Official Languages Committee on Nov. 1st, 2022

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

Yes, Mr. Chair.

The Conservative Party of Canada submitted a list of witnesses in response to the clerk's request. I believe that was on September 1. We had a list of 47 witnesses we wanted to hear from. The Liberals, the NDP and the Bloc Québécois all did the same. We had a meeting at this committee to pare down that list. I had suggested that we pare down the list of witnesses so we could move forward a little more quickly, without cutting corners.

My colleague's amendment is proposing witnesses. Can the other parties around the table add witnesses at this point? For example, I read in the paper this morning that a company like Air Canada, whose representative was on our list, simply said that it was waiting for Bill C‑13 to pass, because it didn't want to comply with Quebec's Bill 96. If we want to do a good job as parliamentarians, we need to hear from these witnesses, we need to understand their reality.

Mr. Chair, I am not the CEO of an airline in Canada; I am a member of Parliament. If I want to do my job well, I need to hear from these people. We haven't heard much about Part 2 of Bill C‑13. Mr. Serré's motion asks that we move quickly, that we hurry, and if we are not finished by a certain date, we will have to move on. Once again, what is going to suffer? The French language will suffer.

I'm concerned that if Mr. Beaulieu is allowed to add witnesses, the other three parties will have to go through the same exercise to add witnesses. His comments are relevant, but where do we land? I think that's the appropriate word.

Those are my comments for now, Mr. Chair.

[The Chair, Liberal, René Arseneault]

I don't see anyone on the screen.

Mr. Beaulieu, go ahead.

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

We also need to add CN. The deadline for federally regulated businesses to register under Bill 96 is Deember 1. CN has already announced that it will not register, because it expects that the new Official Languages Act will allow them to circumvent Bill 101. Coincidentally, CN is among the companies that most often disrespect French-language rules. Reports from the Commissioner of Official Languages denounce such companies. The Official Languages Act already applied to these companies, before it applied to several other companies under federal jurisdiction. This hasn't stopped them from flouting French-language rules. The new version of the act, with Bill C‑13, will not fundamentally improve anything.

I'm always open to parties coming up with alternative witnesses. That said, we are already making concessions. If the deadline is December 8, it will further restrict the time for witnesses to appear compared to what was originally planned. There would certainly be less time to hear all the witnesses than without the motion. I think it's a good compromise.

[The Chair, Liberal, René Arseneault]

Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu.

I'll go to Ms. Ashton.

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

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

With all due respect to the conversation taking place here at committee, I'd like to express my concern that we've already devoted about 15 meetings to this bill. We have already heard repeated messages from our witnesses. However, what matters most is the strong desire and clear demand from francophone communities across the country that we move this bill forward much faster than we are now.

I want to recall the words of the FCFA, which issued a statement on November 9 about how long it's taking to study Bill C‑13. We in the NDP take this statement very seriously. It really explains our desire to get this bill moving faster than we are now.

The FCFA statement reads:After six years of work and consultations, the FCFA believes that parliamentarians have everything they need to modernize the Official Languages Act.The decline of the French language, as illustrated by this summer's census data, shows once again how urgently this modernization is needed. More than ever, francophones need a strong, modern law that is respected.The FCFA would like to see Bill C‑13 passed by the House before the end of the year.

I think it's critical that we respect the FCFA's position, which is also the position of several stakeholders who have been communicating the same message over the past few weeks and months. I know we all want to do a good job, a quality job. We all want to propose amendments.

My concern, however, is that the communities on the front lines are clearly telling us what they want. I think it's critical that we, as a committee, respect those requests, act on them and make sure we do our job on this bill and get it back to the House before the holidays.

[The Chair, Liberal, René Arseneault]

Thank you for your comments, Ms. Ashton.

I'll now go to Mr. Godin, followed by Mr. Beaulieu.

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

Mr. Chair, I'd actually like to commend my NDP colleague, Ms. Ashton, with whom I have the privilege of sitting here on this committee. We've always had a great working relationship. We don't always share the same political views or philosophies, but I really appreciate her and the great work she does.

Now, I would like to point out, with all due respect to Ms. Ashton, that on June 13, 2022, a decision was made here in committee. It reads as follows: It was agreed, — That, in relation to the consideration of Bill C‑13, An Act to amend the Official Languages Act, to enact the Use of French in Federally Regulated Private Businesses Act and to make related amendments to other Acts,: a. the Minister of Official Languages, the Minister of Canadian Heritage, the President of the Treasury Board, the Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship and the Minister of Justice be invited to appear for two hours per department;

[Marc Serré, Liberal, Nickel Belt, ON]

Mr. Chair, I have a point of order.

Are we talking about Mr. Beaulieu's amendment right now? Is this just more filibustering from the opposition to further delay things?

I just wanted to confirm what's going on here.

[The Chair, Liberal, René Arseneault]

Ms. Ashton was commenting on Mr. Beaulieu's subamendment, suggesting that we should move on, since we've heard from many witnesses. It was a direct comment to Mr. Beaulieu, and Mr. Godin is responding to Ms. Ashton with a counter-argument.

So there is a link, and I have to respect that.

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

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

You're following closely.

b. the Commissioner of Official Languages be invited to appear for a one-hour meeting on Wednesday, June 15, 2022; c. the clerk invite witnesses to appear during the meetings on the weeks of June 6, 2022, and June 13, 2022; d. as agreed to on Wednesday, June 1, 2022, subject to the approval of the recognized parties’ whips, and the availability of meeting slots from the House of Commons, the committee hold additional meetings for two additional hours per week starting the week of September 19, 2022; and e. the committee meet in camera....

That's my point, Mr. Chair. It was important to present the whole decision that was made here. Item (e) of a June 13 decision by the Standing Committee on Official Languages states:e. the committee meet in camera after 20 sessions....

Ms. Ashton mentioned earlier that we need to move quickly and that we've had about 15 meetings.

It is not bad faith on the part of the opposition parties. I am excluding the NDP because they are part of the Liberal-NDP coalition. However, I am talking about the other two opposition parties. This is not a filibuster. It's on the record that we decided on June 13 that we wanted to have 20 meetings and then go in camera to see where we would land.

Now we're being accused of filibustering. That's totally inappropriate. It's dangerous to say that kind of thing.

[The Chair, Liberal, René Arseneault]

Let's get back to the subamendment.

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

I do think we need to add some witnesses.

I agree with the list of witnesses suggested by Mr. Beaulieu, but the privilege of adding witnesses also needs to be extended to us.

[The Chair, Liberal, René Arseneault]

Mr. Beaulieu, go ahead.

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

I, too, have greatly appreciated Ms. Ashton's work and her collaboration over the years that we have served together on the Standing Committee on Official Languages.

The FCFA is the organization that, according to the federal government, represents francophones outside Quebec. However, it's also important to note that 90% of francophones are in Quebec. All of the witnesses from Quebec and the groups defending the French language in Quebec that have appeared before us have always been excluded by the Official Languages Act, which has created a rift between francophones in Quebec and francophones outside Quebec. They are completely opposed to Bill C‑13.

Yesterday I attended the launch of a book entitled Le Piège des langues officielles, or “The Official Language Trap”, by Éric Poirier. I encourage everyone to read it; it's very interesting. He's a very important author from Quebec. He wrote that significant changes are needed to ensure that francophones in Quebec maintain their demographic weight, given that, until now, the Official Languages Act has served only to promote English as an official language in Quebec.

We were hopeful following the Speech from the Throne. Today, Antoine Robitaille published a very important article. He reviewed the whole process that's been followed since the throne speech. The more time passes, the more vague things become and the less the federal government appears to defend French in Quebec.

I think this is very important, and I hope Ms. Ashton will continue to support francophones and the French language in Quebec.

Until now, the NDP has been in favour of applying Bill 101 to federally regulated businesses. At the Standing Committee on Science and Research, the NDP once again formed an alliance with the Liberals to rule out a study that had just begun on scientific publication in French. They simply stopped the study. That is troubling. I hope the NDP will maintain the positions that it has held until now on the French language.

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

Mr. Chair, I have a point of order.

[The Chair, Liberal, René Arseneault]

Go ahead, Ms. Ashton.

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

I want to ensure that what is said in committee really reflects reality. With all due respect to Mr. Beaulieu, that is not at all what happened at that other committee. The clerk should be consulted. The clerk clearly said that the witnesses Mr. Beaulieu is talking about didn't want to appear before committee. So it wasn't the parties—

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

Mr. Chair, I have a point of order.

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

—that ended the debate.

I wanted to correct the record on what happened there.

[The Chair, Liberal, René Arseneault]

We are a fairly disciplined committee, given the parliamentary rules. We're dealing with Mr. Beaulieu's subamendment.

Thank you, Ms. Ashton, for your comments.

Mr. Godin, I haven't forgotten about you.

Mr. Beaulieu, I would ask you to limit your comments to your subamendment, because that's what we're talking about.

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

All right.

[The Chair, Liberal, René Arseneault]

I'd really like to focus on the subamendment, and then we'll look at the others afterwards, as we've said.

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

In any case, I wasn't at that committee. I'm reporting what I saw on Twitter.

[The Chair, Liberal, René Arseneault]

Right, so let's stick to the subamendment.

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

That said, I would be willing to—