Evidence of meeting #90 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 organizations.

A recording is available from Parliament.

On the agenda

MPs speaking

Also speaking

Margo Legault  Executive Director, Literacy Quebec
Linda Shohet  As an Individual
Clerk of the Committee  Ms. Christine Holke

4:05 p.m.

Executive Director, Literacy Quebec

Margo Legault

Even citizens on the Island of Montreal tell me that depending on where they live they have difficulty going to their local library and finding books in English. You wouldn't think of that, but it does happen. It goes back to what Linda is saying, the English community is very strong on paper, but when you look at in reality on the ground there are still challenges.

4:05 p.m.

As an Individual

Linda Shohet

Maybe the other piece in the larger urban area is that we have immigrants seeking English services. Politically they are going through francisation programs; they're in French services.

4:05 p.m.

Conservative

Sylvie Boucher Conservative Beauport—Côte-de-Beaupré—Île d’Orléans—Charlevoix, QC

They have no choice.

4:05 p.m.

As an Individual

Linda Shohet

Yes. But for many of them their first or second language is English. So they are still coming for services in English at the same time; it's very complicated.

One of the arguments that a lot of the English organizations have made is that if they deal with second-language speakers in English they transfer those skills to French. They're still integrating into Quebec. They are still becoming part of Quebec. If you're serving people in the language they're most comfortable in initially and supporting them, they make that transition. You become part of the solution, not part of the problem.

4:10 p.m.

Liberal

The Chair Liberal Denis Paradis

Thank you, Ms. Shohet.

Mr. Vandal, you have the floor.

February 12th, 2018 / 4:10 p.m.

Liberal

Dan Vandal Liberal Saint Boniface—Saint Vital, MB

I will give my time to Mr. Lefebvre.

4:10 p.m.

Liberal

The Chair Liberal Denis Paradis

That's fine.

Mr. Lefebvre, you have the floor.

4:10 p.m.

Liberal

Paul Lefebvre Liberal Sudbury, ON

Madame Shohet, thank you for being here. You are very interesting.

4:10 p.m.

As an Individual

Linda Shohet

Thank you for the invitation.

4:10 p.m.

Liberal

Paul Lefebvre Liberal Sudbury, ON

In 2014, when the federal government cut the funding, they said they were only going to be funding useful projects.

4:10 p.m.

As an Individual

Linda Shohet

Useful projects, that's right.

4:10 p.m.

Liberal

Paul Lefebvre Liberal Sudbury, ON

Those were the words you used.

4:10 p.m.

As an Individual

Linda Shohet

No, those were Jason Kenney's words, not mine.

4:10 p.m.

Liberal

Paul Lefebvre Liberal Sudbury, ON

Okay, sorry.

Do you believe your organization that was cut was getting the results you set out to achieve?

4:10 p.m.

As an Individual

Linda Shohet

I want to give a nuanced answer to that.

4:10 p.m.

Liberal

Paul Lefebvre Liberal Sudbury, ON

Sure.

4:10 p.m.

As an Individual

Linda Shohet

I think that things could have been done better than they were being done at the time. I think we were at a point pan-Canadian, where we had recognized that. We were working toward building a new kind of collaborative model. We were working

through languages.

We were doing a lot of collaboration across language groups, CDÉACF, RESDAC, the centre, HPD. We were sitting together around a table and talking about how we could work more collaboratively.

From my own point of view, was the Centre for Literacy getting results that we wanted? We were getting pretty good results. Was the entire sector getting all the results we wanted? I think we were getting some; they weren't as good as they could have been. They could be better, and we were trying to get there.

4:10 p.m.

Liberal

Paul Lefebvre Liberal Sudbury, ON

Thank you. That's one of the main things, too, how we get the data.

4:10 p.m.

As an Individual

Linda Shohet

How do you get there?

4:10 p.m.

Liberal

Paul Lefebvre Liberal Sudbury, ON

How do we evaluate the data, and based on that data, how do we improve?

4:10 p.m.

As an Individual

Linda Shohet

Yes, I agree.

4:10 p.m.

Liberal

Paul Lefebvre Liberal Sudbury, ON

I think that's what was kind of missing, Do you agree with me?

4:10 p.m.

As an Individual

4:10 p.m.

Liberal

Paul Lefebvre Liberal Sudbury, ON

Data gathering and evaluating....

4:10 p.m.

As an Individual

Linda Shohet

I think it's probably deeper than what we could discuss here.