Official Languages Committee on Dec. 4th, 2018

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

Thank you.

Mr. Généreux' suggestion or strategy of fundraising in the private sector isn't a bad one in principle. However, he doesn't really seem to understand the reality of a minority society that, unlike the majority, has to raise funding for every one of its 100,000 projects, which is very complicated.

I'd like to explain an important point that some committee members referred to. It isn't impossible to obtain multi-year funding. You have to ask the federal government to pay for the first four years, then ask the province to pay for the next four years. It's feasible. For the past 10 years or so, Canadian Heritage has offered a multi-year funding formula, under which, about seven or eight years ago, I asked the federal government to provide 100% funding for the first year of a pre-kindergarten program for children four years of age, whereas the Nova Scotia government paid for the following year. We proceeded in that manner for seven or eight years. In the case of the university, the federal and provincial governments could definitely share funding for two, three or four years each.

I just wanted to tell you about that example so it appears in the record of this meeting. Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Denis Paradis]

Thank you very much, Mr. Samson.

On behalf of all my colleagues, thanks to all the witnesses for their excellent presentations, which I found very helpful.

Good luck to you. Let's continue and not let...

Do you have a question, Mr. Choquette?

[François Choquette, NDP, Drummond, QC]

Could we take 5 or 10 minutes after the meeting on Thursday to talk about what we want to do with this special study? January 15 is fast approaching. Does the committee want to send a letter to the ministers? What specifically do we want to do as a committee? Can we take a little time to talk about it on Thursday?

[The Chair, Liberal, Denis Paradis]

Yes, definitely.

[François Choquette, NDP, Drummond, QC]

It would be just a few minutes; we don't want to take anything away from the witnesses.

[The Chair, Liberal, Denis Paradis]

We've already confirmed that two panels of witnesses will be here for that meeting. That being said, you're right, we could take 10 minutes or so to decide whether we'll prepare a report solely on this crisis that we are discussing or whether we'll include it in a more comprehensive report as part of our current study on the modernization of the Official Languages Act.

[François Choquette, NDP, Drummond, QC]

We should agree on specific action, such as a letter from the committee to our federal government ministers, of course, but also to certain provincial ministers, inviting them to sit down together.

[The Chair, Liberal, Denis Paradis]

That's an excellent idea.

Mr. Blaney, do you wish to add anything on the subject?

[Steven Blaney, Conservative, Bellechasse—Les Etchemins—Lévis, QC]

In view of the witnesses who'll be appearing, perhaps we should plan for a longer meeting at another time because I think Mr. Choquette has a valid idea.

[The Chair, Liberal, Denis Paradis]

All right.

Once again, thanks very much to the witnesses for your presentations.

[Normand Labrie]

On behalf of the Université de l'Ontario français and all the generations of students who will pass through its doors in the coming decades, I say thank you very much.

[The Chair, Liberal, Denis Paradis]

The meeting is adjourned. We will see each other again on Thursday.