Official Languages Committee on Dec. 12th, 2012

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

We could certainly work with the Government of Manitoba.

I would like to talk about the Jules-Verne High School in Vancouver. That is a school we invested in. I am proud of that school because it is very close to the one where my mother used to teach. She was among the first French teachers in British Columbia.

We can certainly work with Manitoba. Mr. Lussier just said that the Government of Manitoba has not yet told us that it needs funding. That is probably forthcoming, but when the province asks us for a subsidy, we will certainly be able to work with it, as we did with other provinces for similar investments.

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

Let's have a serious look at things. We unfortunately do not have much time to talk about this.

I was just in Labrador, where one school has 29 students. If two teachers go on maternity leave, the school has difficulty finding francophone teachers to replace them because they do not even have housing. They almost closed the school down. They need the help of their big brother, as I call the federal government. I think that's important for maintaining our communities.

I have another question for you. When did the Auditor General last conduct an audit of official languages?

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

I did not understand your question.

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

When did the Auditor General last audit the Department of Canadian Heritage?

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

We do not have the exact answer. We will have to give you that information later.

[Daniel Jean]

It would be nice to have the exact date, Mr. Chair.

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

Mr. Minister, I assume you do not object to the Auditor General having a look at what is going on at Canadian Heritage.

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

No.

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

You talked about consultations you held in the country. I would like to remind you that the government did not want to hold consultations because it thought that the Standing Committee on Official Languages was doing that.

People have told me about your consultations. I remember that, when Bernard Lord did his consultations, everything was in camera, and we could not find out what had taken place. This time, you have been boasting about having gone across the country. Community representatives are saying that, when they met with you, they only had one or two minutes to talk to you. Is that true or false?

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

It is false.

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

We are talking about two minutes per organization.

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

No, that is false. We did not hold only in-person consultations; we also had some online consultations, as I mentioned. We spent half a day with communities and organizations. Some officials were present. They discussed matters for over an hour. I was in a room for over an hour, and we had discussions before and after. Each organization submitted a file with funding requests.

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

Mr. Chair, I am not asking whether people submitted files and whether the minister went over them later on in his hotel room.

When organizations asked you questions, the process was very structured, but they had only one or two minutes. Then it was someone else's turn. Even when organizations wanted to talk longer, they couldn't. The meetings lasted 45 minutes, not 4 hours.

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

No.

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

Unless you are saying that's not true.

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

It's not true.

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

It's not true?

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

I was there, and you were not. That's not true.

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

We will ask the organizations whether it's true or false.

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

You can talk to the organizations, but our meetings have to be structured. We had an approach where we....

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

What was that approach?

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

I didn't interrupt you. You asked from the beginning that we set partisanship aside.

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

That has nothing to do with this. I wasn't talking about the NDP or the Conservatives. I asked you a question as minister.

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

Let me answer your other questions before you go ahead and ask a fifth one.

There's no doubt that our approach has to be structured. In all of our round tables, no organization complained that this was a bad idea. I think they were all very happy with the efforts we had made to hold a responsible and efficient event. However, that did not end our commitment to those organizations.

For instance, today, representatives from the QCGN organization came to my office. Last week, I met with Marie-France Kenny, of the FCFA. We continue to meet our commitments and hold discussions. We will continue to have conversations with various organizations. That's part of a full commitment on the government's part. I am certain that, if you spoke to those groups, they would all tell you the same thing—that my door is always open when they need to talk about their concerns and ideas.

[The Chair, Conservative, Michael Chong]

Okay, thank you.

Mr. Gourde, go ahead.