Official Languages Committee on Oct. 27th, 2011

[Sylvia Martin-Laforge]

In terms of each of the programs, the people in the health care sector worked together, for example. People from each sector worked with those whose area was of interest to them. Horizontally, we gave advice on the highest indicators. However, for an indicator to remain high, it has to come from the base. It cannot work if nothing changes and the others do not provide answers.

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

Okay. That pretty well answers my question.

I have another question.

How much time do I have left?

[The Chair, Conservative, Michael Chong]

You have one minute.

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

You felt that Quebec's English-speaking community seemed somewhat forgotten in the road map, because it talks about larger programs that may not have equivalents in Quebec. When the next official road map is created, what does your community need to become better represented?

[Stephen Thompson]

There are some wins in Quebec around the English-speaking community. In the region where Mr. Gourde comes from, Quebec City, the English-speaking population is seen as a positive part of the community. There are economic benefits to having an English-speaking community, and benefits in terms of attracting and retaining immigrants to the regions.

I'm trying to say that there are benefits to Quebec for having an English minority. The discussion must begin when you plan the follow-on to the road map. If you're talking about our community, the discussion must be had with Quebec: what are we going to do together for the English-speaking community of Quebec? If that is not done, we will wind up again with a road map that does not give our community access to programs, for example, in immigration, childhood, manpower, etc.

There must be talks; there must be a bilateral understanding between the federal and provincial governments before support to our community is considered.

[The Chair, Conservative, Michael Chong]

Thank you very much.

Mr. Weston.

[John Weston, Conservative, West Vancouver—Sunshine Coast—Sea to Sky Country, BC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mrs. Martin-Laforge and Mr. Thompson, welcome to the committee.

I noted two things that you said. First of all, you said that the use of the language was an example of commitment to the community. This type of commitment is characteristic of a community's development.

You also said that you emphasize economic development. In addition, you said that our minister has demonstrated commitment. There is no doubt, this government is really emphasizing bilingualism and the development of minority communities.

I am an anglophone from British Columbia who makes an effort to speak French. I was very proud of our minister, during the last Olympic Games, which were held in the riding I represent. Both official languages were represented. When the presence of both languages was lacking, the minister took action to ensure that French was spoken during the closing ceremony.

The members of this committee have made the same type of commitment. I think that every committee member likes what you are doing and what the minority communities in their region are doing.

What do we need to do to have a roadmap, without any commitment from the government?

What would it take to get you to the place where you've done so well that we don't need government involvement anymore, to the point where the community engagement and the economic development make linguistic robustness and strength a theme that transcends our government?

[Sylvia Martin-Laforge]

I'm an optimist. I have to say that. I am an optimist, and I would like to see a day where the English-speaking community.... I won't speak for the French,

francophones outside of Quebec.

I could speak for francophones in Quebec, but let me just speak for the English-speaking here.

I'm an optimist to say that we will be, 15 years down the road, in a place where the threat of an English-speaking minority in Quebec will not be considered the current threat. It will not be considered a threat in 15 years. That will take 15 years of working, finding common areas to work on for our community within the Government of Quebec, where we can demonstrate that if you take something away from somebody else, it doesn't take it away from everybody, that we can work together, that we are a contributing group, that a strong English-speaking community is not a threat to the francophones.

I've lived in Toronto as an anglophone and I didn't feel part of Toronto. I'm back in Quebec. I'm a Quebecker. I'm an anglophone from Quebec. I don't feel part of....

Lots of people don't understand what that feels like, to live in Quebec and be an anglophone, to go to Toronto and not feel part of Toronto and the rest of Canada. I love B.C., but I'm not.... I'm an anglophone Quebecker. I want to stay in Quebec, and I want to live and I don't want to feel like a threat.

I'm not atypical of my community. Even in my generation, I don't think I'm atypical. I think people want to see, in 15 years, that kind of living, without that political threat.

[John Weston, Conservative, West Vancouver—Sunshine Coast—Sea to Sky Country, BC]

I really like the fact that you have a schedule and specific objectives.

You recently held a conference for anglophone seniors in Quebec. Let's go from the general to the specific. What was the purpose of this conference? Did many people attend the conference? How did this event further your cause so that, in 15 years' time, you will get the atmosphere that you were looking for?

[Sylvia Martin-Laforge]

We've had two network events in the last eight months.

The conference brought the service providers together to see how, together, they could work better and find specific themes they could advance to the provincial government, because a lot of the things are under provincial jurisdiction. They wanted to make themselves heard and to change policies and programs so that the English-speaking seniors could get better service from the Province of Quebec.

[The Chair, Conservative, Michael Chong]

Thank you very much.

We'll go to Mr. Harris.

[Dan Harris, NDP, Scarborough Southwest, ON]

Thank you, and thank you very much for being here today.

I have one foot in both worlds, both of them in minority languages, being a franco-Ontarian from Toronto. My mother's family is mostly, nowadays, on the West Island of Montreal but comes from different areas of Quebec. But of course Montreal is where the best economic opportunities are for anglophones in Quebec currently.

I just want to talk first about the road map and the mid-term evaluation, or perhaps the lack thereof. As Mr. Bélanger brought up, there may not be anything public that comes out midway through. Mr. Trottier brought up the question of whether there are things in the road map that aren't working very well. You yourself were talking about the need, perhaps, to focus on certain key issues rather than broadening the scope.

I just want to ask what your thoughts are on how useful a mid-term evaluation would be, because of course even as this road map is ongoing, the next one is being planned. How useful would it be for you and others to have that mid-term report so that you could start the planning?

[Sylvia Martin-Laforge]

The process for the mid-term report was done. A questionnaire was sent to key stakeholders. Many of these stakeholders are part of the QCGN. Others are not. I don't know what has been said by key stakeholders. I know anecdotally what the members tell us, and in specific sectors I know more than what is anecdotal. For example, in the health sector, CHSSN, Community Health and Social Services Network, asked us to help them with their evaluation, being a third-party evaluation.

I don't know what our sector said. I think that any best practice or any knowledge you can find out from a formative evaluation is good to know before you go into the formative evaluation. Good practice in evaluation is that you look at the formative and you work towards the summative. So the answer is yes.

[Dan Harris, NDP, Scarborough Southwest, ON]

I definitely agree that more information is always a good thing, and certainly I've always tried to collect as much as possible.

Now, it has of course been mentioned that you get about $1 million worth of funding per year from different levels of government, more or less. And of course this is to help represent virtually a million anglophones in Quebec. That works out to about a dollar a person, which is actually not a lot of money.

How do you think it would affect your ability to represent and advocate for the community should there be cutbacks to that money you receive?

[Sylvia Martin-Laforge]

When the QCGN did our environmental scan a couple of years ago toward our strategic planning exercise, over 70 people were interviewed. It was felt at the time that the QCGN provided a very important service to the members. We work at a member level, so when you talk about representing the members, we also work with the members around their own ability in their communities, at the provincial level and at the federal level.

For example, the Senate committee came last year. A lot of our community members had never presented to the Senate, had not had that experience of presenting to the Senate. Ladies and gentlemen, if you've never done it before, it's a little unnerving. We helped our members prepare for the Senate so they could put forward their priorities, their challenges, and their concerns. Mr. Gourde, MCDC, Gaspé--these folks asked us for help to prepare. If we get cut, it's not about the QCGN representation; it's about our members having the ability to talk within their communities to their municipalities, provincial and federal...about their needs and challenges.

[The Chair, Conservative, Michael Chong]

Thank you very much.

Mr. Menegakis.

[Costas Menegakis, Conservative, Richmond Hill, ON]

Good morning. Thank you very much for being here.

I have to say, your presentation and your presence here are very dear to my heart. I was born and raised in Montreal. I lived the first 26 years of my life there.

It's interesting. You say you lived in Toronto for a little while and never really felt part of Toronto.

[Sylvia Martin-Laforge]

Twenty-three years, and it was never home.

[Costas Menegakis, Conservative, Richmond Hill, ON]

Obviously I'm just north of Toronto. I represent the riding of Richmond Hill and I'm very much a part of that community, and I feel a part of it, but be it ever so humble, there's no place like home. Certainly I feel I'm a Montrealer. I feel I'm a Quebecker, having grown up in an immigrant home, in a Greek home, primarily in the English community but very much a part of the bilingual fabric of Montreal.

I've heard the number of about a million English-speaking people in Quebec. I question that, because it's not the just the people who have English as their mother tongue. A lot of people are immigrants from ethnic communities who are moving to the country, and moving in the 1950s and the 1960s, the first language they learned when they came was English. If we put all those people together, I would suspect the number may be considerably higher than a million. Maybe, maybe not, but it certainly is as much of a challenge to find services in English in many parts of Quebec as it is to find French in other parts of Canada.

I take exception--and some of my colleagues may not share my view--when we refer to English Canadians or French Canadians as minority groups anywhere. I just don't like the word “minorities”. It's just a personal thing. I understand numbers; that's why we talk like that. It doesn't resonate well with me. To me, Canada is English and French, and it should be from coast to coast to coast. That's one of the reasons why I'm very happy to be part of this committee.

I want to talk a little bit about your conference. My colleague John Weston asked a few questions about it. Was it well-attended by seniors? What was the attendance at that conference?

[Sylvia Martin-Laforge]

Absolutely. In the spring, there were almost 100 people there, and the follow-up to it was a more focused conference, so we had about 30 to 40 people. That was deliberate. That was to focus in a bit more.

[Costas Menegakis, Conservative, Richmond Hill, ON]

As my colleague Dan Harris said, $1 million is not an awful lot of money to communicate to over one million people. I see your role as making sure that people have access to services in the English language that they need. I would think that would be a major concern of seniors who have contributed their entire life to the country and their community as working citizens. Now they need some services that are vital to them.

Can you elaborate a little on what came out of the conference, in your experience, and what the key priorities would be of anglophone seniors in the province?

[Sylvia Martin-Laforge]

They want to know how to access, in their language, information about services. While government officials look for programs and services, seniors want to know where to go—and not only seniors, but caregivers. There is a big concern that they cannot understand well enough or get services because they don't know where they are.

As much as in Laval, where it's a growing English-speaking community, Vaudreuil-Soulanges is exploding in its English-speaking community. They want to know where the services are. They want to be able to attract people to give them services—for example, nurses, whether they be francophone or anglophone, as long as they can speak English and understand well enough to give the service.

It's interesting about seniors. It's anglophone seniors, but you're talking about Greek seniors. We had people from the Italian community, from the Greek community, and from the black community. So seniors are not about just the traditional Scottish English-speaking community; it's crosscutting in terms of who it helps.

I have to tell you something, if I have a second. Gemma Raeburn-Baynes was one of the winners in the little booklet I gave to you. She does a lot of work with youth and seniors. She's a volunteer extraordinaire. She said on TV, “When somebody recognizes you outside of your community, it's significant”. I found that fascinating. We are a community of communities in Quebec.

[Costas Menegakis, Conservative, Richmond Hill, ON]

Correct. I totally agree with you.

[Sylvia Martin-Laforge]

So our community of communities transcends just what we might look like today, so the Greek community, the Italian community--there were Greek people who represent Greek seniors, Italian seniors....

Thank you for that.

[The Chair, Conservative, Michael Chong]

Thank you.

Monsieur Godin.