Official Languages Committee on April 20th, 2016

[Bradley Trost, Conservative, Saskatoon—University, SK]

Madam Minister, your mandate letter includes a number of directives from the Prime Minister, including the following:

Establish a free, online service for learning and retaining English and French as second languages.

I have two questions for you. First, I would like to know how much money you are planning to allocate to this project, and second, I would like to know if this is the best way to use that money.

There are already a number of free services like this available. I used them when I was taking French classes. I believe that is also the case in English.

Are you not reinventing the wheel? The civil service has services like this and, as I said in French, there are plenty of free services.

[Mélanie Joly, Liberal, Ahuntsic-Cartierville, QC]

Thank you for your question.

I'll be working on that specific project with my parliamentary secretary. The idea is to increase access to online tools that help to develop a knowledge of the second language.

It was our idea not only to promote bilingualism but also to do more than that: to help Canadians really become bilingual. By having a modern way of developing the skills of Canadians, we will be able to better achieve that goal.

[Bradley Trost, Conservative, Saskatoon—University, SK]

But shouldn't the government do a survey to see what is out there? As someone who has studied for several years on and off, I know there are an awful lot of free language tools out there in both English and French. They are two of the world's most popular languages. Isn't there a survey we could use to see what's needed?

What was the budget? Do you have a budget for this, or is this going to be another expenditure that's eventually added to the deficit?

[Mélanie Joly, Liberal, Ahuntsic-Cartierville, QC]

My colleague Mr. Boissonnault has already done that survey, and we are already working on the project. This was a clear commitment as part of our electoral platform, and this is also why it's in my mandate letter. It was also a project that our colleague Mauril Bélanger had worked on in the past. In the context of looking at all different scenarios to increase access, we will eventually be able to establish a budget.

[John Nater, Conservative, Perth—Wellington, ON]

I'd like to follow up on Mr. Trost's question.

Is there any risk that establishing an online tool will eventually be a way of reducing live, in-person French language training across the government? Is there a risk of our relying too much on an online tool rather than in-person learning?

[Mélanie Joly, Liberal, Ahuntsic-Cartierville, QC]

This is complementary to what was already being done under the existing programs. This is clearly not a way to reduce language training that is already being given. It is just a better way to empower Canadians to learn the second language and to do it in an easier way at home or at work. It is for all Canadians, not just those in our public service or those who have recently come into the country.

[John Nater, Conservative, Perth—Wellington, ON]

We talked a little bit about Portage, the new translation tool. Have you personally had an opportunity to review the Portage tool? What are your thoughts on it?

[Mélanie Joly, Liberal, Ahuntsic-Cartierville, QC]

The idea behind the Portage tool was to contribute to the range of tools that was already available in order to improve internal communication in the public service. We wanted public servants to feel really comfortable sending internal emails in the language of their choice and for their colleagues to be able to respond in their language of choice.

The goal was certainly not to reduce the Translation Bureau's resources and it was certainly not to avoid our official languages obligations.

[The Chair, Liberal, Denis Paradis]

We will now move on to Ms. Lapointe and Mr. Anandasangaree, who will be sharing their time.

[Linda Lapointe, Liberal, Rivière-des-Mille-Îles, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you very much for being here with us today, Madam Minister.

I would like to say hello to Mauril Bélanger, who is reading all of the minutes of our meetings. I know how much he cares about official languages. I suppose he will be able to read all of this.

[Mélanie Joly, Liberal, Ahuntsic-Cartierville, QC]

We send him our regards.

[Linda Lapointe, Liberal, Rivière-des-Mille-Îles, QC]

Official languages are very important to us.

What are your plans to make sure that the 150th anniversary celebrations are held in both official languages so that people recognize Canada's proud anglophone and francophone heritage? In my riding, north of Montreal, there are anglophone minorities in Deux-Montagnes and Rosemère. What impact will this have on linguistic minority communities?

[Mélanie Joly, Liberal, Ahuntsic-Cartierville, QC]

Thank you for the question.

For the 150th anniversary celebrations, funding will be allocated based on a pan-Canadian approach and initiatives will be presented by organizations and partners. As I mentioned in the speech I gave at the beginning of the meeting, we have very clear criteria to ensure that all of the projects proposed by the various proponents comply with the Official Languages Act. What is more, some projects are specifically designed to celebrate linguistic duality. That is what is happening with the pan-Canadian projects.

There will also be funding allocated for community projects. Our goal is to have community projects in every riding of the country. We also want to celebrate our country's unique linguistic duality in many ridings. Some of the project will be presented by various proponents and partners. That is why I mentioned in my speech that we added four themes, which until recently, were not a primary focus of the 150th anniversary celebrations. One of those themes is inclusion and diversity, which of course includes our linguistic duality.

[Linda Lapointe, Liberal, Rivière-des-Mille-Îles, QC]

Thank you very much.

I will leave some time for my colleague, Gary Anandasangaree.

[Gary Anandasangaree, Liberal, Scarborough—Rouge Park, ON]

Thank you, Ms. Lapointe.

Madam Minister, I heard you mention some changes that you have made to your department's standards and services, mainly with regard to the delegation of authority, which allows public servants to approve applications for a certain amount of funding.

Can you give us more information about the cost of this decision? What impact will this decision have, particularly on minority linguistic communities?

[Mélanie Joly, Liberal, Ahuntsic-Cartierville, QC]

Thank you for your question.

I had the opportunity to answer part of that question earlier, when I spoke about the delegation of authority for all funding applications under $75,000. The reaction across the country has been very positive. Of course, people across Canada welcomed our historic reinvestment of $1.9 billion in arts and culture. Right now, people are very pleased with the the internal reform, which addresses the fact that the allocation of grants and contributions was becoming too political and, to a lesser extent, mitigates bureaucracy. There was a real bottleneck in Ottawa. This change meets a real need and organizations have been asking for this in recent years.

[The Chair, Liberal, Denis Paradis]

Mr. Choquette, you have the floor and you have one minute.

[François Choquette, NDP, Drummond, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Once again, Madam Minister, I thank you for being here to answer our questions.

The Commissioner of Official Languages issued a very important report about access to justice in both official languages. Unfortunately, that report has been gathering dust. I hope that you are going to dust it off and take a good look at it because it makes some really good recommendations. I am talking about the report of the Commissioner of Official Languages on access to justice.

As you know, I introduced a private member's bill, Bill C-203, to require judges who are appointed to the Supreme Court to be bilingual and to be able to express themselves in both languages. I think that is extremely important. This issue has been under debate for a long time, nearly 10 years now. Yvon Godin, former member for Acadie-Bathurst, fought for years to try to make this happen. I hope that you will support my bill. That is the first thing that I wanted to say.

I have another question for you.

The Translation Bureau has already said that the automatic translation tool would be used only for internal communication and to write emails. Is that correct?

[Mélanie Joly, Liberal, Ahuntsic-Cartierville, QC]

To answer your first question, it goes without saying that we are in favour of appointing bilingual justices to the Supreme Court. The Prime Minister has said that many times. I want to reiterate to you how important that is.

As for the translation tool—of course my colleague, Judy Foote could speak to that subject more because it falls under her responsibility—it was meant for internal communications. It could help a francophone, for example, write an email in French and send it to an Anglophone colleague, who would then be able to read it and understand the information. It was just an extra tool. It was not linked to future cuts at the Translation Bureau. That was really not the objective. The goal was to find new ways to communicate. Your Conservative colleague mentioned earlier that he was able to improve his knowledge of French by using digital tools. It is somewhat the same idea here.

We must explore every avenue when it comes to learning a second language. Computers offer a great deal of possibilities.

[The Chair, Liberal, Denis Paradis]

Time is up and so ends our meeting.

Thank you very much, minister.

[Mélanie Joly, Liberal, Ahuntsic-Cartierville, QC]

It was my pleasure.

[The Chair, Liberal, Denis Paradis]

Thank you for your excellent presentation.

[Mélanie Joly, Liberal, Ahuntsic-Cartierville, QC]

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Denis Paradis]

Thank you very much, Mr. Lussier and Mr. Gauthier, for being here with us today.

In closing, I want to remind the members of the committee that when we return on Monday, we will be hearing from the Commissioner of Official Languages. We still do not know who we will be welcoming next Wednesday.

[Mélanie Joly, Liberal, Ahuntsic-Cartierville, QC]

If I may, Mr. Chair, I want to remind the committee that I would be pleased to work with you. If you have any questions or want to have information sessions on specific issues, my colleagues at Canadian Heritage and I would be pleased to share aspects of the files in order to improve debate in Parliament, and to protect and promote our official languages.