Official Languages Committee on Oct. 18th, 2011

[Guy Lauzon, Conservative, Stormont—Dundas—South Glengarry, ON]

Do we have any programs to encourage other people, programs that might lead to an improvement in that percentage?

[Jean-Pierre Gauthier]

In fact, there are all of the programs and initiatives involving second language teaching. These people are a part of that clientele in this sense.

[Guy Lauzon, Conservative, Stormont—Dundas—South Glengarry, ON]

Fine.

You stated that in 2006, 17% of the population self-identified as bilingual, as compared to 12% prior to that. That covered a 45-year period. Is that to say that we are going to have to wait 45 years more to improve the result by 5%?

[Jean-Pierre Gauthier]

I am not sure that anyone could answer that question.

[Guy Lauzon, Conservative, Stormont—Dundas—South Glengarry, ON]

Has there been any acceleration in the course of the last 10 years?

[Jean-Pierre Gauthier]

I can check the data we have and see whether there has been an acceleration, according to the data's evolution over the years.

[Guy Lauzon, Conservative, Stormont—Dundas—South Glengarry, ON]

At the bottom of page 5, something does not jibe. It says that seven out of ten people state that official languages are important for the future of their country, but one person out of four considers them to be an asset.

[Jean-Pierre Gauthier]

This means that for them, learning the second language is an asset. However, that set aside, they can nevertheless consider that this is an important characteristic of Canadian identity.

[Guy Lauzon, Conservative, Stormont—Dundas—South Glengarry, ON]

Once, I heard someone say that 68% of the Canadian population supports bilingualism. Is that accurate?

[Jean-Pierre Gauthier]

It is on that order. Several surveys situate support for bilingualism somewhere between 70% and 80%.

[Guy Lauzon, Conservative, Stormont—Dundas—South Glengarry, ON]

Fine.

Thank you Mr. Chairman.

[The Chair, Conservative, Michael Chong]

Thank you Mr. Lauzon.

Mr. Trottier, you have the floor.

[Bernard Trottier, Conservative, Etobicoke—Lakeshore, ON]

Thank you for being here with us this morning to examine the state of bilingualism and official languages in Canada.

I'd have a few questions for you on the roadmap.

The next roadmap will surely cover the period from 2014 to 2019. Will the analyses you are conducting currently be used as inputs for that roadmap?

[Jean-Pierre Gauthier]

In fact, I think that people are now determining what the options are for the future. The five-year horizon of the action plan and the roadmap seems to be working. Will we be going with that again? It is possible. In the course of those next five years, in 2017, there are going to be celebrations for the 150^th anniversary of the Canadian federation. This is going to be an important event. How are we going to position ourselves in this respect? That remains to be determined.

[Bernard Trottier, Conservative, Etobicoke—Lakeshore, ON]

If I look at the roadmap financial breakdown for the current five-year period, I have to conclude that things will certainly evolve over the next phase. What will be the dominant factors? You talked about immigration and the birth rate. Certain technological factors will certainly affect the priorities in the next roadmap. Can you tell us what important factors are going to have an influence on the next phase?

[Jean-Pierre Gauthier]

What we have done up till now has been based on demographic and statistical findings. We are trying to determine what the situation is. The law talks about the vitality of communities and their development. And so we rely a lot on the information that allows us to determine what the situation is in the communities.

Afterwards, we try to see in our discussions with the communities what fields of action we should pursue. The topics that come up the most often are education and health. We also hear a lot about immigration, economic development, employability and so on.

Of course, people talk about emerging tendencies within each of these fields of activity. For instance, where health is concerned, there are all of these trending developments such as the application of new technologies and so forth. I'm thinking of distance medicine, for instance. I know that people are trying to see how it would be possible to serve smaller populations by using that technology. That is specific to health. The same comment applies to immigration and the economy.

[Bernard Trottier, Conservative, Etobicoke—Lakeshore, ON]

I see. I don't want to make assumptions about the work the department will be doing over the next 18 months, but I wonder if you could tell us whether expenditures relating to immigration, which are currently at the $30-million level, will increase during the next phase, given the high levels of immigration and the services that have to be offered to those new Canadians to ensure that they will integrate well?

[Jean-Pierre Gauthier]

I think it is too soon to know what we will see in the next federal strategy on official languages. We don't want to make assumptions about what will be discussed or heard.

That said, according to what we hear, clearly immigration is a priority concern for the communities overall. And because of that, a great deal of attention will be directed to it.

There are three types of challenges with regard to immigration, the recruitment of immigrants being the first, and their settlement being the second. Once they have decided to go to a particular place, they must be helped to settle in their community, they must find work, and all sorts of transitional measures must be put in place for them. Finally, these people have to be retained in order to remain members of the community. Often, when they have been encouraged to settle in a minority language community, the objective is to see to it that they will remain members of that community.

Those are the three big challenges. The Department of Citizenship and Immigration, through all of its programs but also with programs specific to the roadmap, is attempting to put the emphasis on immigration toward minority communities.

[Bernard Trottier, Conservative, Etobicoke—Lakeshore, ON]

Another important factor is the aging population and their related health care needs.

How do you work with the provinces that manage health care expenditures to offer services to the minority language communities?

[Jean-Pierre Gauthier]

Our colleagues at Health Canada have focused on two main areas of activity. I will myself focus on one aspect that is more relevant to your question. They invest a great deal in the training of health professionals, in a network of schools and institutions of higher learning where health care professionals who speak the minority language are trained.

[The Chair, Conservative, Michael Chong]

Thank you, Mr. Trottier.

Thank you, Mr. Scrimger and Mr. Gauthier, for your presentation.

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

There are three minutes left.

[The Chair, Conservative, Michael Chong]

No, the clock is wrong. It is 10 o'clock and so the hearing is adjourned. Thank you very much.

The meeting is adjourned.