Official Languages Committee on Dec. 8th, 2020

[The Chair, Liberal, Emmanuel Dubourg]

Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. I'll stop the clock for a few seconds.

I'd ask the clerk to check that with the technicians.

[Patrick Borbey]

I sent the document in both languages. I hope it's been distributed to members.

[The Chair, Liberal, Emmanuel Dubourg]

It has been, Mr. Borbey.

Mr. Beaulieu, let me know right away if there's a problem.

Mr. Borbey, please continue with your remarks.

[Patrick Borbey]

I was talking about second-language interviews for oral proficiency. These interviews are administrated remotely by PSC assessors to candidates in their own homes. Over 5,000 virtual interviews have been administered this way.

We also launched unsupervised Internet testing to evaluate second language reading and writing skills. These tests are performed online by candidates in their home.

We recognize that remote Internet testing is the way of the future for second language evaluations. We are working diligently to incrementally enhance our remote testing to better meet the needs of departments and agencies, as well as those of Canadians who no longer have to travel to our offices for tests. This is a priority for the PSC.

The PSC also continues to ensure that our tests are accessible to all Canadians, including those with disabilities. All new second language evaluations are reviewed by test development experts for accessibility and fairness. They are also available in multiple formats to accommodate the needs of diverse test takers.

I'll skip the last part, since you've received my document. It contains some statistics about the percentage of bilingual candidates for positions in the federal government. It's just to tell you that there's still a lot of interest. There are a lot of bilingual candidates across the country, and we're focusing particularly on official language minority communities, both inside and outside Quebec, for francophone communities, in order to find the best candidates.

Thank you for your attention.

[The Chair, Liberal, Emmanuel Dubourg]

Thank you very much, Mr. Borbey.

I also want to thank all the witnesses. You have sent us your remarks, and they have been distributed to the committee members. I also invite you to send us briefs, if you have any, in connection with this study or any other study we conduct.

We'll now move on to questions. I'll ask for the co-operation of my colleagues, since it's already 5:05 p.m., and we have to spend five minutes approving the budget.

We're only going to do the first round of six minutes for each of the MPs. I invite members who wish to share their time with another colleague to let me know.

We'll start the first round with Mr. Williamson.

Mr. Williamson, the floor is yours for six minutes.

[John Williamson, Conservative, New Brunswick Southwest, NB]

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.

My first question is for Ms. Johnson.

Ms. Johnson, you had a lot to say about how well the rollout went during the pandemic, but I think you missed the real slice, which was what happened before this planning took place so your organizations were ready and you were able to communicate effectively and offer your services and programs. You talk about the planning because I think that goes to the root of this study. It's the preparation that allows for the good work to happen after the fact.

If your colleague Ms. Guemiri has any comments to add, we have time to hear them, too.

Thank you.

It's over to you, Ms. Johnson.

[Jennifer Johnson]

Yes, that's super important, with regard to what we've experienced.

As I said, fundamentally we had a very good base. The resources that we've been receiving from Health Canada—to vitalize, to give these networks the capacity to know their community and know who the partners are, and to have good relationships—were well established. I have to say that was a critical element in the success factor of the community response to this crisis. Yes, we were all thrown off our game for the first couple of weeks when the pandemic hit, but they were able to move everybody into their homes, develop all of their relationships with their partners virtually; and then actually begin to even develop programming virtually, one-on-one and by telephone, with their vulnerable populations fairly quickly.

I can't emphasize enough how important it was that they had this capacity at the community level already developed in order to be able to evolve so quickly to the new reality that had been forced upon us.

The other element that I think is really critical is that those partnerships that had been established during periods of non-crisis were critical for this response. The public health institutions turned to these community organizations. Fatiha's is a great example of that, too. They turned to these community organizations to make sure that they were connecting to the English-speaking community.

I have an example of one network that decided to do a flu vaccine clinic for the English-speaking community, and they did it in partnership with their CISSS, their local CIUSSS. They were able to bring out 60 seniors an hour or something like that with regard to flu vaccines. That normally wouldn't have happened.

The community trusted these organizations too. I think that was also a really important part of the response.

Last but not least, before I hand it over to Fatiha, is the planning. We had this great structure. We had leadership with regard to how the community could connect to the vulnerable populations through the CISSS and CIUSSS, although not every one of them, because obviously it depends on the territory. They were identifying vulnerable populations and asked our communities to do so as well.

Also, in terms of those lines of communication, whether it was for federal government information or provincial government information, the community knew about it. We had a very high level of information available in English, once the wheels got in motion. Yes, there was a delay in terms of making things available in English, but it's a pandemic. You can't expect the next day after a pandemic is announced that everything will be smooth. There's always going to be—

[John Williamson, Conservative, New Brunswick Southwest, NB]

Just to be clear, was that delay from the Quebec government or from both governments?

[Jennifer Johnson]

I noticed it most from the Quebec government but that's because health and social services is their domain. They have to develop....

I can't criticize them too much. I think it was a normal delay, in some ways.

[John Williamson, Conservative, New Brunswick Southwest, NB]

Yes.

I wasn't looking for a criticism, just a clarification.

Ms. Guemiri, do you have anything to add?

There's only 45 seconds left.

[Fatiha Gatre Guemiri]

I would add that the demand was obviously local. We took advantage of our partnerships with francophone community groups on the ground. They were the ones who provided us with the information, and we managed to pass it on. We immediately took advantage of these partnerships where we are represented in the field.

[The Chair, Liberal, Emmanuel Dubourg]

Thank you very much, Mr. Williamson and Ms. Guemiri.

Mr. Duguid, you have six minutes.

The floor is yours, Terry.

[Terry Duguid, Liberal, Winnipeg South, MB]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you to our guests for their excellent presentations.

I'm going to share my time with Ms. Lattanzio.

I just have one question, which is for Mr. Borbey.

I'm a western Canadian MP from Manitoba, where we have a very vibrant and historic francophone and Métis community. Twenty per cent of our Canadian public service resides in western Canada.

I'm wondering if you could share with us what we could do to better prepare our public service in the west to serve our community in emergency situations in French in situations like floods and COVID-19. Based on my interactions, I know the community feels somewhat underserved. Could you comment on both training and bilingual requirements?

[Patrick Borbey]

That's a big question. Some of it is way beyond my area of responsibility.

In our recruitment efforts obviously we're always looking for bilingual candidates in all regions of the country and hoping that departments will use our inventories, whether it's through student programs or graduate programs or people at mid-career with some capacity in both official languages, to hire to improve their capacity to be able to serve those local communities.

The government has also committed to an additional large number of points of service in both official languages. We stand prepared to help with the staffing efforts that are going to be required to be able to meet that.

I think one of the things departments need to do—and again this is the responsibility of deputy heads—is to make sure their business continuity plans, BCPs, appropriately reflect their obligations to official languages. That's certainly something I made sure of in my own organization. We're going to be improving our BCP, because we learned a lot through this lesson, this last pandemic. I think a lot of departments have to take a look at that and see how they can strengthen it.

[Terry Duguid, Liberal, Winnipeg South, MB]

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Emmanuel Dubourg]

Ms. Lattanzio, you have the floor.

[Patricia Lattanzio, Liberal, Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Mr. Borbey, I'm very limited in my time. I'm going to ask you a question and ask you to possibly submit the answer in writing, if you can.

Since the Canada Health Act does not contain specific commitments with regards to official languages, if the main linguistic legislation at the federal level does not address this—and neither does the Canada Health Act—shouldn't this be a recommendation in the new law?

Ms. Johnson and Madame Guemiri, I understand that during the pandemic 42% of the minority linguistic anglophones in Quebec needed to consult the Canada.ca website to get essential information on health services. What would you recommend so we can remedy this issue and that the members of the linguistic minority in Quebec can be assured that they will receive their health services in the language of their choice? I'd like to hear you both on that.

[Jennifer Johnson]

How do you improve it? I think one of the elements that could improve is by addressing the reality that seniors are not online. Seniors are the biggest problem with regard to accessing information. You really have to develop a better approach for getting the information to vulnerable populations like that.

Also rural and remote communities don't have good Internet. There has to be more than just an electronic response to getting it. That's both federal and provincial.

In terms of how you get more information to these populations, I think that it's about developing community capacity to reach vulnerable populations or even just regular English-speaking persons in the province of Quebec. It's about building that sense of community, developing lines of communication. I would say, “Keep investing in those elements.”

Fatiha, what would you say?

[The Chair, Liberal, Emmanuel Dubourg]

Ms. Guemiri, you have the floor.

[Fatiha Gatre Guemiri]

Ms. Lattanzio, that's a very thorny question. I'd prefer to send you an answer in writing, because it will be a long one.

For now, I can tell you that we're working in partnership with local health care institutions to adapt certain services. It's a very long process, but there's hope because we are seeing that there's some openness toward English-speaking minority communities in terms of access to the same services as those offered in the other language. We are working on that, and we have a regional access committee. New access plans for health care in English will be coming out soon. We need to do some kind of monitoring to make sure that certain services are available in English.

[The Chair, Liberal, Emmanuel Dubourg]

Thank you very much.

Ms. Lattanzio, your time is up and—

[Patricia Lattanzio, Liberal, Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel, QC]

Mr. Chair, I'm sorry for interrupting you. I've asked the witnesses to complete their responses in writing. If I understand correctly, they'll send their documents to the clerk. Is that right?

[The Chair, Liberal, Emmanuel Dubourg]

Exactly. They already have the clerk's contact information.

Mr. Beaulieu, you have the floor for six minutes.

[Mario Beaulieu, Bloc, La Pointe-de-l'Île, QC]

On the one hand, I'd like Ms. Lauzon to tell us more about the need for funding for French-language media. A year ago, $595 million was announced, plus $50 million, and so on. I believe she estimated that the needs of community newspapers would be $20 million a year.

Ms. Lauzon, can you tell us what your needs are? What assistance have you received from the official languages support programs?

[Linda Lauzon]

As part of the Action Plan for Official Languages, an envelope of $14.5 million over five years was allocated to official language minority community media. Of this amount, $4.5 million was allocated to youth internships and $10 million to strategic projects. We were asking for operating funding—that was what was missing—but, unfortunately, the government did not see fit to provide us with any. Fortunately, we still received $14.5 million.

New measures were put in place when new legislation was introduced last June—the Budget Implementation Act, 2019, No. 1—to facilitate the registration of journalistic organizations. Unfortunately, they apply to only some of our media outlets, about 10% of them. Ninety percent of our newspapers haven't met the many criteria for a variety of reasons: they are small media outlets that have changed their business model; they no longer have any staff reporters; they use freelancers because they have no money; and they don't have the minimum number of employees. It should be kept in mind that, under these conditions, the payroll tax credits no longer apply.

In terms of the local journalism initiative, a $50 million fund over five years was allocated in 2018 to all newspapers. Radio stations have also been included, and that's a good thing. However, most of the envelope was allocated to The Canadian Press and News Media Canada, or $7 million per year, with the rest going to small groups in Canada's ethnic press and community television stations, for example.

The funding has been very helpful for community radio and newspapers, but it doesn't go far enough. In the absence of advertisements—because they are still non-existent—we need to find another way to provide resources to our media so that they can do their work in their respective regions.

Towards the end of my presentation, I was saying that the local journalism initiative is an easy measure to invest in. The program is already in place, and you don't have to reinvent the wheel. It fills a need, and it works. However, our media can't receive the small amount of $8,500 per media outlet, when the Toronto Star receives $60,000 per outlet. It doesn't work.