Official Languages Committee on Nov. 1st, 2012

[Pierre Dionne Labelle, NDP, Rivière-du-Nord, QC]

That will not be the case for us, but for them, when they hit retirement.

I think the committee members—and I would say that includes you as well—are not representative of Canada as it is now, aside from Tyrone, who is obviously a member of a cultural community. We are talking about the link between young people, cultural communities, the Youth Parliament, and so on, and I think that there is something there. In terms of a legacy for future generations, I think it would be good to find 150 youth from various communities, preferably bilingual, and to let them organize the 150th anniversary. I would ask them how they envision the Canada of tomorrow. That would be fantastic.

[The Chair, Conservative, Michael Chong]

Thank you, Mr. Dionne Labelle.

Mr. Couture, go ahead.

[Alexis Couture]

That is not a bad idea. If you want to manage budgets, which will certainly be very large, you will also want some kind of technical support. At least I know that I would not want to manage them alone.

I would like to highlight the importance of being inclusive when planning something like this. I have heard a number of mentions of the idea of an independent organization managing the 150th anniversary. But if this organization has a board of directors, why not have youth representatives sit on it? As was mentioned, these would be youth representatives with important voices, and not young people who would be there simply because they are young.

[The Chair, Conservative, Michael Chong]

Thank you.

Ms. Bateman, you have two minutes.

[Joyce Bateman, Conservative, Winnipeg South Centre, MB]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, all of you, for coming today.

I have a question about the potential composition of a committee. What do you think the mandate and the composition of the committee should be?

We can perhaps start with Ms. Kenny.

[Marie-France Kenny]

As Alexis said, I think the composition should be representative.

[Joyce Bateman, Conservative, Winnipeg South Centre, MB]

Would it be made up of 30 people? Two people? How do you envision it?

[Marie-France Kenny]

It is difficult to answer that. We are talking about huge celebrations across Canada. However, I would say that there must absolutely be an anglophone member from Quebec, an anglophone member from outside Quebec, a francophone member from outside Quebec, young people, first nations members, Métis members and representatives from ethnocultural communities. So that is a dozen or so people. The goal would be to ensure that the various groups present in Canada, particularly young people and seniors, are represented on the committee.

[Joyce Bateman, Conservative, Winnipeg South Centre, MB]

Mr. Thompson, do you have a slightly different vision on that composition, or a different mandate or governance model?

What is your take on that?

[Stephen Thompson]

My understanding, Madam Bateman, was that the point of the study being undertaken by the language committee now is to ensure linguistic duality in the celebrations of the 150th anniversary of Confederation, so I don't think we have a comment to make on the full composition of whatever governance mechanism is put in place to manage the process. We just reiterate what has been said here today, which is that we certainly support our colleagues here at the table to ensure there is representation from Canada's official language minority communities, English and French. That would be our concern.

[Joyce Bateman, Conservative, Winnipeg South Centre, MB]

Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Michael Chong]

Thank you very much, Madame Bateman and Mr. Thompson.

We are finished our testimony. I want to thank the three groups and our six witnesses for appearing in front of us today. I think your testimony was quite helpful to us and to the analysts.

We have two items of business before we adjourn. We only have two minutes left in this meeting.

Our meeting scheduled for next Thursday has been cancelled, since the House of Commons has adopted a Friday schedule for Thursday.

We will simply meet on Tuesday of next week.

Second, we have a budget that must be adopted for this study. I understand it has been moved by Mr. Gourde.

It is for $23,200.

Is there any debate on the motion to adopt this budget?

Go ahead, Mr. Godin.

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

I would just like to know if that amount includes the committee report.

[The Chair, Conservative, Michael Chong]

Absolutely.

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

Is it included in the budget?

[The Chair, Conservative, Michael Chong]

Any time a committee adopts a study, it implies in parliamentary language that a report will be....

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

That's not my question. My question is, does this budget include the write-up of the report?

[The Chair, Conservative, Michael Chong]

Yes, it does.

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

It talks effectively about people coming in.

[The Chair, Conservative, Michael Chong]

Yes, it does.

Is there any further debate?

[Joyce Bateman, Conservative, Winnipeg South Centre, MB]

We do not have the time, do we?

[The Chair, Conservative, Michael Chong]

Please be very quick.

[Joyce Bateman, Conservative, Winnipeg South Centre, MB]

I would like to bring up something to consider in the future. I would like us to use our videoconferencing tools, since the government invested in this equipment. We have $18,000 for travel expenses, but it might be possible to reduce that amount by using videoconferencing.

[The Chair, Conservative, Michael Chong]

Okay, if it's the wish of the committee to do—

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

I have questions about that, but it would be too much.