Official Languages Committee on Feb. 5th, 2018

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

In other words, RESDAC is an organization that serves all its clientele, its members rather—because I do not like using the word clientele in this case—and they in turn provide services. RESDAC does not provide direct services to all Canadian adults living in minority situations.

[Gabrielle Lopez]

No.

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

That is done through organizations.

[Michel Robillard]

That's right.

[Gabrielle Lopez]

On occasion, RESDAC provides one-time services. For example, with pilot projects or research projects, we have groups of adult participants who go through that experience.

It must also be said that Ontario is in a privileged position: it has a lot of resources and the infrastructure is very well developed. That is not the case everywhere in Canada. Other official language minority communities have less infrastructure and fewer resources. At times, federal funding for education is transferred to provincial level but does not make it to the front lines. So there are problems in that respect. RESDAC is there to assist groups, to bridge gaps, and to support infrastructure and expertise.

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

So your main mission, although you may well have secondary missions, is to provide services to your members who in turn provide services.

However, I imagine that you also do a little research and development in adult education.

[Michel Robillard]

We do a lot of research, development, and sharing of best practices. For example, a little earlier, I talked about the integrated model. We used the experience from Nova Scotia that had good results. That encouraged us to move forward.

RESDAC is also a very significant forum, because it allows the various communities represented by our members to connect with other members, to find out about different practices, and so on. We have had projects in which four provinces have participated, and they have had very positive outcomes.

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

What was the budget—

[The Chair, Liberal, Denis Paradis]

Thank you, Mr. Généreux. I have to move to the next speaker.

The floor goes to Mr. Paul Lefebvre.

[Paul Lefebvre, Liberal, Sudbury, ON]

Mr. Généreux, I actually wanted to ask the questions that you were about to ask, but not right away. I have some quick questions first.

Are you the only organization to provide these services? As I understand it, you are leading and supporting provincial organizations. Is that correct?

[Gabrielle Lopez]

Yes. You should also know that we are the only organization left, even on the anglophone side, because our counterpart, the Canadian Language and Literacy Research Network, has closed its doors.

[Paul Lefebvre, Liberal, Sudbury, ON]

Did it close its doors in 2013 as well, because of a lack of funding from the federal government?

[Gabrielle Lopez]

Yes.

[Paul Lefebvre, Liberal, Sudbury, ON]

Now I am going to ask Mr. Généreux’s question.

Before the budget was slashed in 2013, what was the amount the federal government provided?

[Michel Robillard]

If memory serves, RESDAC’s operating budget was about $600,000.

[Paul Lefebvre, Liberal, Sudbury, ON]

How many employees were there?

[Michel Robillard]

Probably six or seven employees. In terms of one-time budgets that we had for specific projects, it could go up to six or seven employees, in addition to the consultants that would give us a hand.

[Paul Lefebvre, Liberal, Sudbury, ON]

Do your members, who are part of the coalitions in various provinces, pay fees to be part of the network? Does that bring money into RESDAC?

[Gabrielle Lopez]

Yes, but the fees are minimal: $100 a year. It’s not a lot.

[Paul Lefebvre, Liberal, Sudbury, ON]

You would not have been able to survive on that.

[Gabrielle Lopez]

No.

[Michel Robillard]

Not at all. Clearly.

[Gabrielle Lopez]

Actually, RESDAC was about to revise its governance structure and things like that, but the funding disappeared right away. The CEO at the time had to manage the process of decline.

[Paul Lefebvre, Liberal, Sudbury, ON]

On that very topic, in Mr. DesRoches’ testimony before this committee in 2016, he said that there was a different approach from the one you were advocating at the time. According to that approach, you were operating a little like a private company that can choose its partners and conduct itself only in terms of the labour market development. That’s what he mentioned.

Can you explain that?

[Michel Robillard]

He was talking about social finance.