Official Languages Committee on May 13th, 2014

[Lise St-Denis, Liberal, Saint-Maurice—Champlain, QC]

I assume you mean 70 anglophones for 30 francophones.

[Jacques Dubé]

That's right.

[Lise St-Denis, Liberal, Saint-Maurice—Champlain, QC]

Is bilingualism promoted with anglophones as well?

[Jacques Dubé]

Yes. We encourage the business community to use bilingual signage. The group is led by Larry Nelson. We promote bilingualism with both linguistic groups. Organizations such as Enterprise Greater Moncton, the Greater Moncton Chamber of Commerce and Downtown Moncton Centre-ville inc. also do promotion in both official languages.

[The Chair, Conservative, Michael Chong]

Thank you, Ms. St-Denis.

Ms. Bateman, the floor is yours.

[Joyce Bateman, Conservative, Winnipeg South Centre, MB]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I would like to sincerely thank all our witnesses.

My questions are specifically for Mr. Dubé.

In your presentation, you spoke of the knowledge economy being a way of the future for our young people. You said you invest in your employees. You also spoke of the Assomption Vie company and the ShiftCentral agency, that specializes in technologies and commercial information on the Internet.

As you perhaps know, our government is...

[Jacques Dubé]

I am sorry to interrupt you, but we are having trouble hearing you on this end of the table.

[Joyce Bateman, Conservative, Winnipeg South Centre, MB]

You said the knowledge economy was very important for our youth. You probably know, Mr. Dubé, that our government is trying to create jobs, encourage economic growth and particularly a long-term prosperity for generations to come. It is very important for us, as Canadians, everywhere across the country.

Our research tells us that the city of Moncton is known for its dynamic economy. According to your website, Moncton has the highest average salary in all of New Brunswick. The percentage of people with a post-secondary diploma and the employment rate are higher than the national average there. KPMG has indicated that you have a great economy as it pertains to labour. As for the competitiveness of costs, Moncton is at the head of the pack.

Could you give me a few more details? This interests me very much.

[Jacques Dubé]

If I understand correctly, you want me to give you more details on why Moncton has succeeded as a municipality.

As I said in my presentation, Moncton had to face some challenges, among them the closing of Eaton's and of the CN shops. In the end, entrepreneurs in the region had to pull themselves up by their bootstraps and establish a plan. Mr. Colford has just said that an industrial strategy is needed in the northern part of the province. I come from northern New Brunswick myself. I was born in Bathurst and I know a bit about the situation in those regions. First of all, you need a plan.

Without a plan, any road will do, right? At the end of the day, you need to have a plan. You need to know where you're going.

Moncton has succeeded through the spirit of entrepreneurship. The private sector took charge and laid out strategies. It took the lead and guided the economy at a time when it was weak. There were a lot of job losses; almost all the businesses on Main Street in Moncton were closed.

We quickly realized that one of our assets was bilingualism, meaning there was a huge pool of bilingual labour in the Greater Moncton area, which includes not only Moncton but also the neighbouring community of Dieppe and all of Kent county. The whole south-east of New Brunswick had a bilingual workforce.

[Joyce Bateman, Conservative, Winnipeg South Centre, MB]

You described your commitment to bilingualism as an investment, not an expense. That distinction is very important for all of Canada.

[Jacques Dubé]

Yes, absolutely. At the City of Moncton, we provide free French classes for our employees. Many employers, from both private and public sectors, encourage their employees to become bilingual.

We are doing more in our offer of service. Everyone must be served in the language of their choice.

Investments have been made, both by the municipality and the English-language school board, to put in place French immersion programs. The French-language school board has actively encouraged anglophones to be educated in French. The provincial government has played a major role with the school boards in this regard.

That explains in part why Moncton has succeeded on all fronts—economic, social and cultural. That is what led KPMG, as you said, to conclude that Moncton is the best place in Canada to do business.

[Joyce Bateman, Conservative, Winnipeg South Centre, MB]

That is incredible.

[Jacques Dubé]

It is because we are very diversified. We can offer services in both languages. We are going beyond that, in that we are trying to promote multiculturalism as well. Moncton's multicultural aspect is very important. For example, the Université de Moncton welcomes people from Africa who speak French. People from the African francophonie come to study at the Université de Moncton. We have to keep these people. They are all great people we absolutely need to keep with us.

But there is still a challenge for Moncton. Even if we are the best place in Canada to do business, even if we are the economic engine of New Brunswick, according to our numbers there will be 3,000 jobs to fill in Moncton by 2015. In other words, even though we emptied out the northern part of the province—all its inhabitants really are in Moncton now, myself included—we will still require 3,000 people to fill the jobs in Moncton. Why? The reality is that the economy is growing faster than the workforce. The baby boom bubble is bursting and the generations coming behind do not have the same numbers.

So, even though we are highly successful, we face great challenges. We must maintain this rhythm, maintain the economy. It is quite the challenge.

Earlier, Mr. Colford spoke of the Fort McMurray phenomenon out West. People are told that they need to go there. In my career, I was deputy minister of Economic Development in New Brunswick for six years. I went out West to see. I invited 50 people originally from New Brunswick who had settled in Calgary. I did the same thing in Toronto, in Ottawa, in Montreal and in Vancouver. I discovered that once people had moved there, if they did not return within five years, that was it; they were not coming back. If they have been there for five years, there is a good chance they have fallen in love, bought a house and made friends. It's not complicated. Their friends are no longer in Shippagan or in Moncton, but in Calgary and Fort McMurray. So, they don't return.

If we want to bring back people from New Brunswick, we have to do it quickly. Otherwise, if they are given the opportunity to stay there, they will, for the rest of their lives.

That is the challenge we face in Moncton.

On the other hand, the great success of Moncton is entrepreneurship. The private sector makes the economy thrive.

[The Chair, Conservative, Michael Chong]

All right, thank you.

Mr. Chisu, you have the floor.

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

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.

Thank you very much to the witnesses for their presentations.

I was looking especially at Mr. Colford's presentation. The 60% illiteracy issue is a huge problem, and is disturbing me in a country that is in the G-7 group. Mr. Caron is telling me that the Collège communautaire du Nouveau-Brunswick offers technical training in French, including training for specialized trades.

You are recruiting for post-secondary education. You are recruiting people from the province only from the 40% who are qualified by literacy to go into post-secondary education. What can you do to increase literacy? If you are looking at the trades you need to have a basic understanding of mathematics, not only language, to be able to do something in the province.

Mr. Caron, what are you doing? What kinds of trades are you specializing in on your five campuses? How are you working with Mr. Colford to gather the needs of the province?

It's unacceptable for a rich province like New Brunswick, which has the statue of the lobster I think—I visited there—that it is in that situation, that you cannot work together and establish an economic plan and an industrial plan. You also have technologists in the province. You have a nuclear power plant, which needs a lot of skilled, qualified employees.

How are you developing the trades? What trades are you offering in both languages, French and English? How are you cooperating with Mr. Colford? I am also bringing the three levels of government into this area: federal, provincial, and municipal. How can they work together to get out of this situation in the province?

[Armand Caron]

Thank you.

Your question has two parts.

First of all, in regards to skilled trades, your question echoes Ms. St-Denis' earlier question. We work with the industry in particular to determine the needs in skilled trades. Certain trades no longer exist or have greatly changed. So we must adapt. I believe we are meet the needs of the market in that regard.

You also asked what we could do about the fact that 60% of the population has literacy problems. For our part, we would like the Collège communautaire du Nouveau-Brunswick to have the mandate to train both students with their high school diploma and those without it. At one point, the government thought it could ask the Fédération d'alphabétisation du Nouveau-Brunswick to find all the people who had not finished high school. In my view, I think we must go further. The program must be institutionalized and the mandate must be given to the Collège communautaire du Nouveau-Brunswick. It would be geared to those who don't have the necessary skills in mathematics or in French, or those who haven't finished high school. In New Brunswick, in public schools, when we say high school, we mean grade 12.

We spoke of the low literacy levels in New Brunswick, particularly in the northern part of the province. We have a lot of work to do in that regard. There is no doubt about that.

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

When you speak about education and you speak about the trades, to build something—I'm a professional engineer—you need the engineering team. You need the technologies. You need the workers who understand the project, because the engineers alone cannot accomplish the project.

My question was whether you are working in this context with labour and also with the technological field and the engineering field. I think that New Brunswick has a lot of talent and a lot of opportunities; much can be accomplished in the province. I see countries that have the same territory and the same population, and they can accomplish a lot. We have opportunities here.

I think it is important that you ask yourselves what you can do for the province, not what the province or the government can do for you. If you are not coming up with proposals that you would like to develop in the province, the north and the south and so on—

[The Chair, Conservative, Michael Chong]

Okay. Thank you very much, Mr. Chisu.

Go ahead, Mr. Caron.

[Armand Caron]

The Collège communautaire du Nouveau-Brunswick already offers a number of courses in engineering technology. It is important for us to have students in the two-year building engineering technology program, for example, continue their studies after the program is over. We are currently working with the Université de Moncton to ensure that those students can use their two-year program to their advantage and go on to obtain an engineering degree, for example, without having to retake some of the courses. Unfortunately, institutions do not recognize all of the credits students have earned elsewhere. In fact, they are sometimes asked to retake some courses or to complete at least one of the two years.

We are trying to meet the needs of the labour market in terms of technology, but also to give young people the opportunity to continue their studies and build a career.

[The Chair, Conservative, Michael Chong]

Thank you.

Mr. Nicholls, you have the floor.

[Jamie Nicholls, NDP, Vaudreuil—Soulanges, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

My question is for Mr. Dubé.

I know that in terms of immigration in Moncton from 1997 to 2001 there were 8.8 immigrants per 10,000 people, and for the period of 2007 to 2011 there were 37.5 immigrants per 10,000 people. That represents a 324% increase, yet the federal government's response—and I'd like to ask more generally about the federal government's role in infrastructure and culture and the effects of the cuts on Moncton—in 2012 was to close the regional immigration office, the CIC office in Moncton. Enterprise Greater Moncton's economic strategy and the comments you just made show that one of the priorities for promoting Moncton's economy is immigration, repatriation, and retention. Certainly the federal office could have had a role to play in that. Unfortunately, now it's closed.

Could I ask you more generally about the budget cuts and their effect on Moncton's economic development? Other than immigration, have you seen a loss of funding for culture, heritage, infrastructure, or other areas, and can you speak to the immigration issue?

[Jacques Dubé]

Thanks very much for the question.

Firstly, on the immigration question, one of the realities of Canada is that regions such as Moncton or other regions outside of the major centres in Canada do not benefit from immigration the way we'd like to. I would argue that Montreal has a refugee problem, not an immigration problem. Moncton, New Brunswick, has an immigration challenge. The closure of the immigration office in Moncton—they moved it to Fredericton—certainly was disappointing. It certainly didn't help. However, we continue to put a lot of emphasis on immigration.

We just went through an immigration summit with the support of the federal government. The federal government gave us money, along with the province, to put on an immigration summit and come up with an immigration strategy for greater Moncton. That strategy is going to be espoused by the greater Moncton municipalities. In fact, the City of Moncton has two full-time dedicated staffers who are focused solely on attracting immigrants. When they get up in the morning their job is to make sure that immigrants coming to Moncton, who are coming through various consulates or through the programs of the Province of New Brunswick, are welcomed. We give them sales pitches. We guide them to different places.

We have organizations like MAGMA, which is a multicultural organization, and CAFi, which is a francophone version of that. Those agencies are well funded by the federal government. We haven't seen any challenges in that area.

Where we have challenges in immigration, frankly, is that I don't think there's a culture out there in the embassies worldwide that is necessarily conducive to having immigrants land in rural Canada. New Brunswick is a rural province, and Moncton, even though it's a city, is still 130,000 people. It's a small city in Canada. We need more help from the embassies in helping immigrants choose areas other than Vancouver, Toronto, and Montreal.

Part of our immigration strategy now is to go to Toronto and meet with immigrants who have already landed in Canada, and encourage them to come to Moncton. That's working. We're doing trade shows and job fairs, going to Toronto and Montreal and other places with our own staff and partners, and saying, “We have real jobs for real people, here in Moncton.”

The other area that's challenging in immigration is the cultural reality of immigration. We still have employers that are reticent to get involved in a process that takes nine months for the immigrant who happens to be in Ireland to come to Canada and land in a real job. The reality, as I mentioned earlier, is that we have 3,000 jobs to fill in Moncton. It's hard to fill the funnel when you have to wait nine months for that little grain of sand to fall into the funnel and come out the other end. It doesn't work very well. If there's something that can be done to fast-track.... I know the Government of Canada is working on that. Minister Kenney is trying to fast-track the processes and all that, but there's a lot of red tape to be cut in that area.

Another area that could be helpful is to educate the embassies more in terms of what's available, and to work more closely with the entrepreneurs to try to change that cultural mindset that says immigrants are bad or it's going to take too long and cost too much money. There has to be a better mousetrap than we have now, in my opinion.

I think I've touched on immigration, the CIC office closure. There was one other point you made and I forgot to note it.

[Jamie Nicholls, NDP, Vaudreuil—Soulanges, QC]

More specifically, you said that the responsibilities for immigrants have been passed on to other organizations. Would you recommend stable and perhaps increased federal funding to those organizations in light of the disaster that the closure of the CIC office was for Moncton?

[Jacques Dubé]

I can't speak to that issue, because what I know is that MAGMA and CAFi are well funded. Certainly, as a municipality we would welcome any federal support in terms of our efforts.

Why did the municipality get involved in immigration? Because we feel that there's a void there. We're not getting the results we need.

[Jamie Nicholls, NDP, Vaudreuil—Soulanges, QC]

But it was obviously a void left by the federal government when they pulled out.