Evidence of meeting #10 for Official Languages in the 42nd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was already.
A video is available from Parliament.
Liberal
Conservative
Bernard Généreux Conservative Montmagny—L'Islet—Kamouraska—Rivière-du-Loup, QC
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Welcome, Minister.
Conservative
Bernard Généreux Conservative Montmagny—L'Islet—Kamouraska—Rivière-du-Loup, QC
I'll start with a brief question before I move on to the others.
You recently gave an interview on TV5. You were asked why the words “official languages” had been removed from the name of your department. I must admit that I had a hard time understanding the answer.
Very simply, can you tell us whether there a particular reason for this?
Liberal
Mélanie Joly Liberal Ahuntsic-Cartierville, QC
I'm happy to have an opportunity to explain. We take a government-wide, interdepartmental approach to official languages.
What does this mean? It's similar to the approach taken with indigenous peoples, in which several departments have responsibilities. Official languages are the same. As Minister of Canadian Heritage, I'm responsible for coordinating the work of all of the departments and ministers involved in these issues.
Conservative
Bernard Généreux Conservative Montmagny—L'Islet—Kamouraska—Rivière-du-Loup, QC
Okay, but I still don't understand why this decision was made.
Liberal
Conservative
Bernard Généreux Conservative Montmagny—L'Islet—Kamouraska—Rivière-du-Loup, QC
I'm talking about the name of the department.
Conservative
Bernard Généreux Conservative Montmagny—L'Islet—Kamouraska—Rivière-du-Loup, QC
An interdepartmental approach was already in place before the words “official languages” were removed from the name of the department. It has always been interdepartmental. Official languages have always been interdepartmental.
Liberal
Mélanie Joly Liberal Ahuntsic-Cartierville, QC
We have a much more comprehensive approach than the previous government. It involves a number of departments and ministers, and I am pleased to have the responsibility of coordinating this effort.
What is more, in the context of an open and transparent government and in our mandate letters, the Prime Minister clearly set out our responsibilities with regard to official languages. I invite you to consult the various mandate letters, that of my department and those of my colleagues' departments as well.
Conservative
Bernard Généreux Conservative Montmagny—L'Islet—Kamouraska—Rivière-du-Loup, QC
Thank you.
Madam Minister, back in the day, the Liberal opposition strongly criticized the Conservative ministers regarding bilingualism on social networks. If I remember correctly, last December, the Journal de Montréal reported that many of the current Liberal cabinet ministers are unilingual anglophones and that one minister is unilingual francophone. As a result, there was a problem regarding the use of social networks. The Prime Minister said that he would not require all ministers to learn the second official language.
Last week, Impératif français reported that 23 of the 31 ministers in your cabinet are still not communicating with Canadians in both official languages.
You said that transparency and the use of official languages are priorities for your government. How then can you justify the fact that, five months later, significant action has still not been taken in this regard?
Liberal
Mélanie Joly Liberal Ahuntsic-Cartierville, QC
Bilingualism, social media management, and respect for official languages are priorities for us. It goes without saying that my official website and those of all of my colleagues must be bilingual and must provide information in both official languages.
That being said, we need to and will do better when it comes to bilingualism on social media. That is why I will be pleased to clarify this issue with the Commissioner of Official Languages, Graham Fraser, when I meet with him on this subject in the near future.
Conservative
Bernard Généreux Conservative Montmagny—L'Islet—Kamouraska—Rivière-du-Loup, QC
Have you set a deadline by which the situation will be resolved?
Liberal
Conservative
Bernard Généreux Conservative Montmagny—L'Islet—Kamouraska—Rivière-du-Loup, QC
I have another question for you.
French is a language that is in high demand elsewhere in Canada, particularly in areas where French is the minority language.
Some parents have to wait up to 36 hours to register their children in French immersion schools. That might seem like excellent news because, if the wait time is long, it must mean that a lot of people are interested in enrolling their children in this sort of program.
However, I do not think that it is good that parents who want to register their children in French schools or at least in French immersion programs cannot do so because there are not enough spaces available.
Do you have a specific plan in that regard? I know you spoke a little bit about it earlier when you gave your speech. Do you have a specific plan to improve access to French education?
Liberal
Mélanie Joly Liberal Ahuntsic-Cartierville, QC
We are going to work on that issue in 2017 as we prepare the next official languages action plan. The plan will be launched in 2018, when the current roadmap expires.
In the meantime, since we know that we can do more to support minority linguistic communities, I launched a number of initiatives within the department to address some of the problems that were, unfortunately, created by the previous government because it did not provide enough support for official languages.
That is why I mentioned it in my speech. The Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship, John McCallum, and I launched a new support program for francophone minority communities in order to improve francophone immigration and integration.
By way of information, the new program is called the francophone significant benefit program.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Denis Paradis
Thank you very much, Mr. Généreux.
Mr. Lefebvre, you have the floor.
Liberal
Paul Lefebvre Liberal Sudbury, ON
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Welcome, Madam Minister.
Before I ask my question, I would like to thank you for standing up for minority linguistic communities.
Under part VII of the Official Languages Act, you have the responsibility to promote linguistic communities and linguistic duality across the country.
What are you doing to ensure that linguistic communities across the country not only survive but also thrive?
Liberal
Mélanie Joly Liberal Ahuntsic-Cartierville, QC
As I mentioned in response to Mr. Généreux's questions, we are going to initiate public consultations that will help in the development of a new action plan, which will be launched in 2018.
Under the circumstances, it goes without saying that all of the programs will be reviewed and that all needs will be identified in order to provide better support to minority linguistic communities and enhance their vitality.
I had the opportunity to meet many people on the ground. I can already see a difference between Mr. Dion's former plan and the roadmap developed by the previous government. I can also see that new needs are emerging in the areas of immigration and communications, particularly in a digital age.
I look forward to continuing the conversations that will contribute to the plan that will be developed in 2017 and launched in 2018.
Liberal
Liberal
Mélanie Joly Liberal Ahuntsic-Cartierville, QC
I will work with my parliamentary secretary, Randy Boissonnault, on this issue in order to meet with all of the organizations, identify needs, and respond to urgent issues.
The immigration issue came up rather suddenly. I was very involved in working with my colleague, John McCallum, on the Syrian refugee file. When it came time to integrate the various Syrian refugee populations into Canada, linguistic minority communities indicated that they should be able to integrate some of the refugees in French.
We therefore asked ourselves how we could facilitate the integration of immigrant communities into linguistic minority communities. That is when my colleague, Mr. McCallum, and I started working on launching a new pilot project called the francophone significant benefit program, a program that was abolished by the previous Conservative government.