Official Languages Committee on Oct. 27th, 2016

[Mélanie Joly, Liberal, Ahuntsic-Cartierville, QC]

The Francophone Significant Benefit program was relaunched in June, and that is exactly its objective. The return of this program was lauded by a number of people in the community.

We also want to put the French language skills of the people we admit to work, in order to achieve the objective of 4.4% francophone immigration. I am working very hard on this with the Minister, Mr. McCallum I would like to say that Mr. McCallum is doing an extraordinary job and he is a real ally when it comes to official languages and promoting the francophone minority community. This is a discussion I also have to have with the government of Manitoba and that my colleague at Immigration has to have with his counterparts.

That is why I think our approach to official languages is so important. We have to have allies in all areas and in all departments, and all ministers have to have responsibility for official languages.

As I said earlier, my team and I will be very interested in reading your report, as will Mr. McCallum and his team.

[The Chair, Liberal, Denis Paradis]

Thank you.

Bernard Généreux, you have the floor.

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

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you for being here this morning, Minister.

There seems to be a popularity contest. In my case, my entire riding is pretty.

[Some hon. members]

Oh, oh!

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

Enough joking; I will get on with my question.

Minister, we had a prime minister who was in power for nine years and made a point of starting all his speeches in French, both in Canada and abroad. As a champion of official languages, should you not be asking your Prime Minister to do the same thing?

[Mélanie Joly, Liberal, Ahuntsic-Cartierville, QC]

Yes.

In fact, our Prime Minister is a champion of official languages. This was demonstrated when it came to appointing judges to the Supreme Court. We want to make sure that we have bilingual judges. It has also been demonstrated in the area of immigration, as I said just now, as well as in respect of defence.

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

I am talking about him, personally.

[Mélanie Joly, Liberal, Ahuntsic-Cartierville, QC]

Our Prime Minister is a...

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

He is a strong advocate; that is fine. I do not want to dwell on that point.

[Mélanie Joly, Liberal, Ahuntsic-Cartierville, QC]

He is a strong advocate and I am very proud of his leadership in that regard.

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

Minister, in the Annual Report on Official Languages 2014-15, we see that from 2003 to 2014, there was an increase of nearly 40% in the number of enrolments in second language immersion programs everywhere in Canada, in spite of the budget constraints imposed by the Conservative government in order to rebalance the budget. We might call that an excellent result. So we are talking about more than 400,000 students across Canada.

My question is this. Can we conclude that with the money you are reinvesting in Canada's francophone community, or that you are considering reinvesting, we will be able to exceed that number of enrolments and have brand new schools everywhere in Canada?

[Mélanie Joly, Liberal, Ahuntsic-Cartierville, QC]

The federal government respects the provinces' jurisdictions. You are well aware that the federal government is not responsible for education or for investment in school infrastructure. Our responsibility is to support certain projects. Sometimes that is the case for a school where community infrastructure is found. We can invest in early childhood or postsecondary education, for example.

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

In other words, in the action plan you currently have, in terms of both infrastructure and languages, there is, to all appearances, a glaring need for community and early childhood infrastructure. We have observed that from the beginning of our study. In minority communities, we often see projects that bring these these elements together in one building.

Are you able to guarantee that money will be promised to minority regions for new infrastructure? Can you give figures for that money now?

[Mélanie Joly, Liberal, Ahuntsic-Cartierville, QC]

Some funds have already been distributed, by year, for community infrastructure. However, I would like us to be able to add to the envelope.

My own view is that it goes without saying that whenever a family is unable to send their child to a school to become bilingual, that is certainly not an affirmation of the social contract that unites us.

That is why I have to make sure that the provinces exercise significant leadership when it comes to official languages. However, the level of leadership varies from one province to another. My role is therefore to make sure that it is a priority.

That being said...

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

You are right, Minister. Excuse me for interrupting.

Accountability also varies from one province to another. Communities have told us that funds were distributed in the provinces, but they never saw any of the money.

The question of accountability is extremely important. It is all well and good to send money to the provinces and the communities, but there has to be accountability. Even the organizations tell us that they would like to be more accountable and to have access to more funding, if they can meet the program criteria. They say that, in some cases, they are unable to prove that they meet the program criteria because the accountability process is too vague.

[Mélanie Joly, Liberal, Ahuntsic-Cartierville, QC]

I would like to finish explaining my idea before you interrupt me.

In both Alberta and Ontario, or in New Brunswick, there is a new type of leadership when it comes to official languages. In some places in Canada, there has even been a reduction in language-related tension, particularly in Manitoba. In that province, they have just enacted the first law that recognizes the language rights of the francophone minority.

This means that, on the one hand, leadership may sometimes vary from province to province, and on the other hand, there really have been breakthroughs and we are looking at excellent social cohesion.

That being said, when it comes to accountability, which is the subject of your second question, I have heard this sort of thing a lot from school boards on the question of the transparency of the federal-provincial agreements. Certainly this is a question we are prepared to study, to make sure the money is well invested. That being said, to the extent that I manage to have good provincial allies, this issue will probably become less important.

[The Chair, Liberal, Denis Paradis]

Thank you very much.

Mr. Samson, you have the floor.

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

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Good morning, Minister. I would also like to welcome the two officials from Canadian Heritage, whom I have known for a long time. It is always a pleasure to see you again.

That makes me think somewhat of the message I delivered last week in Yellowknife, which was that we had to move from actor to decision-maker. That is somewhat what I am feeling today.

Minister, I would like to go back to a few points you mentioned a little earlier, on which you can perhaps add some information.

You said that Yukon and Yellowknife were looking for funding to expand their schools, because of the increase in the number of students. In fact, our government has just offered a new allowance to help young families, which should contribute to increasing the number of students in these schools everywhere in Canada.

I had the chance to visit the school in Yellowknife. From what I understood, construction costs are much higher in the North, and the amounts normally given to fund infrastructure in those communities are not sufficient. The situation should be reviewed or, at least, another strategy should be found for that region.

Do you have any comments on that subject?

[Mélanie Joly, Liberal, Ahuntsic-Cartierville, QC]

That is the reality for all infrastructure in the North. It is part of our approach for infrastructure projects in Iqaluit, Yellowknife and Whitehorse.

I am familiar with the projects in those three capital cities. The teams on the ground are familiar with the situation. They also know that, going beyond words, what is most important is to have a project. I have clearly asked my teams and the people I have met in those cities to propose something to us, instead of simply talking about it. That is how we can make sure investments are made.

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

It needs to get going fairly quickly, because I know those people are waiting for funds to do the work. The government of Yukon would like to start the project, but your team needs to respond quickly to its request.

[Mélanie Joly, Liberal, Ahuntsic-Cartierville, QC]

We are working very hard on that.

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

On the question of francophone immigration, you have a target of 4.4%. No other member of the committee will be happier than me when that target is reached. However, we have to make sure that francophone immigrants settle all over Canada, in rural areas, and not just in big cities.

There is also the question of childcare, which is probably the most important subject. I know you have done good work on that question. That being said, I would like to hear your views on the fact that a child who goes to an English childcare centre is probably going to attend English school later. So they really have to start their career in French as early as possible.

I know you are having discussions about this with the Minister of Families, Children and Social Development, Mr. Duclos, and with the Minister of Infrastructure and Communities, Mr. Sohi. In fact, infrastructure could come under other departments, and that would mean that the envelope for the funding would go much further. We should seize this opportunity. So every time an investment is made in infrastructure, you could take advantage of it to address the question of minority community infrastructure.

Can you give us more details on this subject?

[Mélanie Joly, Liberal, Ahuntsic-Cartierville, QC]

In the first Dion plan for supporting the vitality of language communities, early childhood was an important issue. It is in the roadmap, as well.

More recently, Mr. Duclos has made some funds available that had not been allocated for social development. That has been welcomed by various organizations.

I would urge you to talk to Mr. Duclos about the importance of investing in early childhood education, from the official languages perspective, particularly in the context of investment in our major social infrastructure project. These are discussions that I have had with Mr. Duclos, but I urge you do so as well, as official languages allies. I am sure that he will demonstrate leadership on this question.

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

I have two more questions to ask you.

I am concerned about the 5% francophone immigration target in the communities. We have already dealt with this. It worries me. In my view, it is extremely important to quickly discuss Bill S-209, which has been introduced by Senator Maria Chaput, to show that we are expanding our services.

[Mélanie Joly, Liberal, Ahuntsic-Cartierville, QC]

I have addressed this question with Mr. Scott Brison and we have met with Senator Chaput. I appeared before the Standing Senate Committee on Official Languages earlier this week. I was asked a lot of questions about the Senate bill.

That being said, the President of the Treasury Board, Mr. Brison, has already announced that he was prepared to study the regulations to facilitate services in French.