That is not necessary.
Evidence of meeting #93 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 students.
Evidence of meeting #93 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 students.
9:30 a.m.
Conservative
Sylvie Boucher Conservative Beauport—Côte-de-Beaupré—Île dOrléans—Charlevoix, QC
That is not necessary.
9:30 a.m.
Chair, Conseil des écoles fransaskoises
You can understand that, even if a francophone elected official is not able to bring a bill to a vote, it will be picked up in the newspapers. Personally, I have not yet read an article about a member who says he is a francophone, attends happy hour, and defends the cause.
Let me give you some background. As to the number of daycare spaces, twenty or so new schools have been built in the province, fairly strategically. I can tell you that these schools are like five-star hotels. The only thing they are missing is an Olympic-size pool. These schools are built in new communities or new subdivisions. Who buys those new houses? Young families.
We are talking about the availability and accessibility of schools and services, but the only francophone school is in the south end of the city. Take me as an example. I am a parent first and then the chair of the school board. I have three young children. We live in the north end of the city in a new subdivision. We have to cross the whole city to reach the only francophone school, which is in the south end, and that is also where the only francophone daycare is. I can tell you it is a sacrifice. Our travelling time is over an hour. By the time we get the children home, we hardly have any time to do all kinds of other things for them. The school is the means, the avenue for preserving our language and culture.
9:30 a.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Denis Paradis
Thank you very much, Mr. Barry.
We will now move on to Mr. Dan Vandal.
Mr. Vandal, please go ahead.
9:30 a.m.
Liberal
Dan Vandal Liberal Saint Boniface—Saint Vital, MB
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
Welcome, everyone. I think most of you know me. I am Daniel Vandal, the member for Saint-Boniface—Saint-Vital and this is my first term in office. I served as city councillor for a long time and hail from Louis Riel country, in Saint-Boniface. I hope we will have the opportunity to visit that site this afternoon.
First, congratulations on the work you do in your communities. It is very important work and I have a lot of respect for it. We held consultations last year about the new strategic plan that was announced, and the roadmap was one of the key issues for our communities. I commend you for your work.
In terms of early childhood, do you mean children up to the age of 7, 8, or 9?
9:30 a.m.
A voice
Up to the age of 5.
9:30 a.m.
Liberal
Dan Vandal Liberal Saint Boniface—Saint Vital, MB
We were in Vancouver and Edmonton and heard a lot of different numbers.
For children up to the age of 5, how many spaces are occupied right now in Manitoba? Does anyone have that information?
9:30 a.m.
A voice
I think it is about 600.
9:35 a.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Denis Paradis
May I remind you that you absolutely must use the microphone in order for the answers to be recorded.
9:35 a.m.
Liberal
Dan Vandal Liberal Saint Boniface—Saint Vital, MB
Here are my two questions: how many spaces are occupied in Manitoba right now and how many people are on the waiting list?
9:35 a.m.
Managing Director, Fédération des parents du Manitoba
There are currently between 500 and 600 children enrolled in educational daycare at the province's 21 centres. I contacted all the centres in July 2017 and we had about 800 names on the waiting list, and all the spaces were taken. Many of the requests come from the Saint-Boniface neighbourhood, in Winnipeg, but there are also some from Saint-Vital and St. James. There are a lot of requests from the rest of the province.
9:35 a.m.
Liberal
Dan Vandal Liberal Saint Boniface—Saint Vital, MB
There are only 500 or 600 spaces occupied? That's all?
9:35 a.m.
Liberal
Dan Vandal Liberal Saint Boniface—Saint Vital, MB
And there are 800 names on the waiting list. Is that correct?
9:35 a.m.
Liberal
Dan Vandal Liberal Saint Boniface—Saint Vital, MB
What proportion of those on the waiting list live in rural areas as opposed to urban areas? Did you mention that with regard to the waiting list?
9:35 a.m.
Managing Director, Fédération des parents du Manitoba
I don't have it with me right now, so I cannot answer.
9:35 a.m.
Liberal
Dan Vandal Liberal Saint Boniface—Saint Vital, MB
That's fine.
My other questions are for Ms. Arbez and Ms. Cwikla, who presented a lot of information.
To summarize, Ms. Arbez and Ms. Cwikla, let me ask you the following. What is your greatest challenge and your main recommendation for this committee to submit to the House of Commons?
9:35 a.m.
Director, Technical and Professional Programs, Université Saint-Boniface, As an Individual
Our main challenges are funding and recruitment.
First, it is hard to recruit students—it is a very female profession—because the tuition is $8,000 and the students have to invest two years of their life to earn close to minimum wage once they get their degree, perhaps a bit more if they are lucky. So recruitment is difficult. Promoting the profession is difficult.
Funding for the training programs is also a challenge. The funding comes from the province. For our regular program, we have multi-year funding. Since 2013, we have also had a workplace training program, but the funding is per cohort only. So every year we have to submit a new application to the provincial government to fund our spaces. Last year, for the cohort that started in September 2016, we received the funding in April 2017. This year, we have still not received our funding, and the end of the fiscal year is approaching.
We have to take a leap of faith, offer the program, and be willing to do so without funding. It is tough. We do not have...
9:35 a.m.
Liberal
Dan Vandal Liberal Saint Boniface—Saint Vital, MB
Pardon me, but I do not have much time left.
What is your main recommendation to the committee?
9:35 a.m.
Director, Technical and Professional Programs, Université Saint-Boniface, As an Individual
My recommendation is to direct funding to post-secondary training and to make the provinces accountable to the federal government for that investment.
9:35 a.m.
Liberal
Dan Vandal Liberal Saint Boniface—Saint Vital, MB
Thank you very much.
Mr. Laberge, you said that, in the field of early childhood and probably in other fields as well, the Franco-Manitoban community should not receive just part of federal funding on a per capita basis, but its fair share.
Do you have specific examples of the community not receiving its fair share?
9:35 a.m.
Director General, Division scolaire franco-manitobaine
In the case of daycare centres, federal funding goes directly to English-language programs. In our opinion, that is discrimination. That money should help subsidize our preschool program for four-year-olds. That is a glaring example in our view, because we know full well that if children start at one school at the age of four, they will continue at that school.
In certain neighbourhoods, many francophones are offered a space for their four-year-old child at a daycare in an English-language school, so the child will then continue on at that school. The child will not switch to the French-language system later on.
9:35 a.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Denis Paradis
Thank you very much, Mr. Vandal. We are in Winnipeg today so I want to commend you for the work you do, Mr. Vandal.
There are a number of MPs in Ottawa who are francophones from outside Quebec and who do excellent work for the francophonie. That deserves to be recognized. Two of them are with us today, Darrell Samson, from Nova Scotia, and René Arseneault, from New Brunswick. In their respective ridings, these MPs face situations similar to the ones you are telling us about.
Congratulations to you, Mr. Vandal, and to all of you for the work you do.
Mr. Gagné, would you like to say something quickly?
9:40 a.m.
Chief Executive Officer, Saskatchewan, Association des parents fransaskois
Yes. I noticed that the last questions pertained to Winnipeg. I know we are in Winnipeg, but the situation in Saskatchewan also warrants consideration. Either we officially invite you to visit Saskatchewan so we can lay it out for you, or we take a bit more time today to present our own figures. It is up to you.
9:40 a.m.
Liberal