Official Languages Committee on Feb. 16th, 2017

[Voices]

Oh, oh!

[Marcus Tabachnick]

It's not that there are no English schools ever built in Quebec. Currently, a number of schools are under construction for the English sector, and a number of schools have agrandissements under way currently.

It's a process. You have to prove the need, and we don't have the data to say—if we can attract those students to our schools—that there is a need because the masse critique is there. That's the information we don't have at the current time.

No, the day after the census report comes out, it will not build a whole series of new schools, but it becomes part of the process in getting new schools built.

[René Arseneault, Liberal, Madawaska—Restigouche, NB]

Can I continue?

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, John Nater]

No. We'll come back to you in the next round.

Mr. Généreux.

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

Thank you.

I would just like to have something clarified.

I am the perfect example. My spouse is anglophone, specifically, an anglophone Montrealer. We live in La Pocatière, in a largely French-speaking riding. Our children are bilingual because we spoke English at home. They didn't, however, do their schooling in English.

My son lives in the Montreal area, west of the island, in Rigaud. In theory, his children are rights holders, and, according to what you said, if I don't apply to the Quebec government for a certificate, future generations of our family will not be considered rights holders.

[Marcus Tabachnick]

Your son or his children could apply for their own certificate at some point. It would be much easier, however, for future generations if you were to apply and obtain the certificate now.

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

I see.

Thank you.

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, John Nater]

Madame Boucher.

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

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I am always impressed whenever I meet with members of Quebec's anglophone community. You definitely have the fighting spirit. It is often said that francophones have Latin blood. You do too, for that matter.

Quebec does not recognize your status as a minority community; that's a fact. I used to work for the Quebec government, so I am familiar with the situation. The information we have is necessarily skewed. The province recognizes that English is your mother tongue but not the fact that you are rights-holders. Is that right? Some of you are considered rights-holders in Quebec, but for the most part, that isn't the case. The data provided by the province is therefore skewed, in Quebec.

Mr. Tabachnick, you mentioned discussions that were going on at Treasury Board. We met with people from Statistics Canada, and we talked to them about the census questions. I didn't quite understand what you said about the Treasury Board discussions. Could you explain that again?

[Marcus Tabachnick]

I'm not sure I understand your question.

I didn't actually mention Treasury Board. It may have been Mr. Chambers who brought it up.

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

I know that one of you did, because I took note of it as soon as it was said.

[Sylvia Martin-Laforge]

Is it the new regulatory piece out of the federal government?

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

Yes, maybe.

[Sylvia Martin-Laforge]

Well, that process is just starting, Madame Boucher.

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

I see.

[Sylvia Martin-Laforge]

So people all over the place right now are thinking about definitions and about how to count what. I can't really comment on what will come out of those kinds of things right now, but everybody is thinking about how to count differently, to count better. The francophones want to expand definitions, so it seems to be a time when we're all worried, or concerned, or thinking about how to count and what the definitions are, and for sure, in English-speaking Quebec, we are very attuned to definitions that have to consider the English-speaking community. You can't have definitions that are just for the francophones hors Québec—Monsieur Arseneault doesn't like to be called that—but we have to see minority communities as minority communities across Canada.

Do you have something to add?

[Geoffrey Chambers]

I'll just give an example to back it up.

As you point out, there's one official language in Quebec. It's not English, and we don't have an objection to that, and we're not trying to attack that social bargain, which is functioning pretty well, but as a result of that, unlike in Ontario where there's a ministry that addresses the question and is there to receive representation from this francophone minority, there's no English minority, so there's no ministry.

Now we're trying to develop some channels so the government can, on a public policy plane, have a dialogue with the community and not run into the kind of problems they've had with the last two major pieces of reform legislation. They were drafted in such a way that they didn't take the historical rights of the community into account, and they had to be changed in the course of their adoption in the National Assembly, which was complicated, difficult, and embarrassing. It wasn't really the purpose of these pieces of legislation to put the community in a bad situation. It was unintended; they just didn't know how to do this, that sort of situation.

We have to have a better dialogue. Better facts can establish a better dialogue. While there is only one official language in Quebec, the education act refers to the English minority. The health and social services act and the preamble to the charter of the French language refer to the English-speaking community. We're not absent. It's confused, and we need to get precision.

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

We've talked a lot about English-language schools. We have also frequently heard that some public schools in francophone communities in Quebec had very high dropout rates.

Are things the same on the English side?

[Marcus Tabachnick]

That's the case in some schools, but the completion rate for the anglophone community overall is nearly 90%.

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

Very good.

[Marcus Tabachnick]

That includes students with disabilities or adjustment or learning problems, as well, 95% of whom are integrated into regular classrooms.

Although we are always working towards 100%, we are doing quite well since our completion rate hovers around 87% or 88%.

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

That's very good.

[Marcus Tabachnick]

Indeed, it's not bad.

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, John Nater]

Thank you, Ms. Boucher.

You will have another round, in a couple of rounds, if you have more questions—

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

I hope so.