Evidence of meeting #85 for Official Languages in the 42nd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was théberge.
A video is available from Parliament.
Liberal
NDP
Thomas Mulcair NDP Outremont, QC
—can the minister tell the committee whether she is going to provide us with the agreement she signed with Netflix?
Liberal
Mélanie Joly Liberal Ahuntsic-Cartierville, QC
As I said earlier in response to the question, Mr. Chair, that investment was made under the Investment Canada Act.
Liberal
NDP
Thomas Mulcair NDP Outremont, QC
Furthermore, Mr. Chair, since the minister did not answer that question either, I will repeat—
Liberal
Darrell Samson Liberal Sackville—Preston—Chezzetcook, NS
Point of order, Mr. Chair. We are already over time.
NDP
Thomas Mulcair NDP Outremont, QC
I just want to make sure that he isn't eating into my time, Mr. Chair.
Conservative
Thomas Mulcair NDP Outremont, QC
Thank you.
The question on Bill C-203 was put to the House on October 25. Entitled An Act to amend the Supreme Court Act (understanding the official languages), the bill sought to ensure that all justices appointed to the Supreme Court going forward would be able to understand both official languages. Never, in its history, has the Supreme Court had a unilingual francophone judge. The main idea behind the bill, then, was to prevent the appointment of unilingual anglophone justices going forward.
The minister voted against the bill. Earlier, she claimed that she did so because she had a better proposal and that another bill would be forthcoming. When are we going to see it? The Liberals are now in their third year of power.
Liberal
Mélanie Joly Liberal Ahuntsic-Cartierville, QC
Mr. Mulcair, my understanding is that, if your leader had been in the House that day to vote on the private member's bill, he would have voted against it.
NDP
Thomas Mulcair NDP Outremont, QC
I know the minister voted against the bilingualism of Supreme Court justices.
Conservative
The Vice-Chair Conservative Alupa Clarke
Mr. Mulcair, we're out of time.
Minister, thank you for being here today and answering the committee's questions.
We will now take a quick break, after which, we will spend the next hour of our meeting with Raymond Théberge.
Conservative
The Vice-Chair Conservative Alupa Clarke
Good afternoon. We will now resume with the appearance of Mr. Théberge, the nominee for the position of Commissioner of Official Languages.
I would again like to apologize for the technical difficulties that occurred last time.
We received a request from the Bloc Québécois for permission to ask questions at our last meeting. Since we don't have any Bloc Québécois members here today, it will save us a bit of time.
We will, therefore, continue with Mr. Théberge's appearance.
The first minute will go to Mr. Généreux, followed by Mr. Lefebvre. We will go as quickly as we can.
Liberal
Conservative
The Vice-Chair Conservative Alupa Clarke
Forgive me, Mr. Samson will speak after Mr. Généreux.
Actually, I wasn't mistaken. Mr. Généreux will have a minute, and, then, it will be Mr. Lefebvre's turn.
Conservative
The Vice-Chair Conservative Alupa Clarke
I'm sorry, Mr. Samson, but you're mistaken.
We will now go to Mr. Généreux for one minute.
Conservative
Bernard Généreux Conservative Montmagny—L'Islet—Kamouraska—Rivière-du-Loup, QC
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I would like to thank you, as well, Mr. Théberge. Please accept our apologies for making you appear before the committee twice. Unfortunately, people had an opportunity to react to what you said the first time you were here. We hope to move along expeditiously.
I'm going to pick up on the question I asked you on Tuesday, before the meeting came to an end. It had to do with four federal institutions: Public Services and Procurement Canada, the Privy Council, the Treasury Board, and the Department of Canadian Heritage. The Minister, who was here up to mere moments ago, told us that government institutions no longer operated in isolation and that a whole-of-government approach was now in place. The fact of the matter is that the number of complaints in those organizations went up.
Against the backdrop of this new style of governance, how will you make sure your recommendations are heard and addressed?