Official Languages Committee on Sept. 27th, 2018

[The Chair, Liberal, Denis Paradis]

Pursuant to Standing Order 108, we will continue the study of the Action Plan for Official Languages 2018-23: Investing in Our Future.

I would like to welcome all of you.

I will first ask my colleagues to introduce themselves.

Mr. Arseneault, the floor is yours.

[René Arseneault, Liberal, Madawaska—Restigouche, NB]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

My name is René Arseneault. I am the member of Parliament for Madawaska—Restigouche. Madawaska and Restigouche are names of Maliseet and Mi'kmaq origin, respectively. The Maliseet and Mi'kmaq were proud allies and saved the lives of the Acadian people when they arrived in 1604, even before Quebec was founded. I like to point that out.

I am an Acadian from the region north-west of New Brunswick. I am obviously very sympathetic to the francophone cause. I am definitely proud to be a member of the Standing Committee on Official Languages, which consists of members from all parties who work together in a remarkable manner. We are very pleased to be discussing the official languages and the needs and interests of our francophone and francophile communities.

I welcome all of you, and I thank you for answering the call and coming to meet with us.

[The Chair, Liberal, Denis Paradis]

Thank you, Mr. Arseneault.

Mr. Clarke, over to you.

[Alupa Clarke, Conservative, Beauport—Limoilou, QC]

Good morning everyone.

My name is Alupa Clarke. I am French Canadian and I come from Quebec. I am proud to be a member of Parliament and of the Conservative Party of Canada. I am also the deputy critic for official languages for my party.

I am preparing to present to the shadow cabinet a report on modernizing this legislation and how to go about doing it. Therefore, do not hesitate to share with us your priorities for its eventual modernization.

I would also like to thank you for everything you do in your daily lives to promote the French fact in Saskatchewan. I look forward to hearing from you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Denis Paradis]

Thank you, Mr. Clarke.

Ms. Boucher, you have the floor.

[Sylvie Boucher, Conservative, Beauport—Côte-de-Beaupré—Île d’Orléans—Charlevoix, QC]

Hello. My name is Sylvie Boucher. I am the MP for Beauport—Côte-de-Beaupré—Île d'Orléans—Charlevoix, and I am the only female member of the Conservative Party of Canada to represent Quebec. I am proud of that and proud that I have been fighting to protect the official languages since 2006.

When you are from Quebec, you do not realize how many francophones live outside Quebec, which is very unfortunate. As Mr. Arseneault mentioned, the committee's members are politicians of all political stripes. However, since I was elected in the House a number of years ago, this is the first time that the committee has been non-partisan and that members are moving in the same direction. I hope this will continue.

We are fighting on your behalf. You are our ears and our voice. What you tell us, we relay to the government and we work together on it.

[The Chair, Liberal, Denis Paradis]

Thank you, Ms. Boucher.

Mr. Choquette, the floor is yours.

[François Choquette, NDP, Drummond, QC]

My name is François Choquette, and I am the member of Parliament for Drummond, which is located between Montreal and Quebec City in the Province of Quebec.

I was elected in 2011. I have worked mainly in the environmental field. I was a member of the Standing Committee on Environment and Sustainable Development. I was also the chair of the All-Party Caucus on Climate Change and had other roles. Naturally, I continue to work on environmental issues, but I have been the critic for official languages since 2015. I am also the deputy chair of the Standing Committee on Official Languages.

I am a teacher by profession, and I taught French to high school students and adults, mainly newcomers.

Of course, I, too, want to thank you. You are the pillars of official language minority communities, and without these communities and without their vitality the francophone communities and the official languages would not exist anywhere in Canada. You are the reason for this vitality, and we are pleased to be here and to promote both official languages.

[The Chair, Liberal, Denis Paradis]

Thank you, Mr. Choquette.

My name is Denis Paradis. I am the MP for Brome—Missisquoi, which is about an hour south of Montreal, near the Vermont border. It is a magnificent wine region. I was also the Minister of La Francophonie in a previous government.

I would like to welcome all of you.

Oh, Mr. Rioux just arrived. I will give him the floor.

[Jean Rioux]

Hello

My name is Jean Rioux. I am a new member of the committee, and this gives me the opportunity to meet with you and understand the difficulties you face. I am the MP for Saint-Jean, which is located south-west of Montreal and next to the riding represented by the committee chair, which is near the border.

Something happened in my riding that is important for the development of the francophone community: Collège militaire royal de Saint-Jean reintroduced university-level courses. It is an significant step for the francophone community. Growth of the French fact across Canada has always been important to me. Having strong francophone communities will ultimately ensure the stability of Quebec, the birthplace of the French fact.

Welcome to the committee.

[The Chair, Liberal, Denis Paradis]

Thank you very much, Mr. Rioux.

I would like to welcome the following witnesses: Mr. Patrick Hopf, of the French-Speaking Jurists Association of Saskatchewan; Ms. Céline Moukoumi, of the Communauté des Africains francophones de la Saskatchewan; Ms. Suzanne Campagne and Mr. Gilles Groleau, of the Conseil culturel fransaskois; Ms. Marie-France Kenny, of the Coopérative des publications fransaskoises; Mr. Roger Gauthier, of the Fédération des aînés fransaskois; and Ms. Karen Pozniak, of Canadian Parents for French.

Have I forgotten anyone?

[Marie-France Kenny, President, Coopérative des publications fransaskoises]

I see the name Marie Galohe.

[The Chair, Liberal, Denis Paradis]

I believe she is not here. Thank you very much, Ms. Kenny.

Here are the rules. Some of you may know them if you have been here before. You have about five minutes to make your presentation. then, we will have questions and comments from committee members.

Mr. Hopf, you may start.

[Patrick Hopf, President, French-Speaking Jurists Association of Saskatchewan]

Thank you for inviting me, as the President of the French-Speaking Jurists Association of Saskatchewan, or AJEFS, to appear before the committee.

As you know, AJEFS is an organization focused on improving access to justice in French for Saskatchewan's francophones and francophiles.

AJEFS would also like to thank you for coming to Saskatchewan to consult our community on the Action Plan.

First, AJEFS was pleased that the Action plan provides $3.75 million over five years to re-establish core funding. This support will ensure the stability of AJEFS services and provide flexibility with respect to training for its members. For example, AJEFS will increase its relations and exchanges with different levels of government, and with the different provincial, national and territorial francophone legal communities. This core funding will undoubtedly help strengthen Saskatchewan's French-language community by giving it a stronger voice. This is the basis for the core funding, as per page 16 of the Action Plan.

Second, AJEFS applauded the reinstatement and modernization of the Court Challenges Program outlined in the new Action Plan. This program is very important for our community because it provides financial support to our community members who wish to argue official language cases before the courts. Under this program, a group of parents from Regina's francophone community was able to obtain a temporary school and a promise from the provincial government that it will build a new school in Regina.

Third, we want to point out the creation of the action plan to improve the bilingual capacity of the Superior Court judiciary. This plan will address shortcomings and respond to the recommendations made by the Commissioner of Official Languages. We are of the opinion that it is fundamental that litigants have the right to be heard and understood in French, without the assistance of interpreters. With its strategies for assessment, training and enhancement with respect to language needs, this new plan will help strengthen the bilingual capacity of the judiciary of Canada's Superior Courts and guarantee that those involved in court proceedings truly have equal access to justice in both official languages.

We believe it is important to promote the official bilingualism of the judges of the Supreme Court of Canada in order to foster the development of official language minority communities. Therefore, bilingualism must be a requirement for any candidate for the bench of the Supreme Court of Canada.

Finally, we want to highlight the financial support provided by the federal government to provincial governments through federal-provincial-territorial agreements. This multi-year federal investment seeks to improve access to provincial services in French. However, we recommend that Saskatchewan should be required to fulfil its official language obligations and to put in place accountability mechanisms. The province's francophones and francophiles who receive these services should be consulted and be able to evaluate the services received. We want to ensure that the funds allocated are used solely for the priorities set out in the Action Plan.

At present, access to justice in French in Saskatchewan illustrates that the provincial government must develop the reflex for providing legal services in French in order to leverage investments and help strengthen our community.

The number of people who speak French has increased by 5.1% since 2006, and 2,187 more people speak French regularly at home. With the arrival of new immigrants, the francophone population continues to grow. In the entire province, there are only five bilingual judges and three bilingual employees working in Provincial and Superior Court Services. At this time, only about 50 of our laws are available in French. We have very long wait times for criminal proceedings because of a shortage of court interpreters.

As I'm sure you have gathered, the active offer of legal services in French is not automatic, and we do not have enough stakeholders working in the legal system to be able to offer services in French that would be comparable in quality to the services provided in English. This means that litigants cannot exercise their right to be heard and understood in French without the assistance of an interpreter.

On behalf of the AJEFS, I see the proposed amendments as crucial to upholding the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and I believe that they respond to the challenges facing francophone minority communities in Canada.

Thank you. I would be pleased to answer any questions you may have.

[The Chair, Liberal, Denis Paradis]

Thank you very much, Mr. Hopf.

Ms. Pozniak, please go ahead.

[Karen Pozniak, Executive Director, Saskatchewan, Canadian Parents for French]

Good morning, everyone.

My name is Karen Pozniak, and I'm the Executive Director of the Saskatchewan branch of Canadian Parents for French.

In 2017, Canadian Parents for French celebrated 40 years as a non-profit organization. We have branches in all the provinces and territories across Canada, and we very much value the relationship we have with the francophone community. We partner a lot across the country, and certainly that is the case here in Saskatchewan, so that's a very important part.

In any programming we do, there is always the cultural component; we feel it's very important that language learning and the cultural component be experienced together.

In 2016, we received the Award of Excellence from the Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages for the promotion of linguistic duality. Graham Fraser was the commissioner at that time, so it was a lovely end to his 10-year tenure as the commissioner.

We are grateful to Canadian Heritage for its recognition of the need to more fully support French second language organizations for the promotion and support of activities and learning opportunities. The core funding that we've received as an organization will allow us to continue to provide quality programs to parents, students and schools and to be able to meet the increase in demand, because there is an increase in enrolment year after year in Saskatchewan. For more than 10 years now, we've had a steady increase of French immersion students, and in intensive core and enriched core students as well, and late immersion has been added. That's great. We're able to do that with the increase in funding.

Many parents are continuing to put their children in the programs, and they appreciate and value the fact that Canada is officially bilingual. They want to give their children this opportunity, not just to be bilingual but multilingual, because of course we are a home to new Canadians from all over the world, so it is very important to recognize the multilingual aspect of Canada within a bilingual Canada.

Our challenge comes from that growth. It is about having qualified French language teachers to be able to meet that demand. It's really great to see in the action plan on page 44 that more than $31 million will be provided to recruit more immersion and French second language teachers, as it is at a crisis level in many parts of Canada. Some of the programs are starting to suffer because there aren't enough teachers.

I think we're at a tipping point in Saskatchewan as well, where there aren't enough qualified teachers. For example, if someone goes on maternity leave, the school may be bringing in retired teachers to be able to cover off the absence, or replacements are not available for teachers to leave for professional development or to participate more fully in organizations such as Canadian Parents for French by going to a conference where they'll be able to gain more capacity and more knowledge and bring home those organizational skills to do more programming as a president, let's say, of the organization. It's a challenge for them to have replacements. In many areas, it is becoming challenging.

I'm willing to answer any question that you have, but I would like to know where we're at and what strategies we're putting in place so that we'll have enough teachers. School boards will have to make tough decisions, and because we're all slaves to budgets, they will perhaps decrease the amount of available programming in some of the schools.

We have this wonderful opportunity for so many young people to learn the language and to be functionally bilingual, which is what we want, but I think that if we're not careful, that's going to deteriorate.

There's an enthusiasm for it, and I think newcomers to Canada know we are officially bilingual. More and more of them, even though they might not know English, are putting their children in French immersion because they understand how language learning works. Before, they were often counselled out of French and told to just put their children in English, but now they're counselled into taking French and keeping their mother tongue language at home. They will also learn English in the school system, and also in society.

That's the situation we are faced with. Since it takes several years to create a qualified teacher, it's a priority.

Thank you so much.

[The Chair, Liberal, Denis Paradis]

Thank you very much, Karen.

We will now hear from Mrs. Moukoumi.

[Céline Moukoumi, President, Communauté des Africains francophones de la Saskatchewan]

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. It is an honour to be here with you today, so thank you for the invitation.

Since time immemorial, the pursuit of happiness for oneself and one's family has been humankind's most important quest. Aristotle talked about this, saying that it is human nature to seek a better life.

Canada is seen by many people around the world as a land of opportunity, a country where human dignity is considered to be of utmost importance, as shown in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and Canada's model for a multicultural society.

In my introductory remarks, I will tell you briefly about myself and what the Communauté des Africains francophones de la Saskatchewan, or CAFS, has been doing over the past 10 years to support the successful integration of francophone newcomers in the province. I will also talk about our expectations regarding the new Action Plan for Official Languages 2018–2023, and some issues related specifically to its implementation.

My name is Céline Moukoumi. I was born in France to a family originally from Cape Verde. I arrived in Saskatchewan in October 2007 with my husband. I have two boys, aged two and seven, who were born in Canada. My older son is in grade two at École canadienne-française, and my younger son goes to daycare at the Centre éducatif Félix le chat in Saskatoon.

I have been a Canadian citizen since 2016. I am the director of operations and finances at a trucking company that does over $100 million in business and employs over 600 people in Saskatchewan and other provinces of Canada. I am very familiar with the Fransaskois community, as I have been quite involved in it for the past 10 years.

I am a founding member and current president of the CAFS, a non-profit organization created and registered in 2008 to facilitate the integration of people of African descent in Saskatchewan. Francophone newcomers face a myriad of challenges, the negative consequences of which have been seen in families for some time now.

First of all, there are challenges related to service provision in French, including limited settlement services and access to primary care, which is sometimes complicated, because newcomers are especially at risk here. Every year, our community faces tragic suicide attempts, one of which was successful in Saskatoon in 2013. Other concerns include the reunification of refugee families, which is long and complicated, as well as English classes, and so on.

There are also challenges related to economic integration. Job opportunities in French are limited, and immigration assistance services are ill-suited to our needs and do not adequately address current problems. There is no program for upgrading professional credentials, recognizing skills or finding job placements to facilitate integration.

Another concern is social integration, which requires the creation of a diverse social network. Family break-ups and parent-child conflict related to insufficient awareness about our rights and responsibilities as members of Canadian society, for example, can hinder social integration.

There are also challenges related to education and training, including knowledge of the school system, support for immigrant students and their families, as well as undereducated teenagers, early pregnancies in our community, curricula that do not really reflect the diversity in the community, and student inclusion in school settings.

Francophone newcomers also face health-related challenges, including systematic self-medication, which has very negative consequences on our population, the absence of psychological supports upon their arrival in Canada, as well as the limited number of francophone family doctors.

Finally, there is the culture component, given that intercultural dialogue, inclusion, support, as well as the appreciation and promotion of culture are necessary.

That is why the CAFS consulted other community organizations that offer services to newcomers and together we have established an innovative policy framework that aims to create the right conditions to foster inclusion and the successful integration of newcomers in Saskatchewan. This multi-sector collaborative framework, called the “Plateforme du nouvel arrivant”, or Newcomer Platform, is built on six areas for action, namely, welcoming, economic integration, social integration, education, health and culture.

A number of innovative activities have been developed in Saskatchewan thanks to the Newcomer Platform. Newcomer welcome day is an annual event created to offer newcomers a formal but warm welcome into the community. The African cultural gala is an opportunity for francophones of African descent, who are immersed in Canadian culture every day, to share their own culture with the people of Saskatchewan, thereby fostering intercultural dialogue, which helps to break down barriers and bring people together. The fransaskois immersion program pairs immigrant families with more firmly-established fransaskois families, giving them the opportunity to get to know one another, develop friendships and lay the foundation for our shared future. We also offer a wide range of support and capacity-building services, including support in the areas of education, rights and responsibilities, and employment.

All of our services rely primarily on volunteers despite the growing demands. It is important to remember that the CAFS is one of the only francophone organizations in the province that does not have stable funding to rely on, so we do not have any permanent employees to help us meet the growing needs.

I will now talk about our questions and comments regarding the action plan.

First of all, with respect to pillar 3, “promoting a bilingual Canada”, I would like to know how the integration pathway will ensure that newcomers don't have to wait several years before finding a job in their area of expertise. In the immigrant trajectory, learning the language is not the only thing that matters. Canadian experience and prior learning assessments are also important.

Second, we have a number of young francophiles showing a keen interest in bilingualism, but what opportunities do those young people have to find a bilingual job in the province? If we don't create more bilingual jobs in Saskatchewan, the young people we are training will continue to leave for Quebec and other areas. What concrete measures have you included in your plan to increase bilingual job opportunities? My—

[The Chair, Liberal, Denis Paradis]

Mrs. Moukoumi, I have to ask you to stop there. You will be taking questions from members later. I would like to reserve some time for my colleagues' questions and comments.

Can we stop there? You can finish your presentation during questions and comments.

[Céline Moukoumi]

Very well.

[The Chair, Liberal, Denis Paradis]

Thank you very much.

We will now hear from Ms. Campagne and Mr. Groleau.

[Gilles Groleau, Chairman of the Board of Directors, Conseil culturel fransaskois]

Good morning. Thank you for having us. This a great opportunity for us.

I must digress for a moment. Yesterday I woke up red-faced because of the statement made by Ms. Brais in Quebec, and I can't stop thinking about it. It made me realize that there is still a great deal of misunderstanding between francophones and the other provinces.

[Sylvie Boucher, Conservative, Beauport—Côte-de-Beaupré—Île d’Orléans—Charlevoix, QC]

We are not aware of what you're referring to.

[Gilles Groleau]

You haven't heard?

[Sylvie Boucher, Conservative, Beauport—Côte-de-Beaupré—Île d’Orléans—Charlevoix, QC]

No. What did she say?