Official Languages Committee on Sept. 29th, 2016

[Dan Vandal, Liberal, Saint Boniface—Saint Vital, MB]

It's impossible, then, to carry out a real evaluation. There aren't any indicators to measure.

[Roger Paul]

It's a very general form of accountability, and the excuse that's always given is the fact that education is a provincial responsibility. That's true, but if the federal government provides funding intended for language and culture, it has a right to hold the provinces and territories accountable for that money.

[Dan Vandal, Liberal, Saint Boniface—Saint Vital, MB]

Very well.

Are there any other problems with the two previous roadmaps?

[Roger Paul]

Yes. The old protocol presents a big challenge. Many education ministries will be reluctant to make changes. We met with some ministry officials this summer. I know this won't be the case for all of them, but the fact is some of them may be more comfortable sticking with the status quo. They may very well wonder why the process should change when it has been the same for the past 30 or 40 years. Here we are, proposing a different way of doing things. Yet, there's nothing revolutionary about it.

This is something only we can ask for. The anglophones couldn't make this request: they have immersion schools. Nor could post-secondary institutions. I am talking about the OLEP priorities. They could try asking for it, but they wouldn't have any legal basis. The only ones covered by section 23 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms are the French-language school boards. We were granted the right to manage our schools, and pursuant to that right, francophone schools can make their own decisions on language and culture. They can decide for themselves where to spend the money and how to set their priorities.

If section 23 gives us the right to manage our schools, why is it not respected when setting priorities that will be paid for using federal money? That's really what it boils down to.

[The Chair, Liberal, Denis Paradis]

Thank you, Mr. Paul.

That ends the first round of questions, which focused on the roadmap. Now we'll move on to the second issue, immigration.

You have 10 minutes to give your statement and share your views on the subject.

[Roger Paul]

As I already mentioned, I may not speak as passionately during this second part, but the issue is equally important.

[Melinda Chartrand]

Thank you.

Five principles guide the actions of the FNCSF and its network of French-language schools in the exercise of their unique mandate and their efforts to ensure the development, vitality, and sustainability of francophone minority communities.

Was the document handed out?

[Roger Paul]

Yes, in both English and French.

[Melinda Chartrand]

One of those principles is the right to manage admissions, a right that is inherently tied to immigration in francophone and Acadian communities. Members of official language minority communities, through their school boards, should be able to decide, on a case-by-case basis, who should be admitted to their schools. Minority communities are much better qualified than education ministry officials to make decisions affecting the development and vitality of francophone communities. School boards should have the right to manage admissions, and that right should be protected under section 23 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

Consider, for example, developments in Yukon affecting immigration and the right of school boards to manage admissions. The FNCSF applauds the territorial government's recent decision to delegate, to Yukon's French-language school board, control over admissions to École Émilie-Tremblay, Académie Parhélie, and the future francophone high school.

Broader admission criteria for Yukon's French-language schools enabled the territory's francophone school board to take its place alongside the rest of the country's francophone school boards, which already have the full-fledged right to manage admissions. Yukon's French-language school board now has the authority to decide, on a case-by-case basis, whether or not to admit children of eligible parents to its schools. Those eligible parents include newcomers, some of whom were part of the recent wave of immigration. That's a tremendous advancement for the French fact in Yukon.

Yukon's French-language school board had long sought the power to grant admission to the children of its francophone ancestors, immigrants, and francophiles, in order to better realize the intent of section 23 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

The FNCSF views the ability of school board-based management in francophone minority communities as vital to the future and vitality of francophone and Acadian communities. There is no denying that future depends on immigration.

[Roger Paul]

Thank you, Ms. Chartrand.

Some good things are being done in a number of areas. Let me say that the Fédération nationale des conseils scolaires francophones coordinates an all-party committee funded by Canadian Heritage. The committee is made up of school boards, community organizations, the departments of education of nine provinces and territories, as well as some federal departments, including Canadian Heritage, and Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada. That committee has been discussing the issue for five years.

We just produced a report on our accomplishments in a document titled “L'École de Raphaël”. You can view that document on our website, at fncsf.ca. We set out four priorities in that document. One of them — immigration, in terms of education in French — has been at the heart of our discussions for five years, even 10 years, and it will remain a priority. We are actually organizing a summit on education, in May 2017, as part of which 600 individuals will participate in Ottawa, in Edmonton and in Moncton, and that priority will be on the agenda. You could consult the document to find out more about our immigration objectives.

We talk a lot about intersectoral strategy among the various sectors of a community. On that matter, I believe you will be hearing from the representatives of RDEE Canada later. There is the whole issue of municipalities and partners in the community. As for immigration, we are discussing strategies, inclusion, access and citizen participation with them.

I will now talk about the 5%.

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

We could perhaps go to questions. I am afraid we will run out of time.

[Roger Paul]

Okay.

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

Unless you have one last point to raise, we should go to questions.

[Roger Paul]

I would actually like to add something.

In terms of immigration, what do we need in school boards and in communities?

First of all, we have to focus more on strategies to attract immigrants to our French-language schools and our francophone communities. Right now, French-language schools are absolutely unknown to immigrants, both anglophones and francophones. It's as if we did not exist. Something needs to be done about that. If we want to attract more immigrants or new Canadians to our schools, we first have to let them know that the schools exist.

Second, as Ms. Chartrand mentioned, we must have the right to admit those immigrants. Right now, a number of the country's school boards don't have access to allophones—people who don't speak French or English. Since they do not speak either of those two languages, why should they have to attend one school over another? We should have the right to admit allophones and provide them with the services they need. That was my second point.

Third, we need settlement workers. They are present in significant numbers in the larger school boards, especially anglophone ones. When we welcome a family of newcomers, we have to establish rapport with them, even in school. As you know, cultures differ from one another. We have to be able to explain to those people how things work in Canadian schools and express the desire for them to participate in the vitality of the community and the school.

[The Chair, Liberal, Denis Paradis]

Thank you, Mr. Paul.

We will now go to questions, starting with Ms. Boucher.

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

Good morning. Thank you for joining us today.

You say that new immigrants are not aware of the existence of French schools or English schools in minority communities. So that's a vision problem on the part of the provincial or the federal government.

That said, how do you ensure to attract a small portion of those immigrants? All school boards and all provinces must be able to attract immigrants.

As you said, you don't have access to allophones. As a result, they do not attend your schools. Judging by what is happening in Quebec, integration is difficult for those people.

How can we integrate and retain a newcomer who does not speak French or English?

Of course, we are mostly talking about French in the case of the francophone minority.

[Roger Paul]

Thank you.

Perhaps I expressed myself poorly or perhaps I was misunderstood.

It's not that immigrants don't know about English-language schools or French-language schools, but rather that they are unaware of the existence of French-language schools. They think they will only find English-language schools when they arrive.

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

Okay.

[Roger Paul]

So awareness should be raised about French-language schools to remedy this shortcoming.

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

Yes.

[Roger Paul]

However, the necessary funding should not be taken from the budgets for school board programs. The funds should be provided as part of a campaign.

We are talking about linguistic duality, and it seems to me that the two linguistic communities must be treated equally. So if newcomers are aware of the existence of English-language schools, but they have very little awareness of French-language schools, we have to find a way to raise awareness about francophone schools. To do that, financial resources are needed, but school boards don't have the resources to do the necessary promotion.

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

However, the province—and you are part of a province—does have the funding to promote linguistic duality. That must vary from one province to another, but in terms of official languages, your province must be able to ensure that its department of education is also promoting French.

Are there any difficulties in that respect?

[Melinda Chartrand]

I could explain that situation.

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

Okay.

[Melinda Chartrand]

I am the president of my school board, in Toronto, and this is something we are experiencing on a daily basis.

The major obstacle for francophones is that we have no visibility when it comes to promoting the language.

There are a number of multicultural associations in our regions, but we are not part of the group that welcomes newcomers. Some of them go through Buffalo, for example, to get to Fort Erie, where there is a multicultural centre. Only the anglophone public school board is part of that team.

We have community agents in the province. However, there should be more workers in establishments to provide a better welcome and to be available during meetings with newcomers. For example, at the Niagara multicultural centre, no services in French are provided.

We have been working on this for five to 10 years. Ottawa also has a large number of centres. It is important to maintain those relations between workers in establishments and francophone school boards that are working with various immigrant cultural groups.