Official Languages Committee on Nov. 20th, 2012

[The Chair, Conservative, Michael Chong]

Welcome to the 60th meeting of the Standing Committee on Official Languages. Today is Tuesday, November 20, 2012. Pursuant to Standing Order 108(3), today we are going to study the issue of linguistic duality during the 150th anniversary celebrations of Canadian Confederation in 2017.

Today we will hear from four groups, including Mr. Corbeil and Mr. Nault from Statistics Canada. Welcome.

We also have Ms. Hylland and Mr. Kenny, of the Canada Games Council.

Also joining us is Mr. Wilson-Smith from the Historica-Dominion Institute.

We are also expecting Mr. Jedwab and Madame Perrone, from the Association for Canadian Studies. I'm not sure when they'll be arriving; the clerk is looking into that.

Nevertheless, we have three of our groups here, and we'll begin with an opening statement from Statistics Canada.

[Jean-Pierre Corbeil, Chief Specialist, Language Statistics Section, Statistics Canada]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I would like to thank the members of the committee for inviting Statistics Canada to appear before you to provide input to your reflection on the evolution of linguistic duality as we approach the 150th anniversary of Canada’s Confederation in 2017.

As you know, on October 24th, Statistics Canada released the language results from the 2011 Census of Population. That release highlighted two key elements of Canada’s linguistic portrait—the country’s linguistic diversity and duality.

Canada’s linguistic diversity is illustrated by the fact that more than 200 languages were reported as a home language or mother tongue in the 2011 Census of Population. The country’s linguistic duality is reflected in the fact that 98% of its population reported that it was able to conduct a conversation in either English or French. Similarly, either English or French are spoken at least on a regular basis at home in Canada by 94% of the population and are spoken most often at home by 89% of the population.

I would like to point out that during the 1871 census, only four years after the creation of the Canadian Confederation, Canada’s total population—based on the current territory—was about 3.8 million people. At that time, no question on language was asked in the census but we know that about 62% of the country’s population was comprised of people of British origin, 29% of French origin and 9% of other origins, including Amerindian.

In 2011, 140 years later, 20.6% of the Canadian population, or 6.8 million people, reported having a language other than English or French as their mother tongue, that is, as the language first learned at home during childhood and still understood at the time of the census. Among this population, native languages were reported by just over 213,000 people. In comparison, English was the mother tongue of 57.8% of the population, and French was the mother tongue of 21.7% of the population. As for the languages spoken most often at home, 66.3% of the population reported speaking English, 21% French and 12.6% a language other than the country’s two official languages.

Although the demographic weight of the population with a mother tongue other than English or French is almost identical to that of the French mother-tongue population, this group consists of more than 200 languages and is therefore far from homogeneous. In fact, the language reported most often as a mother tongue is Punjabi, a language reported by 460,000 people, or 1.4% of the Canadian population.

Among the other language groups in 2011 with a population of more than 300,000 people are Chinese, Spanish, Italian, German, Cantonese, Tagalog—a language from the Philippines—and Arabic.

More than 80% of the population that reported speaking an immigrant language most often at home lived in one of Canada’s six major metropolitan areas—namely, Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, and Ottawa-Gatineau.

While Canada is increasingly diversified linguistically, its two official languages, French and, to a greater extent, English, exert a strong pull as languages of convergence and integration into Canadian society, especially as languages of work, education, and the provision of government services to the public.

The two official languages also exert an influence on the languages spoken at home. In 2011, of the roughly 6.6 million Canadians who reported speaking a language other than English or French at home, 68% reported also speaking English or French most often or regularly.

In addition, although the proportion of the Canadian population that reported speaking only English or French at home is decreasing, mainly due to the growth in international immigration, the proportion that reported speaking English or French in combination with a non-official language is on the rise. In 2011, 17.3% of Canadians reported speaking an official language in combination with a non-official language, up from 12.8% 10 years earlier.

Although linguistic duality is at the heart of Canada’s linguistic dynamic, the 2011 census data show that the influence exerted by English and French varies from region to region across the country.

While the demographic weight of persons speaking English at home or having English as their first official language is on the rise, that of the population speaking French at home or for whom this language is the first official language continues to decrease.

In the past 30 years, between 1981 and 2011, the Canadian population has increased nearly 38%. By comparison, the population whose mother tongue is French grew 16%. The population with French as the language spoken most often at home or as first official language spoken increased by 17.6% and 21.3% respectively.

In the past 30 years, the growth in the population who have reported being able to conduct a conversation in French, that is, 30%, was the most similar to the growth of the overall Canadian population, which was 37.5%. During this period, this population increased from about 7.7 million to about 10 million people.

The evolution of French and the francophonie in Canada can be explained by a number of factors. Aside from a low fertility rate and, outside Quebec, incomplete transmission of French as a mother tongue to the children of French-speaking parents, international immigration has the strongest effect on the evolution of French in Canada. On average, over the last 20 years, roughly 235,000 new immigrants have come to Canada each year, more than 80% of whom have neither English nor French as their mother tongue.

In general, of the country’s two official languages, a large majority of these immigrants know only English and use it at work and in their daily lives. Accordingly, over time it is usually English that is used in the homes of immigrants outside Quebec. Of the some 200,000 immigrants who settle outside Quebec each year, slightly less than 2% have French as their first official language spoken.

In Quebec, French has also experienced a decline in its demographic weight as mother tongue and language spoken most often at home. In contrast, the portion of the population having French as its first official language spoken in that province has remained relatively stable, a factor attributable to the fact that a growing number of people with an immigrant mother tongue tend to adopt French as the language of use in the private and public spheres. As to the relative share of English in this province, it has increased slightly or remained stable as mother tongue, home language, or first official language spoken.

We have mentioned that linguistic duality in Canada is illustrated by the fact that 98% of the population reported being able to conduct a conversation in English or French. We should mention that in 2011 the share of the population that reported being able to conduct a conversation in French was 30.1%, down from the 30.7% in 2006. In contrast, the percentage of the population that reported being able to speak English was 85.6% in 2011, up from 85.1% in 2006.

Linguistic duality is also expressed by the self-reported ability to speak both of the country’s official languages. Between 2006 and 2011, the number of persons who reported that they were able to conduct a conversation in both of Canada’s official languages increased by nearly 350,000 people to 5.8 million. The English-French bilingualism rate within the overall population went from 17.4% to 17.5%. This growth of English-French bilingualism in Canada was mainly due to the increased number of Quebeckers reporting that they were able to conduct a conversation in English and French. In fact, Quebec accounted for 90% of the net increase in the number of bilingual persons between 2006 and 2011. In Quebec, the English-French bilingualism rate increased from 40.6% in 2006 to 42.6% in 2011. In the other provinces, bilingualism declined slightly. The largest decreases were recorded in Ontario, Manitoba and British Columbia, where, in each case, the bilingualism rate decreased by half a percentage point.

The acquisition of French as a second language remains a challenge in Canada outside Quebec. Given that French is generally learned at school, the bilingualism rate reaches its peak in the 15 to 19 age group. Many of these young people are completing secondary school, having been in French-as-a-second-language or immersion programs.

Since 1996, bilingualism has been losing ground among youth with English as their first official language spoken. The proportion of these youth able to conduct a conversation in both of the country’s official languages was 15.2% in 1996. It has decreased steadily since then to 11.2% in 2011, a decline of four percentage points.

Despite a rise in the number of youth registered in French-as-a-second-language immersion programs in the past 20 years outside Quebec, the number of young people in primary and secondary school exposed to French instruction has decreased. Since the 1991-1992 school year, the number of children registered in immersion programs has increased from 267,000 to almost 329,000, a growth rate of 23%. In contrast, the number of youth registered in a regular French-as-a-second-language program has decreased from 1.8 million to 1.38 million, a negative rate of 23%. In short, despite a rise in immersion program registrations, the proportion of young people outside Quebec exposed to the instruction of French as a second language over the past 20 years has decreased from 53.3% to 44%.

The loss in the ability to maintain the knowledge of French among youths who have learned French and the fact that immigrants are less likely to be able to conduct a conversation in that language explains in part the decrease in English-French bilingualism outside of Quebec.

The census data are an important source of information for monitoring the evolution of the language situation.

In concluding, I would like to mention that in 2017, year of the 150th anniversary celebrations of Canadian Confederation, Statistics Canada will be releasing the results from the 2016 census on language. Rest assured that Statistics Canada will continue to make every effort to inform Canadians on this key aspect of the country’s population.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Michael Chong]

Thank you, Mr. Corbeil.

We are now going to hear from the Canada Games Council representative.

[Sue Hylland, President and Chief Executive Officer, Canada Games Council]

Good morning, Mr. Chair and committee members.

Good morning, Mr. Chair and committee members.

Thank you for the invitation to speak before the Standing Committee on Official Languages today to discuss the role the Canada Games could play in celebrating linguistic duality during the 150th anniversary of Canadian Confederation.

Appropriately, the Canada Games were born as a nation-building, government-led centennial project in 1967. Under the games motto, Unity through Sport, these first Canada Games in Quebec City paved the way for what is now Canada’s largest multi-sport competition for young athletes. Held every two years, alternating between winter and summer, they represent a key step in the development of Canada’s future household names. Canada Games athletes are our next generation national, international, and Olympic champions. We saw many of them standing on the podium in Vancouver 2010.

The Canada Games are a catalyst.

The Canada Games and their lasting legacies continue to be the catalyst for the growth of sport and communities across the country.

Close to 100,000 athletes representing 800 to 1,000 Canadian communities have competed in the Canada Games, with hundreds of thousands having been in qualifying events and competitions that lead to the honour of representing your province and territory on a national stage. Thus, there have been human legacies of 5,000 to 6,000 volunteers and staff at every edition of the games, enhanced legacies for coaching and officiating, and many, many other community legacies that live on to this day in over 23 communities and in 500 venues.

We are a centennial project that continues to inspire and deliver.

The Canada Games are not only a unifying force in sport, they also incorporate a cultural program and promote fundamental Canadian values, such as linguistic duality, diversity, multiculturalism, health and wellness, citizen and community engagement, the promotion of different cultures, and minority group inclusion, including athletes with a physical and intellectual disability. The games reflect those things that matter most to Canadians.

As an organization, we are committed to recognizing Canada’s linguistic duality as it is entrenched in what we do and in the core values of the Canada Games.

We are proud of the way our host societies have embraced our official languages requirements in their own communities. We are also proud to have received letters of praise from the Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages for our efforts in promoting Canada’s linguistic duality.

Sport must be a pillar of the 150th anniversary celebrations. Canada and sport developed side by side in this country, and Canadian sport is intertwined with Canadian culture. They cannot be separated. The Canada Games deserve to be the sport cornerstone of our 150th celebration in 2017.

The Canada Games is a unifying force for sport, governments, corporations, and many other stakeholders like no other event. We work with organizations such as the Canadian Association for the Advancement of Women and Sport and Physical Activity, Participaction, AthletesCAN, the Aboriginal Sport Circle, and Special Olympics Canada, among others, to ensure that the games are barrier-free, inclusive, and representative of all Canadians.

As fate would have it, 2017 also represents the 50th anniversary of the Canada Games movement. The country will converge in the centre of Canada for these great anniversary celebrations, in Manitoba, where we know there is important history about minorities and their impact on the entrance of that province into Confederation. We plan to once again allow the Canada Games to represent positive change and to be an exemplary leader in promoting Canadian ideals.

The Canada Games Council is exploring major initiatives that will take advantage of the Canada Games' unique positioning with stakeholders.

We are in the planning and research phase, working with a very reputable Canadian company in the Twentyten Group. Our celebration in 2017 will target and promote sport and physical activity to Canadian youth, will raise our awareness levels across our great country, and will shine a great spotlight on the 2017 Canada Games in Manitoba.

This past September, more than 61,000 children and youth from schools across Canada participated in Canada Games day events and the national school challenge in support of sports day in Canada. In the last four years, over 129,000 children have participated in our education program.

In 2017, through our expanded schools program using multimedia, social media, and in-classroom tools for teachers, we will work to reach the millions of Canadian youth who are aspiring to be on a Canada Games team. We will encourage participation in sport and physical activity. We will teach them about our country.

As we revamp and extend the learning opportunities of our successful program, we will add in a linguistic duality component that celebrates diversity, culture, and language appreciation. We will challenge each school to educate themselves on why sport and physical activity are important for our health as a nation.

We believe that national awareness rates of the Canada Games can only grow and celebrate our national potential for celebration. Through a national awareness campaign in the lead-up to the Canada Games, we will use creative vehicles, including a unique mass media mix, a public relations campaign, and national Canada Games flag and torch relay events from coast to coast to coast, culminating in the centre of Canada to showcase our past, present, and future stories, and help share the Canada Games spirit country-wide.

Our campaign would not be complete without the promotion of our changing country and those things that enrich our nation today: culture, language, diversity, multiculturalism and a healthy nation through sport and physical activity.

We will also celebrate and highlight our crown jewel and most prized opportunity, the Canada Games. No community ever hosted the games without legacies and positive change for the entire community—province, territory, or country—and 2017 will be our tipping point and defining moment.

Our cultural program will showcase history, our nation, our diversity, and our language duality. Our broadcast strategy will be promoted as never before, and we will optimize our broadcast coverage with specialized content available in both official languages nationally.

Our public relations activities and outreach will achieve unprecedented media coverage of the Canada Games for 2017 in all languages. We will feature stamps available nationally commemorating all past Canada Games, a coin collection, national and retail partners, sport partnerships, and an alumni celebration of our sport heroes from across Canada, bigger and better than any celebration before.

Much like all 150th celebrations, we are currently in our planning and development stage. Environmental scans, research and strategy development will help us ensure that our efforts have a return on investments, that our partnerships are as strategic as possible and that our Canada Games efforts will take advantage of Canada-wide initiatives and meet national objectives. It is the perfect time to talk.

In 2017, our strategic positioning and long-standing history in sport will re-ignite the country’s national celebratory culture, the way it was done through the Olympics in 2010 and will renew the drive of young Canadians to lead active healthy lifestyles.

To close, I would like to share a comment that a former prime minister said in reference to the Canada Games:

The Canada Games are about the fulfillment of dreams, and the development of outstanding young athletes. ...the...Games exemplify the many values that we share as Canadians.

The Canada Games are a catalyst.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Michael Chong]

Thank you very much.

Now we'll have an opening statement from the Historica-Dominion Institute.

[Anthony Wilson-Smith, President, Historica-Dominion Institute]

First of all, thank you,

Mr. Chair and members of the committee.

We're very grateful for the opportunity to talk about who we are, how we can contribute to celebrating Canada's sesquicentennial, and the role of our two official languages and language communities within that context.

The Historica-Dominion Institute is the largest independent organization in Canada dedicated to promoting history, identity and citizenship. We share the past with Canadians by showing them how it influences our present and our future. We are also helping Canadians be better informed and more engaged.

We run, on average, 10 to 12 national programs a year, and all of those are bilingual. Our best-known products, as some of you may know, are the Heritage Minutes. There are 66 of them now. Over the last 20 years, they have covered everything from the history of young Irish orphans coming to Quebec—and keeping their names while picking up a new language to live in—to Jacques Plante, the great goaltender, inventing the goalie mask. Some of those minutes are iconic. We'll actually immodestly suggest that in teaching Canadians about our heritage, we think they've become part of it themselves.

Some of our other projects include the Memory Project, which has been in the news to a good degree recently. It records veterans—primarily World War II and Korean War, although now some veterans of the Afghan conflict as well—talking about their wartime experiences for an online archive. We bring veterans and current servicemen and servicewomen into classrooms and community groups. Just in the last month alone, we have arranged more than a thousand visits, coast to coast to coast, to schools in this country. We've archived more than 2,500 Canadian war testimonies that will exist long beyond the lifetime of any of us, well into centuries beyond.

Another of our programs, Passages to Canada, arranges for volunteer speakers to tell their stories about their diverse backgrounds—how they came here, what they found here, how they've lived here—in talking to students and community groups.

The Canadian Aboriginal Writing and Arts Challenge invites aboriginal youth to interpret an aspect of their heritage through art or writing.

The Canadian Encyclopedia is the definitive online and regularly updated source for reliable, verified information about our country.

Here in Canada, we offer Encounters with Canada, the largest youth forum in the country. Every week of the school year, more than 100 teens from across Canada discover our national institutions here in Ottawa, meet accomplished Canadians, develop civic leadership skills, build lasting friendships, and live an extraordinary bilingual experience.

All of those programs that I mentioned are, of course, bilingual.

We also regularly poll to measure knowledge and attitudes among Canadians in order to identify areas of interest, ones where we feel we need improvement as a country and citizens, and programs to address those needs.

We not only support official bilingualism, but we also live it. More than 70% of our national office staff in Toronto is bilingual. Our historians, who are mostly in their 20s or 30s, all have PhDs or masters degrees. Almost all of them are bilingual. One of them is also the official historian for the famous Van Doos of Quebec.

We understand that linguistic duality involves representing and speaking to linguistic groups in a culturally sensitive environment. For example, in creating our Black History in Canada Education Guide, we prepared English and French versions. In the English version, we offered expanded focus on the black community's historic presence in Halifax. In Quebec, on the other hand, we looked at the Haitian community in particular.

At the same time, we teach essentials to both language groups. For example, our most recent exploration into black history in our Heritage Minutes is the story of Richard Pierpoint, a former slave who at the age of 68, in 1812, formed the coloured corps of former slaves who fought in the War of 1812.

We know that Canadians are sometimes unaware of contributions of members of the other official language group, so we looked for ways to educate, improve, and engage, and to consider subject material in this context.

The year 2014 will mark the centennial of the First World War. We also note that the Van Doos was founded in the same year, when French Canadians really started to feel at home. In two years, it will also be 400 years since the French explorers who settled in Quebec started to invest in and build on Canadian lands as well as the lands of what is now the United States. We should celebrate that.

When we mark, for example, the 200th anniversary of Sir John A. Macdonald's birth in 2015, we should also remember his partner, George-Étienne Cartier. In modern times, the fact of having two official languages has shaped everything from our role at G-20 meetings, where our bilingual prime ministers often bridge the gap between unilingual leaders of some of the world's other biggest countries, to our success in bringing immigrants here from other countries.

While English, as we know, is the lingua franca of much of the world, the French fact is of specific interest to potential newcomers in places ranging from France itself to other parts of Europe, Africa, and the Caribbean. These are elements we celebrate, bilingually again, in our Passages to Canada program.

That's one of the lessons of citizenship, as well as history.

We're here to help and to promote these issues. We have a pool of bilingual historians, as I mentioned, and activity coordinators from across the country. We have contacts everywhere at the grassroots and national levels. We understand the languages, and at the grassroots the community is engaged.

The government has recently indicated that it may wish in future to engage not-for-profit groups to assist the public service in some projects. Don't forget us if you do.

Canada is open to people of all languages and all cultures. Having two official languages enables us to reach more people and to send a positive message to the whole world.

Canada's bilingual heritage is not only part of our history; it is also linked to the future, as it opens us up even further to the world. Those goals are central to us at the Historica-Dominion Institute, as we know they are to Canada, and that's why we're so pleased to speak to and support these efforts.

Thank you.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Michael Chong]

Thank you, Mr. Wilson-Smith.

I want to welcome Mr. Jedwab and Madame Perrone from the Association for Canadian Studies.

We've heard from our other three witness groups, and we'll now have an opening statement from you.

[Julie Perrone, Assistant Director, Association for Canadian Studies]

Good morning.

First of all, we are very pleased to have the opportunity to present our views on the issue of linguistic duality during the 150th anniversary of Confederation. I plan to—

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

I am sorry, Madam, but is your presentation available in both languages?

[Julie Perrone]

Yes.

[The Chair, Conservative, Michael Chong]

Yes, it is. It should be in front of you.

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

Oh, okay.

[The Chair, Conservative, Michael Chong]

Go ahead.

[Julie Perrone]

I can switch to English, if you prefer.

[The Chair, Conservative, Michael Chong]

No, no, French is fine.

[Julie Perrone]

I am versatile.

Given the limited time that we have, I plan to introduce the Association for Canadian Studies, to briefly explain what we do, to give you a few survey results and, finally, to talk about the reasoning behind our recommendations.

In a nutshell, the Association for Canadian Studies will celebrate its 40th anniversary next year, in 2013. Our grand mandate—you have more details in the presentation—is really to enhance the knowledge of Canadians. Although we have a small international component, we basically really focus on the mandate I described. There are three parts to it. Those parts will allow you to better understand why we wanted to be here to talk about linguistic duality.

We have two quarterly publications: Canadian Issues and Canadian Diversity. They are both bilingual.

In addition, we organize an annual national conference on teaching history. One year it is in English, and the following year it is in French, so as to truly reflect this duality. The conference in French is a way to help us build a francophone network with history teachers, because no such network exists. That is very important to us.

Finally, we also have one-time research projects that seek to increase our knowledge. Let me quickly say that our projects are also bilingual. We would like to develop a bilingual teaching guide on the War of 1812. We have a website on the War of 1812 and the Canadian francophonie, so that we can reach francophones in this way. We are also waiting for funding for a guide on French-Canadian history.

All that goes to show that we are immersed in linguistic duality on a daily basis. Linguistic duality is at the heart of our concerns, and that is why Jack is going to present our survey results and our recommendations to you today. We feel that we can contribute to ensuring that linguistic duality will be a major part of the 2017 celebrations.

[Jack Jedwab, Executive Director, Association for Canadian Studies]

Thank you, Julie.

I would like to quickly talk about the results of the surveys we have conducted on various aspects of identity issues in Canada, including bilingualism, official languages and the public's knowledge of Canada's history.

Since time does not permit me to go into detail, I will only make a few comments, and let you look at the presentation and the survey results, including those related to linguistic duality. My comments will deal with the survey on the knowledge of Confederation.

If you take a look at the results of our survey, you will see that there is a major need to make Confederation and its many aspects better known, as well as to picture Confederation's dimension of duality as a key aspect of the 150th anniversary celebrations.

Let me just mention one of my own concerns with the surveys that we conduct. We are going to celebrate the 150th anniversary, and I hope that the celebrations will have a far-reaching impact. However, I feel that people should be more familiar with the topic, so that they can understand the reason behind these celebrations.

If I may, and consistent with our duality, I'll offer some personal duality. It would be extremely important, I would think, in any commemorative activity around our 150th to improve our knowledge of the Confederation arrangements.

I think our surveys that we've shared with you this morning, at least in the paper version you have, illustrate that there is a gap in terms of the degree of knowledge. In the same way, if you want to do a 200th anniversary commemoration of the War of 1812, which we are currently in the process of doing, you want to ensure that one of the principal elements of doing it is that people know more about the War of 1812, hence the various ads we see around us that are building such knowledge. The work done by various organizations—like the organization that my colleague is responsible for—and the work we do is very geared toward improving that knowledge. My principal message here is in fact that we need to do more in that area as we go forward to build that knowledge. That's illustrated in our surveys.

Now, to be fair, our surveys also indicate that 78% of the population want to focus on what we've accomplished over the 150 years, and 63%—not in this survey—want to talk about our challenges and problems and so forth, so there's a greater desire amongst Canadians to focus on what we've accomplished rather than focusing on the things that were challenges and problems over the course of our 150th anniversary. Some 63% want our priority in our commemorations to be on the role of the French, British, and aboriginals in the founding, if you like, and the evolution of Canada. Those are I think important aspects illustrated in our surveys, as I've mentioned.

There's another thing, though, that I'll note. I'll say this in closing. On the language duality issue, while Canadians in general—65%—do support bilingualism, and while in fact around the globe most people you ask would probably say that they have no objection and are very supportive of their children or their population knowing more than one language, the other dimension of our survey, which is a bit more of an area of concern, is the extent to which people say they don't feel enriched by our linguistic duality.

Notably, that's the case among a lot of English Canadians. In other words, they'll value the idea of learning the second language, but they don't feel the enrichment from it, I think in large part because they don't have contact with it. When I look at our surveys and at the relationship between those who say they do have contact with francophones and those who say they very often have contact with francophones, amongst English Canadians they have much more, if you like...they have a greater inclination to say that they benefit from our duality.

So there is an important link between the frequency of contact between anglophones, francophones and allophones, and the level of enrichment these people say they get through the cultural contribution from francophone or other communities.

I do not think it is enough to have documents and speeches translated in the context of the 150th anniversary. It must be done; I'm not saying not to do it. However, we must go beyond translation. We need to ensure that people truly have contact with the various fundamental aspects that enrich our country, culturally speaking. It is critical that the importance of linguistic duality, which is at the very heart of Canada, be a central element in everything we do as part of the commemoration activities, as I mentioned.

I know that you can read the documentation and ask questions afterwards. So I will end there by saying that, in all the commemoration activities that we will have, we are certainly going to pay attention to the importance of understanding the raison d'être, the justification and the origins of the event we are commemorating, in every way possible.

I will end there. I'm certain you have questions for us. I am available to provide more clarification.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Michael Chong]

Thank you, Mr. Jedwab.

We have an hour and twenty minutes for questions and comments.

First, I want to say one thing that will be of great help to the committee members and the analysts. You know that the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage has already done a study on the 150th anniversary of Confederation. The purpose of our study is to examine this celebration from the perspective of Canada's linguistic duality. So, it will be very helpful to us if your questions and comments focus on linguistic duality in the context of the 150th anniversary.

Mr. Dion, you have the floor.

[Stéphane Dion, Liberal, Saint-Laurent—Cartierville, QC]

Point of order, Mr. Chair.

Are we giving the witnesses enough specific information so they know that we are not another Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage?

The Canada Games are very important. I will come back to that later.

[An hon. member]

Debate.

[Stéphane Dion, Liberal, Saint-Laurent—Cartierville, QC]

No, but I have a question.

We wrote to the witnesses, and they responded that the Canada Games were very important. It was not the time to tell us that. It was the time to tell us whether, when 2017 rolls around, they were going to be properly equipped to respect linguistic duality, whether they were going to make sure that it would go well, that they were going to focus on it and that everything would be done in both languages. That is the purpose of our committee. We really must give that information to the witnesses.

[The Chair, Conservative, Michael Chong]

We are doing that. The clerk is sending out a one page...every witness is receiving a one-page e-mail detailing what we are looking for. We are doing exactly that. I'm just reinforcing it.

[Stéphane Dion, Liberal, Saint-Laurent—Cartierville, QC]

Can we have a copy of that?

[The Chair, Conservative, Michael Chong]

Absolutely.

We'll make sure that e-mail is forwarded to all members' offices.

I'll just reiterate. If we can focus on the linguistic duality context of the 150th celebrations, that would be helpful to the analyst, and also official language minority communities and their role within the 150th. That would be of great use to us. We only have a couple more meetings left and we need material to help inform the report.

Without further ado, I will give—

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

Mr. Chair, I have a comment, as well.

In all the years I have been here, we have always had briefing notes from the Library of Parliament. Now, we aren't receiving them. They help us prepare questions to ask the witnesses. So I would like us to get them.