Evidence of meeting #88 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 resdac.
A recording is available from Parliament.
4:10 p.m.
Liberal
René Arseneault Liberal Madawaska—Restigouche, NB
Not to mention the dropout rate, which is really high among francophones outside Quebec, and even among Quebeckers.
4:10 p.m.
Chief Executive Officer, Coalition ontarienne de formation des adultes
Exactly.
4:10 p.m.
Liberal
René Arseneault Liberal Madawaska—Restigouche, NB
That said, it was an aside.
I will come back to my questions now.
In short, what was your situation before the funding ended in 2013? How was that organized? How were you able to provide services?
If we could give you what you are asking for tomorrow morning, would that be enough?
4:10 p.m.
Chief Executive Officer, Coalition ontarienne de formation des adultes
First of all, we can hardly compare the situation before 2013 to that after 2013, because, as I said, we have changed. We are in the process of adopting a completely different model.
Prior to 2013, RESDAC had discussions about best practices. We had research reports on various topics of interest to all RESDAC partners or members, reports that we used. Let me give you a very concrete example. We did a study on the skills needs of employers and employees. We realized that the skills needed were not only related to reading, writing and counting, but also to problem solving, communicating, and so on. So not only essential skills, but also generic skills were needed. This is the sort of study that RESDAC helped us develop. As a result, in our provinces, we are able to direct our efforts toward the specific skills we want to develop with employers. I'm thinking of problem-solving training for our employees, for example.
Now, given the work we have done with the local collective impact strategy and all the change management that we are doing with RESDAC, it will probably take a different form. We were talking about a consortium of service providers, people with whom we want to partner to deliver services that have a direct impact on the population.
So it is difficult now to compare the period before 2013 with the period after 2013, because the way we operate is different.
4:10 p.m.
Liberal
René Arseneault Liberal Madawaska—Restigouche, NB
I understand what you are telling me, especially because of the report.
Now that you can better identify the needs in order to help them, how can you measure the results? In other words, if you receive funding, how can we see that it works?
4:10 p.m.
Chief Executive Officer, Coalition ontarienne de formation des adultes
When we get funding from Employment and Social Development Canada or the Department of Canadian Heritage, we have mandatory performance measures. Now, when you sign a contract, the funding comes with mandatory measures. For example, in the tourism project I mentioned earlier, 90% of the 60 people have to get a job. We follow up after three months, six months and 12 months to see what impact it has had on their social life, their health, their finances, and so on. Performance measures are part of an evaluation framework that we put in place at the request of our funding agency.
4:10 p.m.
Liberal
4:10 p.m.
Conservative
Alupa Clarke Conservative Beauport—Limoilou, QC
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Mr. Robillard, Mrs. Lopez, thank you for being here this afternoon.
You said that RESDAC received about $600,000 a year and that the budgets were scrapped in 2014. Is that right?
4:10 p.m.
Representative, Réseau pour le développement de l'alphabétisme et des compétences
Yes.
4:10 p.m.
Conservative
Alupa Clarke Conservative Beauport—Limoilou, QC
That's four years ago. How did you survive for the last four years?
4:10 p.m.
Chief Executive Officer, Coalition ontarienne de formation des adultes
We had a reserve, but we have exhausted it.
Let me give you an example of what we did. You may have heard of NALD, the National Adult Literacy Database, also known as Copian. It was a database that retrieved all the literature on literacy and essential skills development in Canada, whether in English or French. It was an incredible resource. When there was no more funding, we could not maintain it. RESDAC took money from its reserve to retrieve this database and migrate it to the CDEACF platforms in Quebec. CDEACF is in charge of managing this database.
We did not want to let it go, because it's an incredible resource for literacy, training, and essential skills development. So we used some of our funding to save the database.
We then used our reserve sparingly and we have managed to keep at least one or two people in the last four years, but now we are really getting to the bottom of the reserve.
4:15 p.m.
Conservative
4:15 p.m.
Chief Executive Officer, Coalition ontarienne de formation des adultes
The budget is not worth a hill of beans.
4:15 p.m.
Representative, Réseau pour le développement de l'alphabétisme et des compétences
There is the reserve, but there is also funding for each project. Projects were funded by the Department of Canadian Heritage. Some of what we had left from Employment and Social Development Canada also allowed us to continue until last October.
4:15 p.m.
Conservative
Alupa Clarke Conservative Beauport—Limoilou, QC
Okay.
We read the media reports. Mr. Choquette, who is very concerned about what is happening to you right now, has talked about it as well. We wanted to see you today to truly find out what was going on.
When will your organization close, if nothing is done?
4:15 p.m.
Chief Executive Officer, Coalition ontarienne de formation des adultes
Officially, we have no more staff. Board members from COFA, Pluri-elles, Collège de l'Île and Collège Éducacentre, keep RESDAC alive and hope that it will get a lung transplant to breathe a little more easily. For now, we are keeping the body alive. We do not intend to close it and hand over our founding documents. We want to continue existing, because we believe the organization is vital to francophone communities.
4:15 p.m.
Representative, Réseau pour le développement de l'alphabétisme et des compétences
We are not expecting manna from heaven either. We are actively seeking a solution to reconfigure our work to better reflect what is happening on the ground today as well as government expectations.
4:15 p.m.
Conservative
Alupa Clarke Conservative Beauport—Limoilou, QC
Today, if the Liberal government agreed to start directly funding RESDAC again on an annual basis, would it still be $600,000 or would your needs be greater?
4:15 p.m.
Chief Executive Officer, Coalition ontarienne de formation des adultes
It's difficult to say because, as I said earlier, we are looking at different solutions. Among others, we are looking at the possible solution of a consortium. We will see where the negotiations we will have with the funding agencies can lead. For now, it's really difficult to answer your question. Until we have a well-defined, well-articulated model, it will be very difficult to assess our funding needs.
4:15 p.m.
Representative, Réseau pour le développement de l'alphabétisme et des compétences
Let me add that, under the model we are looking at, it is clear that the operating costs would be minimal and the money received would be used to provide services on the ground. That's what we are looking for.
4:15 p.m.
Conservative
Alupa Clarke Conservative Beauport—Limoilou, QC
I'd like to go back to something that Mr. Lefebvre addressed earlier.
In your discussions right now, do you see the light at the end of the tunnel? Do you believe that the action plan will include an envelope for you?
Basically, the Liberal members on this committee can influence the government. They are able to put pressure on the caucus at its meetings. So it’s time to talk to them about it. If nothing is happening, you have to know. If, according to your own analysis, you will not get an envelope, you have to know.
On a scale of 1 to 10, what are your chances? Have you had confirmation or not?
4:15 p.m.
Representative, Réseau pour le développement de l'alphabétisme et des compétences
We have not received any confirmation of funding.
Also, if there is an opportunity for literacy funding in the next action plan for official languages, will there be a funding opportunity for an organization like RESDAC? It is hard to tell whether such funding will be available. So we have to see the details. The devil is in the details.
4:15 p.m.
Chief Executive Officer, Coalition ontarienne de formation des adultes
In all fairness, I must say that there are people who are actively listening right now. Personally, it gives me a lot of hope. Then we will see. The government will have to decide what it wants to do. It is not up to us, but we will adjust accordingly.
That said, the current discussions are really interesting. I think there is very good progress. We just have to determine what form it will take.
As I mentioned, we want the key players to come together around the table, not just Employment and Social Development Canada, but also Canadian Heritage.
When we talk about literacy and the continuum of education and training, we are talking about early childhood, primary, secondary, college and university levels. However, we are the ones who recover those whom the system has dropped. So we are part of the continuum. In that regard, I think we should be adequately funded, along with other national organizations that are part of the continuum.
4:15 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Denis Paradis
Thank you, Mr. Clarke.
We are going to continue now with Mr. Vandal.