Official Languages Committee on Dec. 10th, 2020

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

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Emmanuel Dubourg]

Thank you, Mr. Williamson. That's all the time we have.

I now go to Patricia Lattanzio for five minutes.

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

Thank you, Mr. Chair

It's my turn to thank all the witnesses for being here with us this evening. Thank you very much for being involved.

Thank you for taking part in our study on a very important issue. My questions are going to be addressed to the two ladies of QCGN whom I've known in my function as a school board commissioner in my past life.

We heard this week the testimony of REISA and CHSSN, clearly indicating to us that the community health network, the community groups, have become a lifeline.

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

The interpretation isn't working, Mr. Chair.

[The Chair, Liberal, Emmanuel Dubourg]

Pardon me, Ms. Lattanzio, we have an interpretation problem. I'll stop the clock.

Can we check that, Madam Clerk?

Are you on the English channel, Ms. Lattanzio?

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

I'm using the new system, where everything should work, regardless of the channel selected. It should work automatically, Mr. Chair.

[The Chair, Liberal, Emmanuel Dubourg]

All right.

You've done your update.

[The Clerk]

Ms. Lattanzio, I'm told your microphone isn't connected.

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

My microphone is connected to the computer. I spoke with the technicians earlier, and everything was working. So I don't know what to tell you.

Do you want me to take off my headset?

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

I think we can hear you better. The interpreter was saying that she couldn't hear you very clearly and that the volume wasn't up. I can hear you clearly, at any event.

[The Chair, Liberal, Emmanuel Dubourg]

I can too.

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

May I continue?

[The Clerk]

Could you suspend for a moment, Mr. Chair?

[The Chair, Liberal, Emmanuel Dubourg]

All right, Madam Clerk. We will suspend for a few seconds, please.

[The Chair, Liberal, Emmanuel Dubourg]

We will resume.

I suggest that two members ask our two speakers their questions while we wait for a technician to go and see Ms. Lattanzio.

I invite Mr. Beaulieu to ask the witnesses his question.

Mr. Beaulieu, go ahead for two and a half minutes.

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

First, Mr. Doucet, you said in your speech that so much work has been done over the past 50 years only to achieve a disturbing result and that you're still making the same demands. In the meantime, however, the assimilation rate among francophones has been rising increasingly quickly.

My question is also for the other speakers.

Do you think we can actually alter the situation and reverse that trend by modernizing the act?

[Alexandre Cédric Doucet]

I think the question was intended for me, so I'll answer it.

I think that it's like anything else and that the act will be modernized in two phases, the modernization itself, by the tabling of a bill, but that the crucial part after that will be its implementation, the political will actually to enforce the new provisions.

You can have the best statutory provisions in world, but they serve no purpose if you don't have the political will to enforce them. It's the political will that will prevail in this case.

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

I'd like to hear from the QCGN representatives on this.

In the last session, Ms. Jennings, your predecessor said, with regard to education measures, that there had been good reasons to restrict access to English-language schools in the 1960s but that it became less and less appropriate to do so. She felt that the French language was in good shape and that such restrictions would ultimately disappear because they constituted a violation of civil rights.

Do you share that opinion? Do you agree that French is currently declining in Quebec?

[The Chair, Liberal, Emmanuel Dubourg]

If you could answer in 40 seconds, please.

[Marlene Jennings]

Here's what the QCGN and I, its president, think.

We believe that, yes, French needs to be protected, and we have always believed that, but we also believe that the English-speaking communities of Quebec are Quebeckers and that we also have rights. Our vitality is in danger not because we cannot speak English, but because our educational institutions' population is going down.

[The Chair, Liberal, Emmanuel Dubourg]

Thank you so much.

Thank you very much, Ms. Jennings.

Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu.

Ms. Ashton, you have the floor for two and a half minutes.

[Niki Ashton, NDP, Churchill—Keewatinook Aski, MB]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

My question is for Mr. Jolin and Ms. Jennings, from the Quebec Community Groups Network.

I want to ask a question about local media in the minority language communities. Linda Lauzon, from the Association de la presse francophone, made an emotional appeal to the government, which abandoned local media during the pandemic. Its local media advertising purchases have failed to offset their advertising revenue losses.

I'd like to know if that's what local media have experienced in the communities you represent. What kinds of financial problems have they experienced?

Mr. Jolin and Madam Jennings, would you like to speak to this?

[Carol Jolin]

I'll start.

Local media were already in dire straits because both levels of government had placed their advertising with social media. Revenues have been declining for some time, and that has put francophone media everywhere in an extremely tough position. They've been forced to cut positions and reduce the size of the documents they normally publish.

It was clear at the start of the pandemic that the federal government was placing its advertising with the English-language media. We intervened and took action in the matter, and advertising contracts returned to our francophone media, which was a very positive step toward reaching our people and helping the media survive the pandemic.

But the problem remains intact: there's a dramatic shortage of funding for francophone media, and they're suffering from it.

[Marlene Jennings]

In terms of the English-speaking Quebeckers, the fact that the provincial government did not publish its 24-page guide in English and deliver it at the same time as, or almost immediately after, the delivery of the French version meant that over one million Quebeckers did not have access to this urgent information for health and safety in their language, their mother tongue, until more than two months later.

However, I commend the government, because when we did reach out to Mr. Legault's government and point that out, we worked together to see that it would be translated and delivered to the homes. That's one.

Second, our community newspapers were essential. The federal government and the provincial governments need to include them in the messaging and provide support for their ongoing vitality.

[The Chair, Liberal, Emmanuel Dubourg]

Thank you, Ms. Jennings.

We will now try to turn the floor over to Ms. Lattanzio.

Ms. Lattanzio, you have four and a half minutes left.