Thank you, Mr. Chair
Good morning, members, ladies and gentlemen. My sincere thanks for this opportunity to speak on behalf of the Conseil des écoles fransaskoises, the CEF.
The CEF has carefully analyzed the Action Plan for Official Languages 2018-2023: Investing in Our Future.
First, we are grateful that significant investments have been announced in minority language education and early childhood services. The CEF thanks the federal government for listening to and acknowledging its concerns about the need to invest in the early childhood sector.
Unfortunately, the CEF has observed that one of its priorities is simply absent from the action plan, which includes no announcement on structural solutions necessary to address the defects of the current framework for managing federal financial support for minority language education.
Instead, the action plan advocates the use of the usual financial support instruments, which are clearly defective, that is to say, the Protocol for Agreements for Minority-Language Education and Second-Language Instruction and its bilateral agreements. In short, the action plan confirms the status quo on this issue. However, your committee and the Standing Senate Committee on Official Languages had acknowledged the various problems associated with these instruments and had made recommendations to address the problems of transparency, consultation and accountability.
The CEF wishes to take advantage of this study to present its observations and proposals for the permanent structural changes necessary to ensure the success of the framework for managing the federal government's financial support for French-language education. These changes call for the modernization of the Official Languages Act.
Here, then, briefly, are the four main failings of that management framework as well as proposals for amending the act that we respectfully submit to you. However, we invite you to consult paragraphs 14 to 23 of the brief we have submitted for our general explanation of how this framework operates.
First, the protocol is defective since it allows the needs of the francophone and Acadian minority communities to be determined unilaterally by the provinces and territories, which is contrary to the school boards' exclusive power of management and control.
Second, the protocol does not require the government to consult the French-language minority school boards.
Third, the protocol provides for no effective accountability mechanism worthy of that name.
Fourth, the protocol permits the funding allocated to elementary and secondary minority education to be used to fund the essential costs of that education, but not the truly additional costs. Our brief provides several examples demonstrating these failings and the harmful effects they have on French-language education in Saskatchewan.
Furthermore, with respect to early childhood, the CEF fears that the recent Multilateral Early Learning and Child Care Framework reproduces the accountability, transparency and consultation problems noted in connection with the framework for the management of federal financial support for minority-language education. In its May 2018 report on early childhood, your committee recommended that the government amend the Official Languages Act to establish and specify an increased role for the federal government in the area of minority language education, including early childhood education.
In view of the status quo under the action plan, the CEF respectfully requests that you support its proposed statutory amendment, which fully acknowledges the constitutional management powers assigned to the school boards. Thus, the purpose of our legislative proposals is to establish an express obligation to consult the French-language school boards on the development and negotiation of the protocol. You will find the full text of the clauses we propose in paragraph 59 of our brief.
To sum up, the CEF is grateful for investments that have been announced. However, we are convinced that it is high time to reform the framework for managing financial support in the education and early childhood sector.
We thank you for listening and are prepared to answer any questions you may have.