Official Languages Committee on Nov. 1st, 2018

[The Chair, Liberal, Denis Paradis]

Do you want the floor again, Mr. Clarke?

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

Yes.

[The Chair, Liberal, Denis Paradis]

We're listening.

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

I want to come back briefly to the modernization of the act, because I'm not sure I got a concrete answer. This is not a criticism at all, I just want to go deeper.

The mandate letter says there will be an examination. You said there are several steps. Has the first step, whatever it is, been taken? I don't even know what the first step is, but if there is one, has it been taken?

[Yvan Déry]

As Mr. Racine said, it is a fairly complex piece of legislation. Just drafting a bill like this takes the Department of Justice 12 months. So we cannot expect to introduce a bill in time for it to be passed before the next election. That seems pretty clear. That is why the mandate letter talks about starting an examination. You mentioned the review exercise.

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

Has the review started in any way?

[Yvan Déry]

Yes, we are working on it. We read all the briefs that are tabled in the Senate. Conversations with various organizations have taken place.

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

Okay.

[Yvan Déry]

We have proposed options for possible additional and complementary steps. Ms. Joly will want to sort through this and announce what she will add to it. However, it is important to work in a complementary way. She mentioned that, as part of the modernization process, if the committee so wished, it could, for example, work on the definition of the term “positive measure”. This could be a building block.

For now, we are thinking of the groundwork. We are not yet at the stage of drafting a bill.

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

I understand.

[Denis Racine]

The short answer is that the public service is looking at how to proceed. The minister said that she would announce her intentions for the process in the near future.

[The Chair, Liberal, Denis Paradis]

Thank you.

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

Do I have much time left?

[The Chair, Liberal, Denis Paradis]

We're trying to adjourn the meeting so we can spend a few minutes on committee business.

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

Okay, but could I ask one last question?

[The Chair, Liberal, Denis Paradis]

Go ahead.

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

Accountability is a concern we've heard a lot about. My colleagues are as aware of this issue as I am. However, you're the one who provides the funding, whether through action plans or recurrent funding.

There is a division of powers and jurisdictions, but as department officials, are you trying to establish some accountability with your provincial counterparts? Do you sometimes call them and tell them that, although they need money for paving, it would be good to spend a little on official languages? Do exchanges like that take place?

[Denis Racine]

Accountability is extremely important to the government and to the department's branch. It always has been and still is. For us, it is important to update our reporting requirements and make them even more relevant.

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

Oh, well, do you have a list of requirements?

[Denis Racine]

It isn't a list, but rather a method we use to help the people we fund to gather information and report on results and the use of funds.

We are always trying to improve the way we obtain this information, whether it is community funding or federal funding allocated to the provinces.

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

Yes, that's right.

[Denis Racine]

Accountability applies to all program recipients.

I believe Mr. Déry has something to add.

[Yvan Déry]

I simply want to clarify that all our programs are accountable. In 2013, the commissioner conducted a review and found that our accountability in federal-provincial relations was good. Still, we're trying to improve it and improve transparency. This is one of the issues being negotiated with the Council of Ministers of Education, Canada, for the renewal of our federal-provincial agreements.

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

Yes, that's right.

[Yvan Déry]

In short, things are happening. Some of them are federal-provincial negotiations, and we can't talk about them. However, as Mr. Racine mentioned, we are always looking to improve our processes.