, I understand absolutely nothing there. I continue: "…diversification of economic activities, partnerships, and increased support of small businesses."

The end of the paragraph is quite clear, but the start is like Chinese to me, or Inuit, in this case. I don't really know.

Could you give me an example that would enable us to understand what "development of new expertise through innovation" actually means?

[Michel Robillard]

Yes, absolutely. The current SINED program, which I was discussing earlier, is the second one. There was another one between 2004 and 2008, and it was renewed in 2008, when the pan-territorial fund was added. Thus we have funding that enables us to innovate by ensuring that the northern communities work together. The three territories are different, but they also have a lot of similarities and often face the same challenges. Here's an example of innovation. We had the three francophone associations that form Table 867 work together and develop plan-territorial strategic planning. In the context of that planning, we determined with those people which projects would be priorities in the coming years and in which projects we wanted to invest to support the francophone communities.

[Robert Aubin, NDP, Trois-Rivières, QC]

I see the connection. Thank you.

I know that your organization is still young, but, based on that specific example, I would like to know whether you have had the time to establish performance indicators for the linguistic minority communities.

[Michel Robillard]

In the case of EDI, performance indicators are provided by Industry Canada. We provide information such as the number and type of projects, impact and so on.

As I mentioned earlier, in the case of each project that we fund for a community, whether it be a francophone, first nations or Inuit community, our contribution documents contain performance indicators that we want to see met. For example, if the idea is to measure such and such an aspect, the reports that the communities submit to us contain indicators about which it is important to have information. That is part of the contributions. Under the EDI, the performance indicators are provided to us by Industry Canada. We regularly supply information that Industry Canada requests from us to contribute to the evaluation of the roadmap.

[Robert Aubin, NDP, Trois-Rivières, QC]

A lot of people will go and live in the north for some time and subsequently come back. Are there any projects specifically designed to retain or better serve that population?

[Michel Robillard]

When we worked on the northern adult basic education program, I saw that the francophone population was highly educated. So the high north attracts a lot of high-quality people.

As I said, what will make people stay is the presence of strong communities. People can find good jobs there and a developing economy. People are attracted there not only because the communities are economically well supported, but also because they support francophones and enable them to exchange. I think that's a decisive factor.

I lived in Iqaluit for two years before returning to Ottawa. I was a member of the francophone community and felt very good there because it is so very active culturally. There are francophone schools. For example, when francophones held cultural events, the Inuit and anglophones went to them. Those communities have a lot of similarities, particularly because they are very tightly interwoven. Consequently, people have been living there for many years and want to continue living there. They attract a lot of new francophones every year, and that's because there is financial, cultural and institutional support.

[The Chair, Conservative, Michael Chong]

Thank you.

We will suspend for five minutes.

[The Chair, Conservative, Michael Chong]

Let's continue this 29th meeting of the Standing Committee on Official Languages.

Mr. Menegakis now has the floor.

[Costas Menegakis, Conservative, Richmond Hill, ON]

Good morning, and welcome. I want to thank you very much for joining us today, and certainly for your informative presentations and responses to the questions so far.

As you know, the road map is a very important initiative of our government. It represents a billion dollar investment, which is why we are studying it now—we are about 60% in—so we can assess its impact on the community across the country, and at the same time get some ideas and hear directly from the users of the road map, as well as our partners, on what they would like to see moving forward with the road map.

Today, we have two groups here, both of you, that are direct partners. Industry Canada is a partner. Your organization is a partner through Health Canada. It's important that we hear how you feel the road map has worked so far, and whether you would like to see its continuation after it expires in 2013, and what you would like to see moving forward. Perhaps, as part of that question, you can tell us a little about what it was like before the road map—I know it's difficult for your organization to answer because you weren't there before—and what opportunities the road map has provided that you didn't have before to promote linguistic duality in our nation. Would you care to start?

[Mitch Davies]

Thank you for the question.

I'll pick up on the last point in the question, which I also addressed in the opening remarks. In particular, the advice from Mr. Lord, in terms of establishing the road map, was that the economic development activities under the strategy be driven by community needs and be well informed by local needs based on working closely with the communities. I think that's, in part, the key to how the economic development initiative has turned out. Each of the agencies has an existing field staff network and infrastructure to deliver economic development programming. They have then been brought in much closer contact with the official language minority communities in their own jurisdictions. This has been a great success, and we see it through our direct role in it, since FedNor, as part of Industry Canada, is directly involved.

We have projects through the economic development initiative in each of the 32 francophone minority communities in northern Ontario. The reach is there, and the level of consultation by the agencies and us nationally has been very rich. I think this part of the initiative has been key, in terms of orienting the economic development activities to the local level, in developing a close understanding of what those needs are so that they can develop projects that really meet those needs. Again, those are the springboard projects that often lead us to do other initiatives, through our regular programming, through regional agencies. So there's a leverage effect of the economic development initiative financing with the other financing that regional agencies already have available. That's been quite important in the road map.

In terms of the future of the initiative, again, we'll work on the evaluations that are under way. We've recently received the evaluation of the FedNor part, and it was quite positive in its report on the impact and efficiency of the program delivery. We will see the total of all the agency evaluations and will put those together in an overall package for Canadian Heritage. I think the evidence will guide which options on the future of the initiative will be put before ministers for their consideration.

We also undertake consultation. National consultations, this fall, are being considered to engage with communities on the future of the initiative to ensure that their interests and needs are well understood by the federal players who will have a role in influencing the future direction.

In terms of our personal view, obviously we'll work with our respective ministers to advise them on what evidence we have on the success of the program. We will bring together the economic analysis we have put together through the national research program. That will inform the future direction of the initiative.

[The Chair, Conservative, Michael Chong]

Mr. Robillard, do you have something to add?

[Michel Robillard]

Yes. In fact, I would like to discuss what my colleague Mitch just said. CanNor has been in existence for only two years. However, I know that the funding received through the economic development initiative is important for francophone communities.

I also think it's interesting that this is being done through regional economic development agencies. They

are part of the fabric of the region, and because of that, we understand the reality, the problem, and the challenges. We have a good network of key partners. I think that's a plus, from my perspective.

[The Chair, Conservative, Michael Chong]

Thank you very much, Mr. Menegakis.

Madame Michaud.

[Élaine Michaud, NDP, Portneuf—Jacques-Cartier, QC]

Thank you very much.

Thank you all for your presentations, which are highly instructive and will be very useful in our current analysis. My questions will mainly be for the Industry Canada people.

Since you are responsible for spearheading various regional development initiatives, can you tell us a little more about the mechanisms—if any—planned to ensure accountability for all roadmap funding recipients?

[Lisa Setlakwe]

We have some mechanisms. We meet the officials from all the agencies in person. We are the ones coordinating the evaluation. As far as possible, we try to establish similar processes and questions so that we can establish a form of reporting that ultimately constitutes a good summary.

[Élaine Michaud, NDP, Portneuf—Jacques-Cartier, QC]

Will you be determining the evaluation criteria for the reporting purposes of all the agencies? If not, is each agency responsible for its own evaluation, and do you subsequently coordinate a more comprehensive analysis?