Official Languages Committee on Feb. 7th, 2017

[Roger Paul]

I would like to give you another example on this.

If memory serves, you are with a school board in northern Ontario. If there were, for instance, a question on schools attended by children and parents, Statistics Canada could easily show that the numbers are double what they were in your school board zone, since data would be available.

If a child whose parent is not a rights holder was accepted by an admissions committee, and by the same token saw his entire family become rights holders, we need to be told where those people are. Then we could ask Statistics Canada to analyze that school zone in Sudbury and specify how many children or parents of students are now rights holders in that school zone.

I only have partial data for the first question, and the second and third ones are extremely important. We could, with proof in hand, tell the people from the Department of Education that Sudbury needs at least three schools. That statement would not be based on a personal opinion but on Statistics Canada data.

[The Chair, Liberal, Denis Paradis]

Thank you, Mr. Paul.

Mr. Vandal will ask the next question.

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

The only survey on vitality was done in 2006. What effect did the data collected in 2006 have?

My question is open to all of the witnesses.

[Roger Paul]

Because of the information that was collected, the survey allowed the communities to justify more services. If another such survey is done, we would like to take part in its development because of the data we would like to obtain.

Mr. Vandal, your question was about whether there were substantial gains following that survey that were directly related to it. We could obtain answers to that question, but for the moment, I don't have that information.

[The Chair, Liberal, Denis Paradis]

Thank you very much.

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

I understand.

[The Chair, Liberal, Denis Paradis]

First of all, I want to sincerely thank Ms. Chartrand, Mr. Paul, Ms. Laurin and Mr. Hachey. I thank you very much for your presentations. This has enlightened us considerably.

I would like remind the members of the committee that at 1:15 p.m., there will be a presentation about the court challenge system that exists by virtue of the Charter. This will take place in the foyer of the House.

I would also like to remind you that the next meeting, on Thursday, will be held in Centre Block because we will be receiving Minister Foote and the session will be televised. Don't forget; Thursday morning, we will be in the Centre Block.

I thank all of you.

The meeting is adjourned.