Official Languages Committee on April 9th, 2019

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, Alupa Clarke]

You have 15 seconds.

[François Choquette, NDP, Drummond, QC]

In 15 seconds I just want to thank you once again for being here and providing your input on the modernization of the Official Languages Act.

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, Alupa Clarke]

Thank you, Mr. Choquette.

Ms. Lambropoulos, you now have the floor.

[Emmanuella Lambropoulos, Liberal, Saint-Laurent, QC]

I would like to thank the two witnesses for being here today.

Ms. O'Donnell, my questions are going to be for you, specifically.

You mentioned in your opening statement that the act is not as well-known among the anglophone community in Quebec as the Charter of the French Language. I guess it's for obvious reasons, in some ways.

How do you think being aware of the act would help this community better thrive?

[Dr. Lorraine O'Donnell]

I'm sorry; there was background noise. There was an emergency announcement here at Concordia.

You asked how the act could become better known, or how that would improve the situation.

[Emmanuella Lambropoulos, Liberal, Saint-Laurent, QC]

I asked if it being better known would help the community.

[Dr. Lorraine O'Donnell]

I wanted to emphasize that, in the act not being well known, as far as I understand it, it means that when we talk about support for official language minority communities—for instance, support for our partners at Quebec Community Groups Network, and the many partner groups, including my own.... I might say that the QUESCREN people don't necessarily understand where the money is coming from, why it is there, how these groups support them and can represent them, so that when media situations arise, when official language situations arise, they don't necessarily make the link between the federal legislation and being self-aware as a linguistic minority community and the existence of the groups.

I would also like to make a more general point that, according to what the research says, it was really with la loi 101 that the English-speaking community became self-aware as a minority, even though it always had been a minority, numerically speaking. The community still, I would say, would benefit from more self-awareness as a linguistic minority community. It would affect its capacity to organize and its capacity to express its needs, request support and so on.

[Emmanuella Lambropoulos, Liberal, Saint-Laurent, QC]

You also spoke about the diversity that exists within this minority community. I have seen first-hand quite a bit of that, and I guess I'm part of it myself. As much as certain individuals within certain different communities consider themselves anglophone, communities themselves have difficulty associating with the anglophone community because it might punish them in other ways. For example, I'm not going to name specific communities, but there are some communities that run schools that are language-based. So they'll have an Italian school, let's say—I'm just throwing that out there; I don't know if this actually exists for the Italian community—that teaches French, English and Italian, and if they consider themselves to be an anglophone community, they might not receive the same supports from the education minister.

This is what they believe, and this is a fear that certain groups have. They're afraid of being part of that community. What can you say to these groups?

[Dr. Lorraine O'Donnell]

First of all I think it's important to recognize that, when we talk about official language minority communities in Quebec, it's an inclusive definition. I'll get a little technical. It includes what Statistics Canada calls those people whose first official language spoken was English. In other words, it might not be their mother tongue, but according to the way the Canadian government counts English speakers, it is their official language. First of all, I would reach out to those groups and say there are supports and resources available to them if they understand how the English-speaking community works.

Just to be clear, within the Quebec government, generally English speakers are identified by mother tongue. It's a different way of counting, and first official language counting includes more people.

In terms of what advantages it offers specific groups, it's absolutely through networking, through being part of a large group that there's know-how and possibilities for work together, for initiatives, for learning from each other—for example, through educational and research activities. The advantages are definitely there.

That being said, I'm well aware of the situation you are mentioning. I remember talking to a friend of mine who was in fact of Italian heritage, and she said to me in English, “I'm not an Anglo”, and for her that meant British. We had a discussion kind of like I just said.

[Emmanuella Lambropoulos, Liberal, Saint-Laurent, QC]

I have one minute left, so I will just be a little bit more specific about what I was mentioning. People who do have English as their first official language don't want their institutions to be related to the anglophone community because, even though they can get benefits from the Official Languages Act and from Heritage Canada and these things, they fear that the Quebec government would stop funding them for certain things.

[Dr. Lorraine O'Donnell]

While I cannot speak specifically about the ins and outs of educational funding, what I can say is that we have noticed, since 2017, a very heartening positive situation with the Quebec government, with the creation of a new body called the Secretariat for relations with English-speaking Quebecers. That body is very research oriented, and its mandate includes reaching out to different communities—regional, ethnocultural—and also to the Quebec government, to improve knowledge and relationships.

I would encourage such groups to reach out to this secretariat.

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, Alupa Clarke]

Thank you very much, Madam O'Donnell.

Now we have two rounds left of four minutes each.

Mrs. Fortier.

[Mona Fortier, Liberal, Ottawa—Vanier, ON]

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.

Mr. Tremblay, thank you for being here today. I am very pleased that you were able to share some concerns that others have raised.

I would like you to tell us more about data, because this is a very worrisome issue at present. As you mentioned, it is difficult to develop policies that consider community needs.

I believe that a committee was abolished in 2014. I am not sure about the date.

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

It was 2012.

[Mona Fortier, Liberal, Ottawa—Vanier, ON]

Okay. It was a consultative committee on research at the Canadian Institute for Health Information, or CIHI. This committee was chaired by Dr. Prud'homme.

Should we create a similar committee in the different authorities or should we instead implement other measures to add the language variable?

[Michel Tremblay]

Thank you very much for the question, Mrs. Fortier. You are my MP.

I would like to add that a new committee was created two years ago. I am referring to Health Canada's Federal Health Portfolio Consultative Committee for Official Language Minority Communities in Canada, or OLMC. This committee existed in the past. It was abolished in 2007, but then re-established two years ago.

This committee brings together people from the CNFS, the SSF and, on the Quebec side, the Community Health and Social Services Network, or CHSSN, McGill University, the Public Health Agency of Canada, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and Health Canada. It meets twice a year. We have established a work plan and linguistic data is one of the topics. It is the subject of our next meeting in May.

At present, representatives of the SSF, CNFS, Health Canada and CIHI, are working on this file together. The only thing we need to add is the research component, which is really important. We also need to know what kind of data is required. Statistics Canada also has a consultative committee looking into this.

[Mona Fortier, Liberal, Ottawa—Vanier, ON]

What this committee is trying to determine is how, as part of the process of modernizing the act, we can include measures to ensure that the government meets these needs. What would be the best formula, a formula that would need to be in the act?

[Michel Tremblay]

The SSF and many other organizations believe that including the language variable on the health card is important. The CIHI collects the information reported on the health card. When people apply for a health card, they are not in a vulnerable state. They will indicate their mother tongue.

We realized that this is what happens in Prince Edward Island. People are asked to indicate their mother tongue. About one hundred languages can be found on health cards, but we also ask which official language they are most comfortable with.

We can obtain linguistic data on indigenous people and other groups. It is a way of helping other groups, not just francophones and anglophones.

[Mona Fortier, Liberal, Ottawa—Vanier, ON]

I know I do not have much time left.

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, Alupa Clarke]

You have 30 seconds.

[Mona Fortier, Liberal, Ottawa—Vanier, ON]

All right.

In your brief, you state that a binding clause could be added to federal-provincial agreements to ensure that we add not just the language variable but also funding for the services needed on the ground. That is interesting and we need to reinforce that in the act.

[Michel Tremblay]

And accountability.

[Mona Fortier, Liberal, Ottawa—Vanier, ON]

Yes.

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

Thank you.

Mr. Généreux, you now have four minutes.

[Bernard Généreux, Conservative, Montmagny—L'Islet—Kamouraska—Rivière-du-Loup, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Mr. Tremblay, you would like to add a clause to the Canada Health Act to support the application of the Official Languages Act. You will tell me if I have misunderstood. However, if we did that, would we be creating a precedent? Other departments or organizations might think that was a good idea and want to change certain laws to facilitate the application of other laws.

I am trying to make the connection between the two. If we were to amend the Canada Health Act, we would be supporting the application of the Official Languages Act. Is that correct?