Official Languages Committee on Feb. 24th, 2016

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

The most western place you have suggested is Saint Boniface, but there is a francophone minority in Edmonton. That might be useful. I don't know, it depends, I guess.

[The Chair, Liberal, Denis Paradis]

Can we go to Saint Boniface and Edmonton in the same trip?

[Paul Lefebvre, Liberal, Sudbury, ON]

Do you think they are close?

[Randy Boissonnault, Liberal, Edmonton Centre, AB]

You actually need to fly between the two.

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

Nothing is impossible.

[The Chair, Liberal, Denis Paradis]

I think the parliamentary secretary would like us to go to Edmonton. If we are able to go to Edmonton and Saint Boniface in the same trip, I have no objection.

Are you in favour of trying to combine those two trips?

[Some hon. members]

Agreed.

[The Chair, Liberal, Denis Paradis]

We all agree, that's great. We will ask the clerk to prepare a budget proposal for those four trips and we will submit it to the Liaison Committee.

We could do that in more than one stage, so that we are not away for two weeks.

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

We could have two trips: one in the east and one in the west.

[The Chair, Liberal, Denis Paradis]

We could do that in two trips. We all agree, great.

I would like to go back to your proposal, Mr. Choquette. I think we have found a date for the Translation Bureau issue. It is the same as the date we had agreed on. However, we established that the study would take from three to five committee meetings. That was Mauril's initial motion. We will certainly be able to add meetings.

Mr. Clerk, what is the date for the first meeting on the Translation Bureau?

[The Clerk of the Committee, Mr. Georges Etoka]

It will be on March 7.

[The Chair, Liberal, Denis Paradis]

Could you contact the officials to find some additional dates so that we can deal with the topic fully by holding more than one meeting.

Does that work, Mr. Bélanger? That's a yes. Good.

Mr. Choquette, the floor is yours.

[François Choquette, NDP, Drummond, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

My understanding is that we can start suggesting names for witnesses who could appear for the study on the Translation Bureau. We are talking about three to five meetings. The March 7 meeting would be one of those meetings, but we will have only—

[The Chair, Liberal, Denis Paradis]

That will help set the stage.

[François Choquette, NDP, Drummond, QC]

So we'll have one hour with one official from the Translation Bureau; we will have only one witness.

I'm not sure how Mr. Bélanger or the committee was planning to do this. How many witnesses do we usually receive in an hour? We are talking about two or three witnesses per hour. I'm not sure what you are suggesting, but having one witness per hour will not allow us to have a very broad vision of the problems. It is often desirable to have more than one insight into a problem. That is why I'm suggesting at least two or three witnesses per hour, so that we can have a better overview and so that the study is as effective as possible.

[The Chair, Liberal, Denis Paradis]

Could you provide the clerk with the names of the people you would like the committee to hear from? The steering committee will be able to review the list of witnesses and decide what we are doing with it.

I am turning to all members of the committee: if you have names of witnesses or organizations in relation to these topics that we have just defined, feel free to submit them as soon as possible to the clerk so that the steering committee can set the order of priority for the witnesses and then notify them.

Does that work? It seems so.

Moving right along.

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

Mr. Chair, I would like to go back to the idea of meetings outside the national capital region. We could hold meetings and sometimes visit places that may be related to the study. That has been done in the past. For instance, if the committee decided to study francophone immigration, it could go to welcome centres in francophone communities. It is up to the committee, but when you plan the external meetings, do you think it would be possible to take the opportunity to visit places that would be in line with the study chosen by the committee? In the past, we have visited francophone schools in Regina and Yellowknife. I can tell you that when you visit a francophone school in Yellowknife, it is an eye-opener.

[The Chair, Liberal, Denis Paradis]

I agree with you.

That makes me think of another topic. We will ask that most of our meetings be televised. You know that CPAC takes care of broadcasting our meetings on television. As a result, I met with the CEO and talked about the balance between French and English.

Furthermore, CPAC is looking for a new role and would like to go further. I asked its CEO whether she could come to testify before us since CPAC is rebroadcasting all our debates and is looking for a new role. She was eager to appear here. I forgot to mention the new CEO of CPAC earlier. If we invite her, we can ask her how CPAC could broadcast our travels, for instance if we want to go to Quebec City.

The clerk mentioned that we also talked about inviting the minister. I suggest that we wait for the budget to be introduced on March 22, and that we consult her office to find out when she is available. As we said, hearing from the Minister of Canadian Heritage is also a priority for our committee.

Mr. Lefebvre, the floor is yours.

[Paul Lefebvre, Liberal, Sudbury, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

As we all know, the Prime Minister gave the Minister of Canadian Heritage a mandate letter with a number of things related to the official languages. If we want to make a difference or, to at least, make suggestions, study various issues, then submit a report to the government, it would be a good idea to focus our work on the aspects in the mandate letter, to ensure that our committee is doing real fieldwork.

Let me list the six points in the mandate letter.

The first point is the multi-year official languages plan. The second point is establishing a free, online service for learning and retaining English and French as second languages. The third point is ensuring that all federal services are delivered in full compliance with the Official Languages Act. The fourth point is updating and reinstating the court challenges program. The fifth point is planning the celebrations for the 150th anniversary of Confederation. Finally, the sixth point is reviewing the funding for CBC/Radio-Canada and other cultural organizations that play a strategic role in official language minority communities.

Our committee could certainly review those points and help move things forward. It could check to see what the department is doing. We could hear from witnesses who are likely to help us with that.

[The Chair, Liberal, Denis Paradis]

Very well.

Are there other speakers?

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

Mr. Chair, the points raised are surely matters of interest to our committee.

We remember the Vancouver Olympics. Whenever a major event is held in Canada, the committee has an opportunity to show leadership in ensuring that Canada's linguistic duality is respected.

Canada's 150th anniversary is soon. The committee could surely have a role to play in ensuring that linguistic duality underpins the various cultural and social activities that will take place to mark the 150th anniversary celebrations. I am sure that has been considered, but it is still the committee's role to call on the stakeholders, dare I say, to ensure that this is the case and to validate the monitoring mechanisms. That could be a follow-up suggestion from the committee.

[The Chair, Liberal, Denis Paradis]

That is really important.

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

We must ensure that the festivities for Canada 150 reflect the linguistic duality and we must obtain the assurance from the various agencies, including Canadian Heritage, that the programs have been designed with this fundamental feature of our society in mind.

[The Chair, Liberal, Denis Paradis]

That is very important.

Bernard, the floor is yours.

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

We know that economic development will be a very important issue in the next few years, considering the current struggling economy.

Yesterday, I read an article that really made me think of Mariette Mulaire from the World Trade Centre in Winnipeg; Mr. Vandal surely knows her. In her organization, she deals with the French fact front and centre. She would definitely be a very interesting witness to hear. We could meet with her here or when we go to Winnipeg or Saint Boniface.

I would expand that to include other committee activities. When we travel across the country or when we invite people here, we should have a component in our work on linguistic duality in business development across the country. That would also be very useful to study.