Good morning Mr. Chair and committee members.
I would like to begin by thanking you for inviting the Fédération des communautés francophones et acadienne du Canada to appear before the committee during its study of the 150th anniversary celebrations of Canadian Confederation in 2017. I am always happy to have the opportunity to speak to you.
According to the latest information from the 2011 Census, I am here today on behalf of not 2.5 million, but 2.6 million French-speaking citizens living in nine provinces and three territories. I will share some ideas about how we can make this celebration an event that defines a generation.
This is the second time this year that we have had the privilege of discussing this issue with parliamentarians. The FCFA appeared before your colleagues on the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage earlier this year during its study of the 150th anniversary celebrations. We have reviewed that committee's recommendations, and I will come back to them later in my presentation.
By way of introduction, let me read you a quote:
...Canada is the country it is today because we have learned to accept our differences, to celebrate them, to gain strength from them, but also sometimes to see past them, to our shared values and our common aspirations, freedom, democracy, justice for all individuals and for all communities.
These words were spoken by the Prime Minister of Canada during a speech in Beaubassin on August 29.
Those words distill the essence of the FCFA's vision for the 150th anniversary celebrations: a vision of sharing, exchange and dialogue that highlights the importance of seizing every opportunity to strengthen ties between all of Canada's constituent parts.
Indeed, while linguistic duality and cultural diversity are now widely recognized by the government and Canadians as values that define our nation and society, opportunities for dialogue and exchange between the various communities remain limited. It often seems that Canadian society consists of groups that, owing to distance or different backgrounds, do not have the chance to talk to each other and understand each other.
Consider the media coverage and public debate about last week's publication of linguistic data from the 2011 Census. Canadians may recognize the value of linguistic duality, but their interpretations of it differ considerably. Some claim that the new bilingualism is English plus one of the many languages spoken by immigrants to Canada. Others believe that French is for Quebec and English is for everywhere else, period. It is easy for them to overlook the 2.6 million francophones living in nine provinces and three territories.
We believe that one of the goals of the 150th anniversary celebrations must be to restore Canadians’ desire to learn about each other and to move forward together. We want to be able to say in 2017 that all segments of Canadian society took the time to learn about each other, talk to each other and recognize each other as fellow Canadians while respecting their respective differences. This is not just a desirable outcome; it is of tremendous value for the growth and development of a country like ours.
For Francophone and Acadian communities, this would mean finally being seen as more than just minorities and instead being seen as distinct Canadian communities. This would mean that people would understand once and for all that French-speaking and English-speaking Canadians have equal language rights and that this equality benefits all of Canada.
Those are the key principles. Now let us look at how to put them into practice.
Dialogue and exchange initiatives that target youth have a particularly significant impact. Our communities know something about this: we need only look at the success stories of the Acadian Games, Jeux de la francophonie canadienne or youth parliaments organized by the Fédération de la jeunesse canadienne-française. We recommended to the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage that these initiatives be used as models for establishing large-scale events that would enable youth from francophone, anglophone, aboriginal and ethnocultural communities to meet and experience Canada’s defining values together. Today, we are reiterating that recommendation.
Another way to help young people discover their country would be to foster greater mobility among post-secondary students through joint federal-provincial and territorial initiatives. We are not the first to have noticed that it can be easier for an Ontario university student to study abroad than in Quebec, and vice versa. Initiatives that foster student mobility would be launched during the 2016-17 school year and continue in future years, becoming a tangible legacy of the 150th anniversary celebrations. Not only would these initiatives enable young people to learn about how other Canadians live, they would also support second language acquisition and an understanding of the value of Canada's linguistic duality.
More generally, as the 150th anniversary of Confederation approaches, the Government of Canada could make it easier for more Canadians to learn a second official language by investing more in immersion programs, which, as we know, are struggling to meet ever-growing demand. A government that wants to highlight the entire history of Canada should make it a priority to celebrate the pact between its two founding peoples and two founding languages by striving to work with the provinces and territories to eliminate waiting lists for those who wish to learn one of these two languages.
In addition, the FCFA notes that your colleagues on the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage included in their report a recommendation to increase co-operation among local museums to create and promote exhibits about Canada’s 150th anniversary. We recommend that this increased co-operation extend beyond museums to heritage and historical organizations, enabling them to forge links and work on joint projects that involve all communities. Such co-operation would promote intergenerational interaction, for example, giving seniors and youth the chance to share their thoughts on what it means to be Canadian.
These are some ideas that would make the 150th anniversary of Confederation an excellent opportunity to celebrate our shared values, including linguistic duality.
Finally, I would like to comment on the practical aspect, the mechanisms that will be implemented for the celebrations in 2017. The FCFA is delighted that the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage recommended that the government consult with all the different groups in society, including representatives of aboriginal peoples, ethnocultural communities and official language minority communities, regarding the future framework for the celebrations. It would be appropriate and helpful for the Standing Committee on Official Languages to formally endorse this recommendation.
The Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage also recommended that the government create an independent agency or corporation to plan, organize and implement the 150th anniversary celebrations. We believe it is essential that this entity be bilingual and that it include representatives of francophone and Acadian communities. From the very beginning, when the government unveils its plans for the 2017 celebrations, it must send a message that everything created, implemented, built or presented for or to the public will be bilingual. This includes museum exhibits, family activities, official ceremonies during events paid for by the Government of Canada and any tangible legacies of the 150th anniversary, such as monuments and buildings.
I would like to end my presentation with a somewhat more philosophical but nevertheless important recommendation. Many Canadians who experienced the celebrations of the centennial of Confederation in 1967 remember them still. I still have my little passport, in fact. I was very young then, but I still have my passport. This shows how successful these initiatives were; they touched people and brought them together. That is how high the bar has been set for 2017.
I recommend that this committee think big while preparing its report at the conclusion of this study. It is important to talk about the mechanisms and processes that should be in place, and I am sure that some of your recommendations will touch on that. However, the how must not obscure the why. We want to celebrate the 150th anniversary of Confederation because we want to rally Canadians around our common values and restore their desire to talk to and learn about each other, from one end of this vast country to the other. I hope that you—I hope that we—conceive of celebrations that can attain this goal.
Thank you. I am ready to take your questions.