Official Languages Committee on May 27th, 2014

[Suzanne Bossé]

I will be brief.

I think it is very clear. Linguistic duality, the fact of having two official languages, offers very clear potential. The government has recognized its importance to Canadian identity in various speeches from the Throne, when it talked about the two official languages.

However, that potential is certainly not fully exploited. You can see this if you consider school registrations and French immersion programs. There are not enough schools. The francophone perspective is not sufficiently integrated into all of the negotiations of international accords, whether with Europe or other continents. This means that francophone immigration and the importance of meeting our challenges regarding the aging population and the exodus of young people are not sufficiently taken into account...

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

More specifically, Ms. Bossé, you mentioned young people. I noted that since the 1990s, your organization has received more than $25 million for investments.

Do you have some concrete examples to demonstrate how your investments contributed to increasing the economic opportunities for young people throughout Canada, but also elsewhere in the world?

[Suzanne Bossé]

I don't know who received $25 million...

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

It says that your organization supposedly received more than $25 million…

[Suzanne Bossé]

Are you really talking about our organization?

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

Yes.

[Suzanne Bossé]

The FCFA is supposed to have received $25 million for youth?

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

The money was supposed to provide help for young people, seniors, women, early childhood, and support for literacy and health.

Could you give me a concrete example of your various activities for your clients and how our investments have contributed to building their economic capacity?

[The Chair, Conservative, Michael Chong]

Thank you, Ms. Bateman.

Ms. Bossé, you can answer the question.

[Suzanne Bossé]

The FCFA coordinates the activities and actions of organizations working for the overall development of communities. The federation does not develop programs exclusively and specifically for young people, because a youth federation does that. I would have to find out the specific investments for the youth program.

[The Chair, Conservative, Michael Chong]

Mr. Thibault, briefly, please.

[Laurier Thibault]

Thank you very much, Mr. hair.

Madam, in order to answer your question or a part of your question, we have to tell you that, at the moment, our colleagues are doing a lot of work with Canadian Parents for French and Canadian Youth for French. Together, they are trying to make sure that young anglophone students registered in French immersion programs can continue their education in French at post-secondary level.

It is important for immersion students to be able to continue their education in French. If they do not, unfortunately, there is a danger that they will lose what they have learned in French in subsequent years. For us, that is very important. That is why we are working in partnership with those two organizations.

Mr. Chair, I have to tell you that I am also grateful to Canadian Heritage; they saw how receptive the colleges were to the importance of immersion. The department has provided us with funds to continue our work in that area.

[The Chair, Conservative, Michael Chong]

Thank you, Mr. Thibault.

The floor now goes to Ms. St-Denis.

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

Thank you , Mr. Chair.

First, I would like to speak to Ms. Gionet.

My name is Lise St-Denis. I represent a constituency in Quebec and I am vice-chair of the committee.

Ms. Gionet, how do you see the future of French in Fort McMurray and in Alberta?

[Angélina Gionet]

I heard what Mr. Thibault just mentioned. The fact that people like that, people outside Alberta, are continuing to train French speakers and continuing to help French immersion students, allows us to get employees here. For example, because of those trainers, the majority of my employees are working here today in an early-childhood daycare service. They are anglophones who have chosen to work in French. We are the only point of entry.

Those French-speakers give us a great deal of support. In other provinces, they have the opportunity to practice what they have learned, whereas here in Alberta, that is not the case for young people who go through immersion.

In my experience, when I go to conventions in order to try to give value and normalcy to the French fact, I meet those kids in immersion. They are so proud to come and tell me that they speak French. So I talk with them, and, four words later, they cannot continue the conversation. It is sad to see that we cannot support them and establish systems that would allow them to continue learning in French, as is done so well elsewhere, from what I am hearing from the other participants.

That is what we are lacking. There is really no openness to the French fact on the part of the provincial government. Normalizing French would be a huge achievement.

Yesterday, I went to the Leading the North conference that is going on here. Everyone was talking about the economy, which is booming in all sectors, agriculture, oil and gas exploration, food, and so on. They were talking about the wealth from the east of the country that has come here. I was in the room; I was almost crying and saying “Wow!“

Recently, 50 or so of us francophones were taking part in an activity in French. We added up the total number of years of education all of us had, and, for the 50 people sitting in the room, it was a significant number. That is a good deal of wealth too, but we need to wake the government up. I really do not know how that can be done, but we cannot continue as we are.

An awful lot of francophone are assimilating, and very quickly too. Alberta has a high assimilation rate. It takes 99% of the people in francophone communities to pass on the language in order to keep French alive, but here in Alberta, that rate is 79%. So something must be done because the next generation of francophones is being assimilated very quickly.

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

Recently, we have heard about Quebec workers being duped by bogus employment agencies in Alberta. In that situation, are you able to help people who have been taken advantage of? We have heard, for example, about Quebeckers who arrive in Alberta, people who have paid to get to that province, and who end up with nothing. No job, nowhere to live, nothing.

[Angélina Gionet]

There is no lack of work here, but, yes, we have seen a lot of cases like that. A good number of Canadian francophones have difficulty finding a job in Fort McMurray because of a number of factors, including a lack of receptiveness to speakers of French. It is difficult for them.

Personally, I welcome people in that situation. We help them as much as we can. We have fed them and put them up in our offices. I have even dipped into my own wallet more than once, especially for single mothers. They are really vulnerable. I could spend the whole day telling you stories like that. It is not a passion or a motivation for us. For us, living in French is a very deep source of inspiration. It is the only thing that allows us to continue operating in the working conditions we have at the moment.

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

Thank you.

Mr. Thibault, are colleges in minority situations underfunded compared to anglophone institutions?

[Laurier Thibault]

We have always said that we need additional support. Given the percentage of francophones, providing education in French is a lot more expensive, especially if we want to be competitive. If we want to offer the same programs as anglophone colleges, the small ratio of francophones always makes it more expensive to do so.

That is why I was saying in my presentation that we want to be able to keep supporting our colleges through infrastructure programs. The objective is to have modern infrastructure and cutting-edge technology. If students or their parents realize that a college is lacking in tools or that its technology is outdated, they may well choose an anglophone college.

You are right, college education in French definitely implies additional costs.

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

Do francophones living in minority situations still have to fight legal battles with regard to education?

[The Chair, Conservative, Michael Chong]

Thank you, Ms. St-Denis.

Go ahead, Mr. Thibault.

[Laurier Thibault]

School boards in a number of provinces are currently before the courts. Unfortunately, there are too many challenges. Section 23 of the Charter recognizes those rights, but school boards are constantly having to demand them in court.

We are in favour of continuity. We do a lot of work with francophone school boards with a view to bringing in francophone high school and immersion students so that they can continue their studies in French at college level. I believe that it is a plus for them. When they enter the labour market after that training, they will have advantages and employment possibilities that their unilingual anglophone colleagues do not have.

[The Chair, Conservative, Michael Chong]

Thank you.

I now give the floor to Mr. Gourde.

[Jacques Gourde, Conservative, Lotbinière—Chutes-de-la-Chaudière, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

My thanks to the witnesses for joining us today.

Mr. Thibault, my first question goes to you.

In your presentation, you touched on part of the problem when you said that college programs have to adapt according to the specificities of the labour market. What we are talking about is allowing young Canadians to acquire the knowledge they need to get into the job market as quickly as possible.

Is there a gap between the needs of industry and the way programs adapt to those needs? Can it take two, three or four years to do that? Does industry help you by telling you, for example, that it is about to start using new technologies and that it would probably be important for you to prepare future workers accordingly?

[Laurier Thibault]

Our colleges are very close to industry and business. It is essential for them to be connected to the labour market because they have to respond to the needs expressed by business. I have often seen companies ready to cooperate with colleges in terms of equipment, for example. When a piece of equipment is very expensive, some companies will provide financial support to make sure that the equipment is the latest. The equipment that students have at their disposal during their college training really is the same as the equipment in use in business.

We are also very creative. Infrastructure is very expensive. In terms of training in the trades, the three colleges in minority situations are quite well equipped. La Cité has a training centre for the trades in Orleans. Collège Boréal in Sudbury has good equipment for training in the trades. A few years ago, the Collège communautaire du Nouveau-Brunswick in Bathurst updated and modernized all the equipment it uses for trades training.

As I said in my presentation, your colleague, Minister Valcourt, was very surprised to see how creative we are.

You are announcing a boom in naval shipbuilding policies for the Maritimes, but how will francophone communities be able to take advantage? In Prince Edward Island and Nova Scotia, getting the equipment to meet that need is not possible. We asked ourselves whether there was a creative way to do that. So we established a hybrid, decentralized welding program. The theory part is offered online, but, for the practical part, the colleges are looking to see if students in their areas are near an anglophone college. If they are, agreements will be made with the anglophone college so that those students can use the equipment at times that are reserved for them. If no such college exists, the agreements will be made with companies so that the students can do their practical training there. They can do welding in a large company, for example.

This makes a lot of sense. Employers are able to judge the potential of future employees. When the time comes to hire recent graduates, those employers do not have to agonize over the decision. The company internships that the colleges organize greatly facilitate post-graduation hiring. The employers can see the students and that is why, at college level, the student placement rate is excellent. If they see good candidates, they will not waste their time with newspaper, TV or online advertisements, they will hire the student doing an internship with their company.

This hybrid training, whether by distance learning or “in person” in companies or other colleges, is a new, creative way to meet the needs of the labour market.