Official Languages Committee on May 27th, 2024

[The Chair, Liberal, René Arseneault]

We're listening, Mr. Samson.

[Darrell Samson, Liberal, Sackville—Preston—Chezzetcook, NS]

I want to thank the opposition members for recognizing the importance of having the Commissioner of Official Languages come to talk about these important issues.

[Joël Godin, Conservative, Portneuf—Jacques-Cartier, QC]

On a point of order, Mr. Chair.

[The Chair, Liberal, René Arseneault]

That's not a point of order. I'm in the middle of thanking the commissioner.

Thank you, Commissioner. We know that you need to be at the Senate in 30 minutes. We wish you and your colleagues good luck.

Mr. Wolfe, Mr. Leduc, Commissioner, once again, thank you very much.

We're going to pick up where we left off, as I said at our last meeting. We had suspended the meeting to resume debate on Mr. Beaulieu's motion, and on Mr. Samson's amendment.

Before we do that, I just need to—

[Joël Godin, Conservative, Portneuf—Jacques-Cartier, QC]

Will the meeting be suspended or adjourned?

[The Chair, Liberal, René Arseneault]

I will in any case be adjourning the meeting shortly, but the same conditions will apply.

[Joël Godin, Conservative, Portneuf—Jacques-Cartier, QC]

Pardon me, Mr. Chair, but you said “suspended”, it's not suspended, it's adjourned. You adjourned the last meeting.

[The Chair, Liberal, René Arseneault]

Yes, Mr. Godin. My intention was to suspend the debate but I had adjourned it.

Another committee is scheduled to meet after ours, and we don't have much time. I meet on Monday mornings with our team here. I need the committee to give me answers to two specific matters, Mr. Beaulieu's study on post-secondary institutions and the study on the education continuum.

As for the study on post-secondary institutions, I must inform you that Minister Boissonnault has declined the committee's invitation to reappear as a witness. Perhaps we might consider inviting the officials to come back. If not, we need to instruct our analyst to draft the report.

I'm still talking just about the post-secondary study. Let's focus on that for the moment. If you want to think about it and come back to it later, we can do that.

In short, first, the minister declined the invitation to return. Second, should we invite the officials back? That's how we thought we would conclude this study. If we invite them back, we need to find a date; if we don't want to invite them back and we're happy with the witnesses we've heard from so far, we need to give instructions to our analyst.

Mr. Godin, you have the floor.

[Joël Godin, Conservative, Portneuf—Jacques-Cartier, QC]

Mr. Chair, I suggest that we think about it and revisit this issue at our next meeting on Thursday.

[The Chair, Liberal, René Arseneault]

Yes, Mr. Beaulieu.

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

Did the minister give any explanation or does he just not want to come back as a matter of principle?

[The Chair, Liberal, René Arseneault]

I'll repeat the answer I received: he has declined the invitation. That's all I was told.

Mr. Serré, go ahead.

[Marc Serré, Liberal, Nickel Belt, ON]

Our next meeting is Thursday. What are we doing on Thursday? Do we want officials to come talk about post-secondary institutions?

[The Chair, Liberal, René Arseneault]

I'd like—

[Marc Serré, Liberal, Nickel Belt, ON]

I just want to clarify what's happening on Thursday.

[The Chair, Liberal, René Arseneault]

The committee will need to make a decision. Perhaps we can start with that on Thursday, to resolve the issue.

Answer this simple question: Will we invite officials back to complete our study or can we conclude our study with the witnesses who've already appeared, and give instructions to our analyst?

Before we make a decision on that, however, we need to consider the second issue, which is the education continuum, because it's related. Mr. Godin, you'll be interested in this.

After a long discussion with the committee's masterminds, meaning the analyst and the clerk, to save time, the Subcommittee on Agenda and Procedure of the Standing Committee on Official Languages, our subcommittee, needs to meet to better coordinate the witness list. Remember, we had sent a list of witnesses to the subcommittee. The subcommittee may want to sit down with the analyst and the clerk to determine how we can coordinate our witnesses and put our invitations in chronological order, and determine who we've forgotten and who we mustn't forget, so as to write the best report possible.

If the subcommittee does that, it could report back to the committee, which could accept or refuse its recommendations.

Do we agree to meet to do that?

Mr. Godin, we're all ears.

[Joël Godin, Conservative, Portneuf—Jacques-Cartier, QC]

Mr. Chair, is Ms. Ashton on the subcommittee?

[The Chair, Liberal, René Arseneault]

Yes. There's the chair, the deputy chairs and Ms. Ashton.

[Darrell Samson, Liberal, Sackville—Preston—Chezzetcook, NS]

I agree with your proposal, Mr. Chair. It works. I think it's a good way to proceed.

[The Chair, Liberal, René Arseneault]

All right.

Mr. Serré.

[Marc Serré, Liberal, Nickel Belt, ON]

Mr. Chair, are you saying that we're missing some witnesses, subjects, provincial representatives?

[The Chair, Liberal, René Arseneault]

We're talking about the education continuum, so we're talking about just one province. We know which jurisdiction it falls under, so a single province has been invited to appear.

Each committee member has invited witnesses from their respective region. We don't know how we're going to fit all the pieces together. I gave a basic example.

Perhaps the subcommittee should discuss some other matters so as to maximize our chances of getting the best witnesses possible, who are the most in sync and best placed to respond to questions about the education continuum, so we can produce the best possible report. This also has to be done within the framework of our study on funding for post-secondary institutions. We'll fit it all together at the end.

Mr. Samson.

[Darrell Samson, Liberal, Sackville—Preston—Chezzetcook, NS]

I need to raise an important question.

I haven't looked at the witness list recently, but did we invite representatives from StatsCan? I'm asking because we asked them to send us information on the short-form census. We should invite them to testify before the committee.

[The Chair, Liberal, René Arseneault]

That's an excellent question, Mr. Samson, because we had not invited them.

[Darrell Samson, Liberal, Sackville—Preston—Chezzetcook, NS]

There you go.