Official Languages Committee on March 13th, 2012

[Ray Boughen, Conservative, Palliser, SK]

If we still have a little time, Chair, the other question I have is on whether EDI has had an impact in any particular areas, such as tourism. Does it have a positive impact that you can share with us?

[Wade Aucoin]

I'm just going to find the information on this project, because it's an important one.

The two projects we did that I think had the greatest impact on tourism were the two biggest ones. Both of these were with the commission on Acadian tourism in Atlantic Canada, or, in French, the Commission du tourisme acadien du Canada atlantique. This commission was in place before the EDI. ACOA had been supporting it before this. The purpose of this commission is to support high-quality, experiential Acadian culture tourism products. We think the Acadian culture is a unique culture and we think people from all around the world should come and share it—

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

Yes.

[Voices]

Oh, oh!

[Wade Aucoin]

We supported two projects with the commission. The first one was to develop a strategy around five poles. The five poles were in southeast New Brunswick, southwest Nova Scotia, the Acadian peninsula, Cape Breton—my home area in Chéticamp and l'Île Madame—and the Evangeline region in Prince Edward Island. The first part was to establish a strategy around that. The second part was to hire coordinators to implement the strategy in those areas and to actually develop better products for those Acadian regions.

[The Chair, Conservative, Michael Chong]

Thank you.

Mr. Aubin, you have the floor.

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

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Good morning, Ms. Frenette, gentlemen. Welcome and thank you for your presentations, which will help us understand the subject a little better.

My first questions will be specifically for the representatives of Citizenship and Immigration Canada. In trying to grasp this issue, I was really a little surprised to see that on the report card released by the Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages you were given a "C" as your overall score, a "D" for service to the public and language of work, and a "C" for management of official languages within the department.

First, I know the report is a little dated, having been released in 2009-2010, but how do you explain this situation? Even more importantly, I imagine that you have taken measures to fix the problem. So what measures have been implemented and what results do you anticipate or have you already achieved?

[Peter Sylvester]

Thank you for your question.

I am also a newcomer to the department, and when I was assigned the role of official languages champion, I also checked the record. I noticed that the scores in our report card were lower than I might have hoped. I have also had an opportunity to see that a number of measures have been taken. One of the most important measures is to form a steering committee, which I now chair, within the department. The steering committee has also prepared an action plan with several focuses, to identify gaps in our performance and propose measures and initiatives to fill those gaps.

I also had the opportunity to meet with the Commissioner a few weeks after I was appointed, to ask him whether he saw that we had made progress. I think he was of the opinion that this was the case, because he had noted it, as I mentioned at the beginning, in my preliminary remarks, before I addressed the subject of Destination Canada.

Now, when it comes to current recruitment in the department, in terms of services, we have also had the opportunity to go over with the commissioner one of the issues that contributed to getting a score that was perhaps lower than was deserved. That related to the entire system of calls and answering, the Montreal call centre, which is staffed by bilingual personnel. All officers who answer the telephone are bilingual. I think that in the methodology used by the commissioner to score our performance, there may have been a misunderstanding about the nature of the call centre. After that discussion, correspondence was exchanged between the department and the OCOL to rectify that situation.

In short, we did identify areas where we have progress to make and we are in the process of focusing on those gaps in order to improve our performance.

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

Thank you.

I followed your presentation at the beginning of the meeting closely. It seemed to me, and I would like you to confirm or refute this, that there is a difference between how the francophone minority communities outside Quebec and the anglophone minority in Quebec approach things. In the presentation, for example, that seemed fairly clear.

When you talked about francophone communities outside Quebec, you said: "In terms of supporting francophone minority communities outside Quebec, CIC's approach is to increase..." There were action verbs and even references to concrete actions.

However, when you talked about the anglophone community in Quebec, we found ourselves in a kind of artistic cloud. You said: "In terms of Anglophone minority communities, ...CIC is exploring options for how it can best meet its obligations..."

First, could you tell me what proportion of funding is directed to the anglophone community in Quebec? Are there examples of investments or concrete projects that you could compare with the ones you described for the francophone communities?

[Peter Sylvester]

As you saw from my preliminary remarks, there is indeed a distinction to be made between the approach we take for Quebec and the one we take for the other provinces and territories. That is all a result of the Canada-Quebec Accord, which gives the province exclusive authority over the selection of immigrants and over settlement services, except in respect of refugees. So there is a large piece that falls to the province under that accord. We have to honour the commitments made in that accord.

Second, we have a good relationship with the Quebec Community Groups Network. I had an opportunity to meet with one of their representatives a few weeks ago to discuss options and the latitude we have for working with them. In money terms, it comes to $63,000 per year. Up to now, the focus has been on research projects. We help them to thoroughly analyze the anglophone minority communities in Quebec, so as to know a little more about their composition and to identify measures they might use to attract immigrants or people. The investment relates mainly to research projects.

[The Chair, Conservative, Michael Chong]

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Aubin.

We will take a short five-minute break.

[The Chair, Conservative, Michael Chong]

We are continuing the 31st meeting of the Standing Committee on Official Languages. We have nearly 45 minutes for questions and comments. We will begin with Mr. Menegakis.

Mr. Menegakis, you have the floor.

[Costas Menegakis, Conservative, Richmond Hill, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you for your testimony before us today.

As you know, we are studying the Roadmap for Linguistic Duality. The roadmap represents an investment of over $1 billion by our government. Your organizations are partners in the roadmap. It is interesting to hear you talk about the numerous opportunities the roadmap has made possible for your organizations.

Can you tell us what areas or programs you would like to be focused on if the roadmap were to be renewed after it expires in 2013?

[Denise Frenette]

The roadmap has allowed for a lot of success to be achieved. I think that if it is renewed and the same approaches are retained, that will have a great deal of potential.

However, if the roadmap were renewed, it would be desirable to initiate that kind of dialogue with the communities to determine whether some adjustments should be made. The results of the evaluation would be taken into account and we could review our approach to see whether there are improvements to be made.

That said, as was mentioned earlier, the results have been very positive. So we can see the potential results of this kind of initiative.

Mr. Aucoin, would you like to add something?

[Peter Sylvester]

Mr. Chair, to continue on from Ms. Frenette's comments, I will say that for our part, we are currently evaluating the programs we have implemented.

In terms of the steering committee, we hope to collaborate with our partners, including the FCFA, to do an assessment. I believe the implementation committee will be meeting in March and our next annual meeting is to be held in May. That will be the perfect opportunity for us to step back a little and review what has been accomplished, and think about what we would like to do if the roadmap were renewed.

I find it hard to imagine that no emphasis will be placed on settlement services, in particular. We know that this need has been clearly identified and that this aspect of our programs is very important, not only to attract new French-speaking Canadians to francophone minority communities, but also to retain them. I would hope that this important element will continue to be given due weight.

[Costas Menegakis, Conservative, Richmond Hill, ON]

Other witnesses have testified about how the road map has facilitated their interdepartmental communication. Would you care to comment on that? How has your organization—I'll start with ACOA, and then we'll go to CIC.

[Denise Frenette]

We already had a lot of structures in place around the official languages in terms of communication. That being said, there has been a specific focus on having tripartite communication around the road map and the focus, as well as with the use of our existing committee of RDÉE and ACOA, to tap into that well-functioning forum that allows for a good dialogue and ensures that we deliver the initiative as intended and achieve the results.

Wade.

[Wade Aucoin]

Mr. Chair, when you look at the funding sources from the 34 projects that we funded—and I must say, even the ones that we did not fund—other federal departments were always involved, either eventually as a funding partner or with whom we had some concerns when we were evaluating. We took those into account and in the end decided not to fund them.

I would say that the economic development initiative, given the variety of things that it funded and the wide range of funding sources, as we said—I talked about the leveraging, and other federal departments were involved in that—definitely it increased our collaboration with them. We already talked about the collaboration we had with Citizenship and Immigration, which I think is a very good model. So I think we should pursue that and strengthen that in future.

[Peter Sylvester]

Mr. Chair, we focused on three broad areas under the road map. We've talked about recruitment and promotion, but the other one speaks to the member's question, and that is the mechanisms we've put in place to ensure there is good coordination and fairly regular and sustained communication between the various actors in this field. As you know, many partnerships are necessary. So the primary vehicle would be the steering committee, but there is also the implementation committee, which brings together representatives from multiple federal departments, the provincial government, and employer reps, etc. There are 50 members on the steering committee.

[The Chair, Conservative, Michael Chong]

Thank you, Mr. Menegakis and Mr. Sylvester.

And now it is your turn, Ms. Michaud.

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

I would like to welcome you and thank you for your presentations.

My first questions are for the representatives of ACOA.

I would like to come back to what my colleague, Mr. Godin, said a little earlier, primarily regarding the investments made or projects carried out in Newfoundland and Labrador. We did not have time to finish that question.

Could you tell us about the projects underway in Newfoundland and Labrador, and if there are any problems there, give us more detail?

[Wade Aucoin]

In terms of the EDI, I am personally very proud of the projects submitted by the francophone community in Newfoundland and Labrador. Five of the 34 EDI projects we received, 15% of the total, were from Newfoundland and Labrador. I can tell you about some of them.

There is the Association régionale de la côte Ouest, which submitted an application to us. Its representatives really wanted to upload all of their region's folklore, whether it be songs, history, all that, to make it more accessible to people who come to visit their region. So that may become a tourist attraction.

There is also the Fédération des francophones de Terre-Neuve et du Labrador, which wanted to expand the capacity of its community radio station. We know that for francophone minorities, community radio stations are very important; the same thing was done in Halifax. The federation wanted the St. John's community radio station to be able to reach other francophone communities in Newfoundland and Labrador. So we funded it.

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

Since I do not have a lot of time, I am going to interrupt you. You have given a few examples now.

So there are some projects underway. What is the approximate amount of the investments made in Newfoundland and Labrador?

[Wade Aucoin]

That is a good question. I am going to try to do a quick calculation.

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

Right. I am going to ask your colleague another question while we wait for you to find the answer. I am going to try to make the most of my time.

When you provided the information to us, one of the things you told us was that the agency had chosen to withhold about $500,000 to cover operating and maintenance costs, leaving a grand total of $5.7 million for contributions.

Can you give us a little more detail about what the $500,000 was used for, exactly?