Thank you.
Mr. Chair, government and opposition members of Parliament, thank you for your work, your commitment and your reports. They speak to your willingness to listen and understand the life experiences of the members of our communities.
My name is Michel Robillard and I am the Chief Executive Officer of the Coalition ontarienne de formation des adultes, or COFA. I am also an Administrator with RESDAC, and it is in that capacity that I am here.
Please excuse the absence of Donald DesRoches, who was unfortunately unable to leave Prince Edward Island because mechanical problems prevented our national carrier from taking off. I am replacing him today.
I am accompanied by Gabrielle Lopez, the former Chief Executive Officer of RESDAC.
Mr. DesRoches and Mrs. Lopez testified here in October 2016 on behalf of RESDAC, addressing the issue of literacy and its link with immigration.
Today, I would like to discuss two points. I will talk about our complaint to the Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages about the core funding, the lack of consultation and the eligibility criteria, as well as about the fallout from recommendation 6, in your report entitled “Toward a new action plan for official languages and building new momentum for immigration in francophone minority communities.”
Currently, RESDAC is the only national association that deals with the levels of literacy and essential skills of adult francophones living in minority situations in Canada. We represent community and college groups that provide literacy and skills training and development services at provincial and territorial level.
Despite our being a significant part of the education continuum, we have no longer had any staff since October 31, 2017, because the federal government put an end to our funding in 2014. We remain the only organization in the education continuum that receives no core funding, either from Canadian Heritage or from Employment and Social Development Canada.
After our core funding was eliminated, and given a lack of consultation and many changes in decision-making approaches and processes, RESDAC decided to file a complaint with the Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages. We wanted to continue our work with francophones with low literacy levels living in minority situations. We were also ready to work with the department with a view to increasing the opportunities for advancement for our clients from coast to coast, thereby helping to improve the level of essential skills.
I am pleased to announce that, following an investigation, the acting Commissioner of Official Languages found that the practices of the Department of Employment and Social Development Canada were in contravention of part VII of the Official Languages Act. She made two recommendations to the department.
The first recommendation was for the department to re-evaluate its orientation and its eligibility criteria for the funding available for literacy and the acquisition of essential skills. This is in order to pay greater heed to the particular needs and priorities of official language minority communities, or OLMCs.
The second recommendation is that they evaluate the impact of removing core funding from RESDAC, and from its provincial and territorial network, and that they take appropriate measures to redress the negative impacts.
According to international surveys on adult literacy and skills, more than half, 53%, of Canadians in minority situations have not mastered those skills. The skills we are talking about are in literacy, numeracy and digital literacy.
Francophones and their communities in general can look forward to positive impacts when they do master essential skills. Mastery of essential skills is a vehicle for economic, social and community development. The impact is clear. We earn more money and our health improves. Our children do better in school. Our local businesses are more productive and our social confidence increases. We participate more fully in the life of our communities. Our language and our culture are passed from one generation to the next. Finally, we feel less insecure about our language. In other words, mastering essential skills means that our communities will live on.
What is RESDAC's purpose?
Canadian Heritage funds almost all national sectoral organizations and it funded RESDAC's predecessor, la Fédération canadienne pour l'alphabétisation en français, or FCAF. In the 1990s, when Employment and Social Development Canada took over, we looked forward to an encouraging future. That is no longer the case. Neither federal department is committed to safeguarding the future of the only repository of best practices in literacy and skills development for francophones living in minority situations.
The future is a concern for RESDAC, but also for our clients who rely on the services provided by RESDAC members.
A new official languages action plan is on our doorstep, but we have no indication that the area will be funded, or, more specifically, that RESDAC will be receiving core funding in order to continue its mission.
It is important to mention that, since the report of the investigation was received, we have indicated to Minister Hajdu that we are interested in working with the key players in the area so that the department can discharge its obligations as defined in the Official Languages Act. We received a reply last week in the form of a letter in which the Minister committed to find solutions by and for francophone OLMCs. Currently, we are holding discussions with that department on a proactive exercise to research solutions that are in line with the approach of the services provided by and for those most involved. The discussions are going well, but the department still does not want to talk about core funding for RESDAC.
The second point in our presentation is about recommendation 6 in your report entitled: “Toward a new action plan for official languages and building new momentum for immigration in francophone minority communities.” In it, you recommend the establishment of a pan-Canadian literacy and skills development strategy. We have no information as to the department's intentions on the subject. The department has retained the services of the University of Ottawa to document the status of locations across Canada in terms of literacy and skills development services. The report should be made public this month.
En closing, RESDAC needs core funding, first to continue its mission, second, to continue to play its role in the education continuum, and third, to make sure that all the learning needs of adult francophones with lower levels of literacy are addressed. By “all the needs” we mean not only employability but also family and community literacy.
RESDAC agrees with la Fédération des communautés francophones et acadienne du Canada when it says that Canadian Heritage should provide basic core funding, as it does for other national sectoral organizations that are part of the education continuum.
Mr. Chair, government and opposition members of Parliament, thank you for inviting us to appear before you and for continuing to follow this matter. This concludes our presentation.