Official Languages Committee on Nov. 1st, 2018

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

His knowledge was impressive. The briefing he gave me was amazing.

[Mélanie Joly]

Yes.

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

As a senior official, he had the integrity to confide in me that, in reality, the court challenges program had only been closed for two months and that its funding had lasted for the 10 years during which Mr. Harper was in power. It has now been eight months since any request has been accepted and I can tell you that it is causing unrest in all OLMCs, all across the country. So something has to be done quickly.

[Mélanie Joly]

The Harper government's intention was to abolish the entire court challenges program. Thereafter, the department expressed its opinion that the program was very important, if not almost constitutional, and it was impossible to abolish it without compromising Canadians' language rights. Given that situation, the government of the day was forced to maintain a degree of funding, but without protecting the court challenges program in its entirety.

As I was telling you, each time a Conservative government takes power, everything is abolished. The approach we wanted was certainly to do something about the appointments. We wanted a committee to appoint the most competent people in the country. In the next few days, I will have good news for you on the matter.

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

Okay, that's good.

[The Chair, Liberal, Denis Paradis]

Thank you very much, Mr. Clarke.

Mr. Samson, you have five minutes.

[Darrell Samson, Liberal, Sackville—Preston—Chezzetcook, NS]

Thank you very much.

Madam Minister, I would first like to speak in support of all the members of the Standing Committee on Official Languages around this table. There is no doubt that they work in close cooperation for the advancement of the francophonie. However, what happened between 2005 and 2015 has weakened francophones all over Canada. Let me just give you the perspective of one francophone, and all my francophone friends, from one end of Canada to the other.

First, funding for the Action Plan for Official Languages did not increase for 10 years. If you calculate that at 2.5%, it probably means a loss of 15%. The effect was to weaken front-line organizations.

Here is the scenario. Because they have been weakened, they decide to undertake a court challenge, but there that program is, gone! They cannot even challenge the fact that it has gone. Then they decide to check the facts. They tell themselves that there are certainly a lot of francophones outside Québec and it will be good to check that. But there the long-form census is, also gone! What, no more census? How can that be?

[François Choquette, NDP, Drummond, QC]

A point of order, Mr. Chair.

[The Chair, Liberal, Denis Paradis]

Just a moment, Mr. Choquette.

[François Choquette, NDP, Drummond, QC]

Mr. Chair, I honestly do not know what is happening today. I am not sure whether we are going to have a snowstorm or whether this is about something else, but we are losing it. We do not see our minister very often…

[Mélanie Joly]

I am happy to be here.

[François Choquette, NDP, Drummond, QC]

… could we take advantage of the fact that she is here with us to ask her reasonable questions? We have a lot of issues to deal with: the enumeration of rights holders, early childhood, and so on.

[Darrell Samson, Liberal, Sackville—Preston—Chezzetcook, NS]

I would have got to that if you haven't interrupted me.

[François Choquette, NDP, Drummond, QC]

I feel that the comments have been very partisan for a few minutes, and that is a pity.

[The Chair, Liberal, Denis Paradis]

Thank you very much for your comments, Mr. Choquette.

[Darrell Samson, Liberal, Sackville—Preston—Chezzetcook, NS]

Mr. Chair, he interrupted me. I was in the process of …

[The Chair, Liberal, Denis Paradis]

I will give the floor back to Mr. Samson, and I am sure he will bear in mind the comment that was made.

[Darrell Samson, Liberal, Sackville—Preston—Chezzetcook, NS]

I need a preamble in order to describe the situation on the ground.

In a word, that information was not available from the census. As a result, 187 offices providing bilingual services were going to be closed, but a moratorium was issued. That was a good thing. Then, the government announced that it was going to amend the official languages regulations. Not only did it decide to keep the 187 offices, but it also announced that 600 offices, newly designated as bilingual, would provide services across Canada. That is incredible!

The other day, I sent a note encouraging the establishment of French schools across Canada. I mentioned that, in every place with French-language schools, there would be bilingual services. That is powerful, it is incredible. As regards immigration, we have been trying for 10 years to get past 4% in francophone immigrants, but the figure is stuck at 2%. The reason was simple: no investments to encourage francophone immigration.

In that regard, let me read the announcement you made to the Fédération des communautés francophones et acadienne when you were in Toronto with Minister Hussen. It reads as follows:

This is a major advance on two levels. First, because it is a solution for a situation where francophone immigrants arriving at the country's largest airport are not even informed of the existence of French-language services and communities.

Things have changed overnight. In addition, requests for proposals go specifically to francophone organizations. The concept of “by” and ”for” francophones is being applied. This is another incredibly important file, albeit a forgotten one. It was also one of the cuts that weakened francophones.

Today, we are in the process of re-establishing the situation and we must work together to do so. I thank you for the work that you are doing in that regard. My question is about federal-provincial agreements. We understand the issue of jurisdictions, but it is no longer a matter of wondering what is going to be done for francophones. As each project, program or initiative starts, it must be taken for granted that there are two communities and we must ask ourselves what impact the initiative will have on each of them. Then the initiative has to be developed as a result of that impact. That is the way we have to proceed. We have to back up if we want real success.

We met with Minister Duclos on early childhood. For children, that stage of life is critical. If we are unsuccessful in including them when they come into the world, we will always be unsuccessful. That is one of the most important objectives. Mr. Duclos managed to insert a language clause. Some people say that it could be a little more substantial, but let's say that it's a good place to start.

In addition, Madam Minister, for francophones, you have added—

[The Chair, Liberal, Denis Paradis]

Mr. Samson, the minister has one minute left to respond to your comments.

[Darrell Samson, Liberal, Sackville—Preston—Chezzetcook, NS]

Okay. The language clause is important, as is the strategic agreement with school boards. Those two measures give us some clout.

Do you think we will be able to continue down that path? It's crucial for the communities, which must regain their strength.

[Mélanie Joly]

Thank you.

Clearly, we have a strong defender of official languages here.

The Action Plan for Official Languages 2018-2023 contains two new features. First, early childhood is recognized for the first time. For young people to continue to be part of a minority language community, they must be raised in the minority language from the outset, that is, from daycare. The same applies to kindergarten, primary and secondary school. This is fundamental to the sustainability of our language communities.

There is also the issue of immigration. For the first time, the importance of francophone immigration is recognized. This will make it possible to recruit, welcome and integrate francophone newcomers into our minority language communities, whether in Moncton, Winnipeg or elsewhere.

[The Chair, Liberal, Denis Paradis]

Thank you very much, Mr. Samson.

I would also like to ask a question. Your new mandate focuses on the international Francophonie.

[Mélanie Joly]

Yes.

[The Chair, Liberal, Denis Paradis]

You attended the last summit of the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie (OIF).

[Mélanie Joly]

Yes.