Official Languages Committee on March 13th, 2012

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

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I want to come back to the 1991 accord. If I understood correctly, it has some effect on your ability to work with the anglophone community in Quebec.

[Peter Sylvester]

I would say that the accord does have an important role to play when it comes to how we deal with settlement services and selection of francophone immigrants in Quebec. Under the accord, responsibility for selection and for providing settlement services is assigned to Quebec. That significant part of the work is therefore handled by the province. That is why we limit ourselves mainly to research projects.

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

You undoubtedly know that there were amendments to the Official Languages Act in 2005. Do you know what they require from the department?

[Yves Saint-Germain]

The act says that we have to take positive measures to support the communities, whether they be anglophones in Quebec or francophones outside Quebec.

In the case of positive measures, CIC has approached the ministère de l'Immigration et des Communautés culturelles to resume the dialogue and have a discussion about needs. As well, we fund research projects, to determine the attraction and retention potential of the anglophone communities.

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

Would the department by any chance have requested an analysis or a legal opinion as to which one prevails, as between the Official Languages Act and the 1991 accord?

[Peter Sylvester]

The answer to that question is confidential.

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

Which do you think prevails? The Official Languages Act or the 1991 accord?

[Peter Sylvester]

I think the two laws are complementary. The two laws can be administered together. We work under the accord and the Official Languages Act.

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

How is it that you think you are obliged to go through the government of Quebec in order to assist the anglophone community? Is it because of the accord?

[Peter Sylvester]

Mr. Chair, I would not say we feel obliged to go through the ministère. We make an effort to work with our provincial colleagues. However, we have meetings with the Quebec Community Groups Network, for example. We work closely with them on research projects, as my colleague described quite well.

We have also tried to see whether there was an opening, at the provincial level, to be able to set up a committee that would be similar...

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

There still isn't one.

[Peter Sylvester]

There is no committee. We were met with a somewhat negative reception from the province. That does not mean that we are stopping at that response. We are going to explore other avenues.

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

Mr. Sylvester, if I understand correctly, there is nothing to prevent the department from creating one if it wanted.

[Peter Sylvester]

In my opinion, no, there is nothing to prevent us from creating a committee.

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

However, that option has not yet been adopted.

[Peter Sylvester]

I had an initial discussion with the QCGN in February. Its representatives raised the question and we are in fact in the process of considering how we could approach it.

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

We will follow that with interest.

How much time do I have left, Mr. Chair?

I would like to come back to the question of polarization. You do not seem to like the word. I would like to make sure that we agree on one thing at least.

The population outside Quebec is 4.4% francophone. Those people are spread across Canada. Francophones account for 1.5%, or perhaps 1.8%, of immigrants. The effect is to weaken the francophone community in relation to the anglophone community outside Quebec. Can we agree on that, at least?

[Peter Sylvester]

In terms of numbers, yes, that is undeniable.

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

Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Michael Chong]

Thank you, Mr. Bélanger.

I would like to thank all the members of the committee and all our witnesses for their testimony.

Thank you, everybody, for your questions and comments.

Thank you to our witnesses for appearing, and for the commentary and submissions. That will be valuable for our analyst as she prepares our draft report.

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

Mr. Chair, excuse me for interrupting you. We have five minutes left.

[The Chair, Conservative, Michael Chong]

The clock is not right. We do not have five minutes left. We have three minutes.

Right now the next turn is for the Conservatives.

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

If they do not want to use it, I have some questions to ask.

[The Chair, Conservative, Michael Chong]

Are there members who would like to ask any further questions?

You can ask a brief question, Mr. Menegakis.

[Costas Menegakis, Conservative, Richmond Hill, ON]

Absolutely. Thank you.

My question is for ACOA. I was interested to hear in your presentation—something that we knew, of course—that one-third of Canada's francophone minority community resides in the Atlantic region. Could you elaborate a little bit on the community involvement in your work? Do you work with the different francophone communities within the Atlantic region?