Official Languages Committee on Oct. 3rd, 2017

[Linda Lapointe, Liberal, Rivière-des-Mille-Îles, QC]

You just need to be careful about when the questions will be ready. There is something of a parallel timeline to keep in mind.

You mentioned earlier that, in light of the responses obtained in statistical tests, you realized that people may have poor comprehension, either of the French or the English. I don't think that illiteracy or comprehension issues are new.

[Jean-Pierre Corbeil]

That's right.

[Linda Lapointe, Liberal, Rivière-des-Mille-Îles, QC]

I also don't think that a statistical test can change all that much over the years, but people should still have a better education in 2017-2018 than in 1960. How affected do you think we are by that problem?

[Johanne Denis]

That is what we are assessing by conducting tests. We are making sure to have the simplest and most concise questions possible that enable us to measure what we need to measure. When we say that we are building on all our science, that is what we are doing.

[Linda Lapointe, Liberal, Rivière-des-Mille-Îles, QC]

Okay. That aspect of the problem has always been there.

[Johanne Denis]

Yes, exactly.

[Linda Lapointe, Liberal, Rivière-des-Mille-Îles, QC]

Unfortunately, that is currently still the case. People still have problems. That is not new.

[The Chair, Liberal, Denis Paradis]

Thank you very much.

Members will now have four minutes for their questions and comments.

Mr. Vandal, go ahead.

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

I want to begin by thanking you for your presentation.

I will share some good and some bad news we received this morning from my province. The Division scolaire franco-manitobaine, or DSFM, says that enrolment for this year is at 5,591 students. That is an increase of 2%, which is good news. Schools in urban areas are experiencing strong growth, while enrolment numbers in some schools in rural communities are dropping. This issue is very important for our small villages, such as Saint-Georges, Saint-Jean-Baptiste and St-Pierre-Jolys. A number of those small villages lack Internet access.

Ms. Denis, you said that you receive 70% of your responses for the enumeration over the Internet.

Is that right?

[Johanne Denis]

Yes. We receive the rest of the responses through a paper questionnaire—

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

Okay.

[Johanne Denis]

—or through telephone interviews.

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

Yes.

[Johanne Denis]

So it's a mixed mode of data collection.

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

That may be a problem in small villages. I just wanted to let you know.

[Johanne Denis]

Yes.

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

We need good schools. Unfortunately, since those people don't always have Internet access, the message may not reach them.

[Johanne Denis]

Yes.

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

I would like to come back to the theme raised by Ms. Lapointe.

You talked about the questions that were being asked.

Are there any surveys?

[Jean-Pierre Corbeil]

In general, wording is proposed for questions. We meet with focus groups to ensure that the questions are understood and to see how they are interpreted. As mentioned earlier, the way people understand a question depends on how the question is worded. Qualitative testing and focus groups help us ensure that people have understood the objective and the wording of a question. Afterwards, we administer a quantitative survey in various regions of Canada.

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

Okay.

[Jean-Pierre Corbeil]

The sample is large. If the sample consisted of a hundred or a few hundred people, the results may be different than if it consisted of several thousand people. The qualitative testing, which is conducted with tens of thousands of individuals, helps us ensure that the questions are understood and that the results are consistent.

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

Will all that work be done in 2018 or in 2019?

[Jean-Pierre Corbeil]

We are already starting to look at the wording of questions. In 2018, we will conduct qualitative testing. As my colleague said, this is an ongoing process.

[Johanne Denis]

That's right.