Official Languages Committee on Dec. 12th, 2012

[James Moore, Conservative, Port Moody—Westwood—Port Coquitlam, BC]

We might have to come back to this issue, since I only have 10 seconds to answer.

Health was the topic of a round table that travelled across the country. There were major differences from one region to another. A large number of new students who went to school for their profession in the other language are primarily in New Brunswick and Ontario, where demand is strong.

Because of the various needs and obligations that provincial governments have, the policies, requests and expectations on the ground vary greatly from region to region. It is not surprising that there are many more requests in New Brunswick and Ontario than in the rest of Canada. For instance, in Vancouver, French is the eighth or ninth spoken language. Demand for health services in French is much lower than it is in Fredericton, Moncton or here, in the national capital region. So there are considerable differences in the number of requests and the expectations of the federal and provincial governments.

[The Chair, Conservative, Michael Chong]

Thank you.

Mr. Dion, the floor is yours.

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

Thank you, Mr. Chair

Thank you for joining us, Mr. Minister. My thanks to Mr. Jean and Mr. Lussier as well.

First, Mr. Minister, could you tell us what your intentions are with respect to the Language Technologies Research Centre?

[James Moore, Conservative, Port Moody—Westwood—Port Coquitlam, BC]

I do not have any information on that issue.

Have there been changes in our policy?

[Hubert Lussier, Assistant Deputy Minister, Citizenship and Heritage, Department of Canadian Heritage]

Mr. Dion is probably referring to the research centre at the Université du Québec en Outaouais...

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

Yes.

[Hubert Lussier]

...and its employees were relocated to the National Research Council of Canada. To my knowledge, their roles have not changed within the National Research Council. Just the location changed.

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

Actually, the centre is still at the university. The fact is that you are taking away the National Research Council and the Translation Bureau, thereby leaving the centre only. The centre is supported by the Roadmap for Canada's Linguistic Duality.

What are your intentions? Will you withdraw from this centre, which is very important for reducing translation and training costs in the long term, allowing us to have a bilingual country?

[James Moore, Conservative, Port Moody—Westwood—Port Coquitlam, BC]

No, we are going to continue to provide services and make investments to protect essential services so that the government can do its job.

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

Will you do so through this centre or something else? What do you have in mind?

[James Moore, Conservative, Port Moody—Westwood—Port Coquitlam, BC]

We will see. I am not aware of any major changes in our intentions or in the services provided by the institutions.

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

Mr. Minister, I would encourage you to look into that issue. I think that this is an excellent centre that does its job very well. It seems to me that bringing everything to Ottawa is a big mistake. Pay very close attention to what the centre is saying.

The co-operative development initiative is a program that you have cut. Have you looked at the ensuing impact on francophone co-operatives outside Quebec?

[James Moore, Conservative, Port Moody—Westwood—Port Coquitlam, BC]

Are you talking about the changes made to human resources?

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

I am talking about the co-operative development initiative. You are responsible for all that. You coordinate those programs.

[James Moore, Conservative, Port Moody—Westwood—Port Coquitlam, BC]

Yes, but I am not the minister of all departments and all programs. Each minister in the government has responsibilities to assume. In terms of co-operatives, I know that Mr. Bélanger asked a question like that in the House. I also understand that there is an agreement between the province and the Department of Human Resources and Skills Development to be able to provide those services.

Some programs probably yield very good results and have very fine objectives for the official languages and the communities. But the government has some choices to make. I am sure that Ms. Finley and the Department of Human Resources and Skills Development have a very effective and responsible approach toward young people and co-operatives, as far as official languages and our social obligations are concerned.

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

Yes, but if you are not keeping an eye on that, if you take it for granted, you might have some very unpleasant surprises. That is what is happening right now with a Franco-Ontarian group that launched a co-operative. This group does not have access to co-operative development in French; it is thousands of kilometres away. If the minister makes a decision without thinking about that, it is up to you to ensure that the department is aware of the consequences.

[James Moore, Conservative, Port Moody—Westwood—Port Coquitlam, BC]

I do not agree with you. I am sure that you don't really know whether Ms. Finley has looked at that or not.

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

I see the results, Mr. Minister. I see that you are not in the loop and that you are assuming that the people from the department will take care of it. But you must not take that for granted.

Mr. Moore, when I was a minister, we had a committee and all the ministers had to show up one after the other. We could see all the decisions they were making and the ensuing consequences.

[James Moore, Conservative, Port Moody—Westwood—Port Coquitlam, BC]

Yes, but you cannot say that there were no complaints at that time.

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

No, but we...

[James Moore, Conservative, Port Moody—Westwood—Port Coquitlam, BC]

That is not fair.

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

No, but the complaints were forwarded to my office and I would send them to the ministers. So why don't you talk to Ms. Finley about the impact on francophone co-operatives? I feel it's your duty.

Now, if we look at all the...

[James Moore, Conservative, Port Moody—Westwood—Port Coquitlam, BC]

Before you say that she is not doing her job, that she is not protecting the interests of young people and co-operatives, and that official languages are being affected, it would be a good idea to go and ask her yourself about this issue and ask her to appear as a witness before the committee to discuss every aspect of the programming on co-operatives. It is a...

cheap shot

...to say that she is not doing her job.

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

I...

[James Moore, Conservative, Port Moody—Westwood—Port Coquitlam, BC]

I can assure you that this is not the case.