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.
As an Individual
I need to backtrack a little bit. The shell was not their organization. Before the federal cuts to core funding, there were six national organizations.
Liberal
Linda Lapointe Liberal Rivière-des-Mille-Îles, QC
Are you talking about national organizations in Quebec?
Liberal
As an Individual
We use the term “pan-Canadian” because in Quebec “national” refers to Quebec.
I learned that in 1986. I was appointed to le Conseil supérieur de l'éducation.
Back then, they didn't send things online, so they sent me this huge dossier to prepare, and it was full of discussions of
national policy. I was very naive and thought it referred to Canada.
I came to the table, and I made a comment about Canadian policy, and the chairperson said,
“Madam, the word 'national' here really means Quebec.”
So let's say there were six pan-Canadian organizations.
Liberal
Linda Lapointe Liberal Rivière-des-Mille-Îles, QC
Thank you.
You also said you would like to
“ specific stories”.
As an Individual
Specific stories. Okay. One of them, certainly, was the Info Quebec story.
I want to share a story from the table. The organization called YES, Youth Employment Services, doesn't work in adult literacy. It works around employability, but it regroups all the providers of services. One of the interesting outcomes, I think, of the study we've just completed is that they have expressed an openness to inviting people from the literacy community to sit at their table because they feel that there should be more partnerships. I hope that's something that will eventually come out of it.
At one of these meetings in November that I attended, a colleague who came to the table was bringing news of some new developments at Emploi-Québec—some new policy initiatives—and the documentation had been brought out about a month before. It was only available in French. This woman is, in fact, a francophone, but she sits at the anglophone table as well.
She asked somebody at the table,
“Will that be available in English?”
“No,” she was told. When she wondered why, another person at the table said, “We didn't think about it.” Now, that's an interesting anecdote, because there's no malice or mal-intent: “We didn't think about it.”
Just out of interest, I'll mention the findings of a study by YES of the employability centres. They conducted the study last summer in five regions of Quebec. It was outside of Montreal. They were looking at regions where there wouldn't necessarily be a large anglophone community. The findings were in Quebec City and the surrounding region. There were 56 employment centres, and one was English and eight were bilingual. In the Gaspésie, of 31 centres, one was English and three were bilingual. The bilingual centres didn't always have someone who was able to provide adequate English services. Even saying they were bilingue didn't mean they could provide services. The anglophones we interviewed in the Gaspé and a couple of the remote regions talked about having to go for employment services and taking somebody with them to act as their translator. There was a lot of conversation.
The other story I think about is perhaps a little bit more in relation to your question. On the website of a lot of the government programs in Quebec, there is some English. On some there is none. But because there is none, it doesn't mean that anglophones don't have access to the funding. Anglophones can apply for the funding, but everything has to be done en français.
François Choquette NDP Drummond, QC
Thank you very much for being here. I see that you are very passionate.
First, I understand that the Centre for Literacy closed in 2015 because there was no more funding after 2014. Now there is Literacy Quebec.
NDP
François Choquette NDP Drummond, QC
Okay.
When the Centre for Literacy existed, what was the difference in your roles? How did its goals and objectives differ from those of Literacy Quebec? That's the first question.
Second, you said a lot about the fact that there's a problem when there is bilingual service, because we often forget about one of the languages. We know that also, because with French there is the same problem. We have something that we call
“by and for”
“by and for” the community. What do you think about the importance of “by and for” also for the English Quebec community?
Executive Director, Literacy Quebec
For Literacy Quebec, we offer support to community-based literacy organizations. At the time when the Centre for Literacy was around, they would give us valuable insight into research and these types of things, whereas we're more on the ground in terms of offering support to literacy practitioners. When the Centre for Literacy closed, it was a very huge loss. There was an infrastructure there that allowed for looking at the field of literacy in a much broader scope. We're very much focused on community-based literacy.
For the question on bilingualism, Literacy Quebec represents community literacy organizations within the province. A lot of the work we do is, first of all, raising awareness about what literacy is, how it affects people in their daily lives, and the fact that we're an English literacy organization that provides services. Oftentimes, when you're talking about vulnerable populations, when they finally have that level of trust and the bond that's been created with the community literacy organization, we become their first point of contact for anything. If they have a problem with their lease agreement or if they have problems accessing health or social services, they come to us. We help them with the English side of getting services.
I'll pass it on to Linda.
As an Individual
I think Margo made a very good start.
First of all, we were one of the pan-Canadian organizations; there were six. Margo was with a provincial organization. There were two levels of organizations in the country. She represents service providers, works with and supports service providers. Her organization is an umbrella that regroups the service providers that are in the community, on the ground. That's what they're funded for.
We were a research and resource centre. We didn't do the same thing at all.
NDP
NDP
François Choquette NDP Drummond, QC
Have you been invited for March 19 and 20, for the ESDC consultation with communities about literacy and essential skills? I know they are doing some communication with the francophones, but have you been invited?
Executive Director, Literacy Quebec
Yes, we've been invited to that consultation.
NDP
François Choquette NDP Drummond, QC
What are you going to tell them? Can you give me a resumé of what you need?
Executive Director, Literacy Quebec
Linda will be presenting the findings of her research, which will have an inventory of what is going on in English literacy within Quebec. I think an infrastructure is be essential. Opportunities to consolidate the field are needed. Also, opportunities to develop best practices and have this research component that was lost would be very valuable.
