Official Languages Committee on Jan. 31st, 2013

[Hubert T. Lacroix]

Based on what we are anticipating to happen on those days, people will be invited once again. I assume that some of the conferences will be held in both languages if the people in the room speak both languages. If not, the language that the people speak will be used. Once again, our goal is to include people, not to exclude them. We will also have official interpreting services at some of those meetings.

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

At some?

[Hubert T. Lacroix]

Let me say this again: we are going to ensure that all the people who speak either French or English will be able to communicate in the language of their choice, that they will be very well understood by everyone else and that the organizers will provide them with the tools they need to do so. That is certainly how things will be done.

[The Chair, Conservative, Michael Chong]

Okay, thank you.

Mr. Chisu, you have the floor.

[Corneliu Chisu, Conservative, Pickering—Scarborough East, ON]

Mr. Lacroix, thank you for joining us at the Standing Committee on Official Languages.

French is my fifth foreign language. If you don't mind, I would like to continue in my fourth foreign language.

The 150th anniversary of our Confederation is a celebration for all Canadians. A sizeable number of Canadians are recent immigrants who are more or less unilingual. How do you plan to involve this multicultural mosaic of our country in promoting our treasured linguistic duality, so important for the future development of our country? Are you contemplating involving the ethnic audiovisual media? The promotion of our linguistic duality is very important for the multicultural community.

[Hubert T. Lacroix]

Let me go back to some of the things I was saying about these conferences. These conferences are about asking Canadians, what are you going to do about the 150th? They're going to be so regional, so local, that in every one of these communities we hope we will be able to bring in.... Because the organizing committees will be organizing committees of the regions and of those municipalities, we would like to think they'll be able to draw in the people who have an interest, either a personal interest or an interest through an association of some kind, a collectivity of some kind. They will be asked, what are you going to do about the 150th?

The Canada of 2017 and the Canada of 2013, as we do these conferences, is a Canada that is mixed with diverse Canadians. I can't see that happening without a reflection of the points of view of the people you're referring to.

[Corneliu Chisu, Conservative, Pickering—Scarborough East, ON]

The linguistic duality is very important for the future development of our country. I think this multicultural mosaic should be involved at the early stages of our 150th commemoration. I'm just mentioning that.

Maybe you know that in Toronto, which is one of the largest cities in Canada, there are 174 spoken languages. For the cohesion of our country, it is very important that the linguistic duality is achieved and continues as a vivid preoccupation of all Canadians.

[Hubert T. Lacroix]

That's why in Toronto, on April 26, I hope the people who represent those communities will come in and have a conversation with us, have a conversation with the people who are in that room, and that they will be able to voice the projects they would like to see happen and that they will take control of. It's not about their telling us, here's what we should be doing; it's about us facilitating, and that is the big difference here.

We are trying to facilitate the organization. We're trying to spark ideas. We're trying to generate, to act as a facilitator through Canadians. We're not asking Canadians, what should we do? That's going to come through the ideas that are going to come from all over the place. This is about the communities: what are you going to do to celebrate the 150th? By having that input and impact in the rooms in Toronto on that day, I hope those 174 languages will in some way be represented. We're going to invite these communities, these opinion leaders, to the room on that day, with their communities, and say, what are you going to do about this?

[The Chair, Conservative, Michael Chong]

Thank you very much. We are going to have one last questioner for this panel. Then we'll take a five-minute suspension to allow our next witness to appear. We'll continue.

Ms. Michaud, you have the floor.

[Élaine Michaud, NDP, Portneuf—Jacques-Cartier, QC]

Mr. Chair, I am going to let Mr. Benskin take the floor.

[The Chair, Conservative, Michael Chong]

Mr. Benskin, you have the floor.

[Tyrone Benskin, NDP, Jeanne-Le Ber, QC]

Thank you.

For the most part, we've been speaking about providing services in various communities, be they official language minority communities or.... But part of our mandate, and by extension part of your mandate, is the promotion of our official languages. That's what I want to ask you about now.

I'm asking if there's any kind of programming involved, and this is speaking particularly to French.

Is there any specific programming?

Is there programming that introduces or exposes the rest of Canada, as we're referring to it now, to French programming? Is there anything in the works that will allow anglophones, basically, in Alberta to access French programming as part of that celebration of this is who we are, as opposed to isolating it into English communities in Quebec, French communities outside of Quebec? Is there any programming that lends itself to that?

[Hubert T. Lacroix]

Mr. Benskin, we don't see the programming that's going to come as being differentiated from province to province, from story to story. What we hope will happen is that these ideas will generate a mosaic. I like the word “mosaic”; I think it's a good one. A Canadian, either through access to the websites that are going to be built or the programming or anything we're going to do, will be able to enjoy a public space where stories about Canada are being told, where he or she will be able to contribute his or her story about Canada and start a conversation about where we're going. What's going to be the Canada of the future? What are we doing now? What are some of the concerns we have, some of the great things we're doing?

In the context of programming and what we do now—because I think that's also important—as you know, section 41 of the Official Languages Act says we have to report every year on what we do. If I can, I'll send you the reports we file there. Every year we list all the programs we do for francophones who are outside of Quebec, for anglophones who are in Quebec, and the associations we support, the projects. All of this would normally continue and explode in the context of the 150th.

[Tyrone Benskin, NDP, Jeanne-Le Ber, QC]

Okay, but what I'm speaking to more directly is the exposure of French programming in Alberta, for example, encouraging anglophones in Alberta, in Manitoba, in Saskatchewan to seek out French programming and gain that exposure. We're not simply talking about language; we're talking about culture as well. To better understand Canada as a whole, one of the best ways is to introduce them to the culture.

[Hubert T. Lacroix]

I think you have a very important point. I would like to think and hope that's what we do through our presence in the regions, with the stations we have kept open. In the context of all these challenges we've had with respect to budgets, CBC/Radio-Canada has made a choice not to impact its geographical footprint, to keep its stations open, and to make choices somewhere else. We know that when we are in a community, whether we are there through our digital presence, as we are in Hamilton right now, or

on the north and south shore close to Montreal,

or whether it's the opening of a new station in B.C., like the one in Kamloops, or whether it's a television station in Regina or with the expansion of our services in Saskatoon—all of these promote the French and English services of CBC/Radio-Canada and their delivery in both languages. So if you're an anglophone in Alberta right now, you have access to Radio-Canada in French, and we'd like to think that the cross-promotion and the work we do to promote ourselves in the programs will cross this famous divide.

[The Chair, Conservative, Michael Chong]

Okay.

Thank you, Mr. Benskin.

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

Mr. Chair?

[The Chair, Conservative, Michael Chong]

Yes, Mr. Godin?

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

I just want to be assured of one thing.

Mr. Lacroix, you talked about the report of the Commissioner of Official Languages. Please make sure that you forward it to the committee so that we have a copy.

[Hubert T. Lacroix]

Yes, absolutely. Actually, it is on our website, Mr. Godin.

Can I plug something?

[The Chair, Conservative, Michael Chong]

Yes, you can, Mr. Lacroix.

[Hubert T. Lacroix]

On Friday something really important, a fun thing, happens. Remember the book, Two Solitudes, by Hugh MacLennan? It's a great book. Homerun, which is a drive-home show in Montreal on CBC, is doing a remote from one of the Chapters bookstores, where Jay Baruchel, who is an actor in the U.S., is going to cross...we asked him and he said, yes, absolutely. They're going to talk about growing up as an anglophone in a francophone environment, in the same way that the Two Solitudes book was written 50 years ago.

We've had a “Canada Reads” week, and we've challenged people to reread that book and tell us, in 2013—on Friday—how they feel about growing up in English, if they're an anglophone, à Montréal, or in French

in an anglophone environment.

[The Chair, Conservative, Michael Chong]

Is it in the Chapters on Saint-Laurent Boulevard?

[Hubert T. Lacroix]

It is on the corner of McGill College and Sainte-Catherine Street.

I'm saying this because it's just an interesting example of some of the stuff we do to actually promote Two Solitudes.

[Tyrone Benskin, NDP, Jeanne-Le Ber, QC]

I just have a correction for the record. Jay is a friend of mine; he is a Canadian actor who works in the States.