Official Languages Committee on Dec. 5th, 2024

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

Thank you.

Mr. Clair, your organization has started legal proceedings. You feel you are not being consulted enough and you believe you have not received all the funding owed to you. Can you tell us some more about that? How did you reach that conclusion?

[Michael Clair]

We may have received the funds we are owed, but there is a lack of transparency. We don't know what is being invested or where it is being invested. We want to know more. However, one thing for sure is that we are definitely underfunded and we would like to have more money.

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

That is a fairly widespread feeling. How much funding do you believe you are short, as a proportion of your budget?

[Michael Clair]

That is an excellent question. Unfortunately, I don't have the figures it's based on. We know we have needs that are not being met.

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

Roughly speaking, can you estimate the extent of these needs that are not being met? Would you need something like twice as much money? Is it less than that?

[Michael Clair]

We have needs we would like to meet, but we can't meet them with the current funding.

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

Do you know what proportion of rights holders attend French schools?

[Michael Clair]

Apparently Newfoundland and Labrador has the lowest participation rate for rights holders in francophone schools in Canada.

[The Chair, Liberal, René Arseneault]

Thank you, Mr. Clair and Mr. Beaulieu.

I will now give the floor to Ms. Ashton from the NDP for six minutes.

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

Thank you.

I would like to welcome our witnesses.

Ms. L'Heureux, from the Fédération des parents de la francophonie manitobaine, we are great admirers of your work. A few weeks ago I had the opportunity to attend a family event you organized at the Centre culturel franco-manitobain. My children were able to take part. From what I saw, there is really a lot of diversity in our community. There are people and families from all over and little kids from different origins, but they are all proud francophones. So I thank you for the work you do. We believe the best way to support your work is to listen to your recommendations and then to act, of course.

I would like to focus on the early childhood programs. I have spoken a number of times in this committee about the challenge my family faced. We were on a waiting list for a long time for my twins to be able to access the services of the Les Louveteaux child care centre, which is attached to our school in the Division scolaire franco-manitobaine here in Thompson. There is room, but there are no staff. Because of the labour shortage, we were unfortunately never able to enrol my children for child care in French. This is important to me.

I want to go back to the issue of the demand here in Manitoba.

I'll switch over to English. I think this is also a very important issue for many who are of francophone background, but because of our history, we know that we don't necessarily speak French. We also know that many newcomers value their kids being able to speak French.

How significant is the demand that you're seeing among Manitobans for their kids to be able to access day care in French? Second to that, to what extent do you believe the federal government has a permanent role to play in supporting early childhood education in French, given that we know that French is on the decline and that we know that early childhood education in French is critical to be able to get kids on track to being francophone?

[Brigitte L'Heureux]

In connection with the bilateral agreements, I think the federal government can make sure it includes specific clauses for the provinces. In these agreements, the federal government can encourage the provinces to allocate a certain percentage of the funding for francophone child care services. That is probably the most effective approach to take. Right now, there are no specific clauses regarding the funding provided under this federal agreement.

So far, my experience with the Manitoba government has been very positive. We have built a very good relationship. I am hopeful that we will soon prepare a development plan that we can present to the province. The goal of the plan is to identify areas where the need for funding is greatest right now. I think we have to focus on spaces. We have to make sure that francophone spaces are prioritized.

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

I am very pleased to hear that you have a positive relationship with the current provincial government.

I just want to clarify one thing. Do you believe the federal government also has a role to play and has a share of the responsibility when it comes to permanent, long-term financial support?

[Brigitte L'Heureux]

Yes. Absolutely.

That is why we fought to get this funding guarantee. That said, I think it is also a provincial responsibility to ensure that funding is granted for spaces in French.

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

That's good, thank you.

I also want to clarify something else, just for information. The problem of the shortage of spaces in francophone child care services is very important to all of us in the New Democratic Party. My New Democrat colleague Leah Gazan, who is also from Manitoba, introduced an amendment to Bill C‑35 to guarantee access to francophones in minority communities to child care services in French. We worked closely with my colleague. We believe that this must be clearly stated in the act and, of course, that there must be permanent, long-term financial support.

I want to come back to the question of the current labour shortage. We know that the Université de Saint‑Boniface has an innovative project in connection with this. We also know that all our child care services are making an effort to alleviate this labour shortage. Can you tell us about the current labour shortage and about how important it is to sit all our governments down at the same table to help us find solutions to this shortage?

[Brigitte L'Heureux]

Yes, absolutely.

The labour shortage is real. You saw it in the Thompson region. We see it in the Saint-Georges region. The labour shortage is very apparent in rural areas, and even in the cities.

We need to attract and train more educators but we also need to be able to retain them in our early learning centres, and this brings up the issue of wages. To attract people to the field, you have to be able to offer an adequate wage. One example is Prince Edward Island, where they now offer up to $28 an hour. They have an excess supply of personnel at the moment. We held meetings this morning about this. So I think pay really is the key issue here.

However, we also have to train people, and we have to retain them and offer them terms and conditions. When I say good terms and conditions, I am referring back to the structure, where people have good work environments: where they are offered benefits and so on.

[The Chair, Liberal, René Arseneault]

Thank you, Ms. L'Heureux and Ms. Ashton.

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

Thank you, Ms. L'Heureux.

[The Chair, Liberal, René Arseneault]

We have less than ten minutes left, so I am going to give everyone shorter times for the next round of questions.

Mr. Dalton, the floor is yours for three minutes.

[Marc Dalton, Conservative, Pitt Meadows—Maple Ridge, BC]

I want to thank Ms. L'Heureux and Mr. Clair for being here and for their testimony.

Ms. L'Heureux, you are the executive director of the Fédération des parents de la francophonie manitobaine. Do you represent only the francophone school board, or do you also represent the parents and children in anglophone schools that offer immersion programs?

[Brigitte L'Heureux]

At the moment, our mandate is to advocate for francophone parents and young children in Manitoba. We work mainly with rights holder parents in order to provide early childhood services.

[Marc Dalton, Conservative, Pitt Meadows—Maple Ridge, BC]

How many students and schools do you represent? Are those numbers stable or are they going up or down?

[Brigitte L'Heureux]

Right now, we are open to parents and each school has its own parents' committee that does not come under the Fédération des parents de la francophonie manitobaine. There are 6,000 students in the Division scolaire franco-manitobaine and that number is going up every year.

[Marc Dalton, Conservative, Pitt Meadows—Maple Ridge, BC]

You spoke before about early childhood education. What percentage do kindergarten students who enrol in a francophone program represent?

[Brigitte L'Heureux]

We don't have those statistics, but we do hear reports that clearly indicate that children who attend a francophone child care service go on to attend to a francophone school. This really is the gateway to the continuum.

Does that answer your question?

[Marc Dalton, Conservative, Pitt Meadows—Maple Ridge, BC]

Yes, I wanted to know what percentage of students continued their schooling in a francophone school, in kindergarten or grade one, for example.