Mr. Chair and members of the committee, thank you for inviting us to speak to the major issues facing francophone and Acadian communities, as well as their priorities. We are very pleased to be here this afternoon.
Two weeks ago, the FCFA was invited to appear before your colleagues on the Standing Committee on Finance. I shared two pieces of good news with them, and now I'd like to share them with you.
The first piece of good news is that there have never been so many people wanting to live in French in Canada, so the demand for French-language activities and services in our communities continues to grow.
The second piece of good news is that, across the country, we have a network of community builders who have taken things into their own hands to build the infrastructure we need to live in French. Led by the FCFA, the network is constantly on the lookout for innovative solutions to better serve the 2.6 million French-speaking Canadians across 9 provinces and 3 territories, and meet their needs more effectively.
I deliver my remarks to you today against the backdrop of next year's milestone, the 150th anniversary of the Confederation of Canada. The celebrations in 2017 are a perfect opportunity to showcase everything that makes us unique, as a people, and to clearly assert our core values, which attest to the importance of Canada's linguistic duality.
The very existence of French-speaking communities in every region of the country means that we can talk about genuine linguistic duality in Canada. The celebrations in 2017 are an ideal opportunity for the government to take historic steps to reiterate the importance of the country's linguistic duality by supporting the vitality of our communities and the ability of Canadians to live in French.
I would like to point out that, upon reading the transcript of last week's committee appearance by Canadian heritage officials, the FCFA was surprised to learn that there appeared to be no plan to showcase Canada's linguistic duality or francophonie during the celebrations in 2017. We are depending on the department to demonstrate leadership on that front.
I'd like to discuss three key priorities with you today.
The first is strengthening community capacity, especially with respect to infrastructure, services, and agencies and institutions committed to promoting French. There is no longer any doubt about the added value of our community and cultural centres, schools, settlement and employment assistance services, community media, and local francophone agencies. However, those organizations have now done everything they possibly can with the resources they have.
Many of our agencies receive funding from the Department of Canadian Heritage, through official languages programs, but that funding has neither increased nor been indexed for 11 years. Taking into account the increase in the cost of living, that corresponds to a 30% to 35% decrease in agency resources. Other organizations are also in trouble because some funds under Canada's roadmap for official languages have yet to be released three years into the plan.
Another matter of serious concern to us is the erosion of our community media, as I told your colleagues on the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage yesterday. It won't come as news to you that the Radio-Canada cuts have significantly crippled regional stations serving our communities.
With respect to community media, last year, Ottawa's L'Express newspaper ceased publication and Saskatchewan's L'Eau vive newspaper suspended publication for a number of months. Our newspaper and radio organizations have experienced a significant decline in revenue. At a time when the entire media industry is struggling to transition to a digital-based business model, our community media services are in need of support to make that transition.
In short, strengthening the capacity of our communities is paramount if they are to continue fostering life in French by providing places where people can go about their lives in French. Our communities need better, more modern infrastructure in order to face the growing demand for services. Our media groups need to be able to make the digital transition. Our agencies and institutions need to be able to meet emerging needs, especially as regards francophone immigration.
That brings me to the second priority I wanted to discuss with you today, population growth.
Last week, in honour of the day of reflection on francophone immigration, we met with Minister McCallum, informing him of the key issues facing us. He clearly understood that, from our standpoint, francophone immigration was a matter of not just delivering services to individuals, but also strengthening the capacity of our communities. He recognized that it is a collective effort driving us.
Making that effort a success means overcoming numerous obstacles. The government hasn't really given our communities the resources to succeed when it comes to francophone immigration.
In 2012, we lost the ability to participate in Destination Canada, the only showcase we had to promote our communities as welcoming places for potential French-speaking immigrants to settle and live. In 2014, the government eliminated the francophone significant benefit program, the only measure that gave employers a genuine incentive to hire French-speaking workers from abroad.
What's more, our French-language settlement services definitely lack the resources they need to do the work of helping francophone newcomers settle and integrate into our communities. We would therefore expect the government to put tangible measures in place soon.
Our third key priority will hardly surprise anyone. I'm talking about full compliance with the Official Languages Act. In recent years, the implementation of the act has been significantly eroded. In the absence of a single authority mandated to ensure consistent government-wide application of the act, a number of institutions have been content to do the bare minimum, and sometimes even less than that. As a result of budget cuts, some institutions no longer have the capacity to fulfill their language obligations as they should.
As was highlighted in the Commissioner of Official Languages' recent report, Treasury Board had absolutely no qualms about letting federal institutions off the hook when it came to their contribution to the 2012 deficit reduction exercise and its impact on their official languages obligations and official language minority communities. That speaks to a broader and, I would even say, endemic, problem across the federal government—institutions' compliance with their official languages obligations under part VII of the act.
Specifically, I am referring to federal institutions' duty to take positive measures to enhance the vitality of linguistic minority communities, and support and assist their development. On that front, as well, federal institutions often do the bare minimum. Many make decisions without any regard for the impact on our communities or even community consultation. Many federal institutions see their duty to official language minority communities as beginning and ending with the initiatives in the roadmap for official languages. We are a long way off from the 2003 Dion plan, which was meant to hold federal institutions accountable for supporting communities.
It's now been 10 years since part VII of the Official Languages Act was amended, on the initiative of Senator Jean-Robert Gauthier, whose goal was to replace the legislation's lapdog status with watchdog clout, as he used to say. The FCFA's first recommendation is that the committee undertake an in-depth study on the manner in which federal institutions' obligations under part VII of the act have or have not been incorporated into the institutional culture. The study would lay the groundwork for a more effective official languages plan the next time around. As part of that study, I would also encourage the committee to examine how the Department of Canadian Heritage performs its coordination function under part VII of the act.
When department officials appeared two weeks ago, they talked about providing motivation and inspiration, but not about ensuring leadership or accountability. If compliance with part VII depends on the goodwill of each federal institution, we are no further ahead than we were in 2005. The need to designate an orchestra conductor, if you will, who can compel every institution to produce results has not changed.
The FCFA's second recommendation is that the committee put pressure on the federal government to take measures to actively promote Canada's linguistic duality and francophonie during the 150th anniversary celebrations of the Confederation of Canada. The government must, at the very least, send a clear message reiterating the importance of linguistic duality as one of Canada's core values.
Honourable members, even though the challenges are many, we at the FCFA, as well as our network partners, remain optimistic. As I said earlier, community building is an integral part of who we are. We appear before you today committed to being part of the solution. We intend to contribute to every step of the evaluation and consultation process to make sure the new plan truly meets our communities' development needs. Please know that you have our full co-operation in that regard. Our vision is to pass on a modern, diverse, and engaged francophonie to the next generation and the generation after that, as well as to all those who are “franco-curious”, as MP Randy Boissonnault so cleverly put it. We know that, with good faith, hard work and co-operation, we can turn that vision into a reality.
Thank you.
