Official Languages Committee on Dec. 8th, 2022

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

On a point of order, Mr. Chair.

[The Chair, Liberal, René Arseneault]

Go ahead.

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

Mr. Chair, with regard to what my colleague just said, I didn't insult the minister. I used the same words he used. So he should exercise good judgment when interpreting that.

[The Chair, Liberal, René Arseneault]

The public will be free to judge that as it wishes.

I must confess that I've made a mistake as chair. It seldom happens, but I forgot to ask Ms. Petitpas Taylor to give her presentation.

According to the notice of meeting, Ms. Petitpas Taylor, you and Mr. Rodriguez were to appear at same time in the first hour. Consequently, I will let you make your five-minute presentation. Mr. Godin clearly wanted to question Mr. Rodriguez only, but the other members may wish to question you too.

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

On a point of order.

[The Chair, Liberal, René Arseneault]

Go ahead, Mr. Dalton.

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

I believe the minister's appearance is scheduled for the second hour. So I suggest that we wait.

[The Chair, Liberal, René Arseneault]

I understand, but that's how the notice of meeting is drafted; it indicates that both ministers will appear at the same time, with the first hour being reserved for Mr. Rodriguez.

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

The problem is that it would shorten the first hour. So I suggest that you not do that.

[The Chair, Liberal, René Arseneault]

I see that Ms. Petitpas Taylor agrees. I would stick to the notice of meeting that we've received, which is the official agenda, and the minister is signalling to me that she completely agrees. So there's no problem.

Do you wish to speak, Mr. Godin?

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

I have some further information. We should definitely stick to the notice of meeting, but we should especially abide by the motion that the committee unanimously adopted.

[The Chair, Liberal, René Arseneault]

I repeat that the motion provides a framework for the committee's business but that we can't control how the witnesses appear.

That being said, since the clock is ticking, we will move on to the next series of questions.

Ms. Kayabaga, you have the floor for six minutes.

[Arielle Kayabaga, Liberal, London West, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Good morning, ministers.

I beg your pardon, Mr. Rodriguez. I won't be able to question you because I'm going to speak to Ms. Petitpas Taylor, who is responsible for official languages. I'm sorry this meeting has gotten off to a bad start because we're very eager to speak to the minister who's responsible for the francophonie in Canada. The decline of French is a problem that everyone has raised, particularly the official language minority communities.

Ms. Petitpas Taylor, it has taken many years to get where we are today with Bill C-13. Would you please tell us about that? Also, what kind of relations do you have with our provincial counterparts, who will ensure the advance of the francophonie, which is in decline, particularly in my community of London West?

We're eager for it to advance, Minister.

[Ginette Petitpas Taylor, Liberal, Minister of Official Languages]

Thank you, Ms. Kayabaga.

Those of you who know me, or who recognize my accent, know that I'm an Acadian from New Brunswick. I live in an official language minority community.

I have had the good fortune to live, work and study in French partly as a result of the Official Languages Act. Consequently, it is an important act for me, and I think it has genuinely improved the lives of many of us.

In the past year, I have had the privilege of meeting my counterparts from across the country. In June, for the first time, I attended a meeting of the federal government, the provinces and the territories where we had an opportunity to discuss challenges and priorities. I must say we're eager to continue working closely together with the provinces and territories.

I would like to remind everyone that the work involved in implementing Bill C-13 began four years ago. The earlier Bill C-32 and the present Bill C-13 share the same reform objective: to ensure that the new version of the bill enables us to move forward and to give it more teeth. We were able to introduce a good bill thanks to the conversations we had with our counterparts.

As the new Minister of Official Languages, I was fortunate to meet with stakeholders from across the country last year. I was thus able to get to know them, to forge ties and to learn what they wanted to see in the bill. Bill C-32 definitely contained some good elements, but stakeholders also told us they wanted improvements made to it. That's precisely what we've done with Bill C-13.

[Arielle Kayabaga, Liberal, London West, ON]

Minister, since you're an Acadian, you're no doubt aware of what's happening in your province: the premier of New Brunswick is attacking the francophone community and doesn't anticipate continuing to allow children to be educated in French.

Do you have any comments to make on the situation in New Brunswick?

[Ginette Petitpas Taylor, Liberal, Moncton—Riverview—Dieppe, NB]

Yes, thank you very much, Ms. Kayabaga.

I'm the Minister of Official Languages, and I come from New Brunswick, the only officially bilingual province in Canada. People often see good things happening in New Brunswick, but the official language minority communities, the francophones of New Brunswick, have recently faced some special challenges.

The current provincial government isn't really sensitive to the cause of New Brunswick's francophones. The premier of our province, Mr. Higgs, recently appointed a minister who has never supported official languages in New Brunswick to the special committee reviewing the province's Official Languages Act. That minister previously wanted to merge the regional francophone health authority with the anglophone authority. He has also made inappropriate comments about the province's Commissioner of Official Languages. So as you can see, language rights are threatened in New Brunswick. Recent comments have really been an affront to francophones.

We members from New Brunswick recently wrote a letter to Premier Higgs informing him that we were very concerned and no longer wanted his controversial minister to sit on the special committee. Six members from New Brunswick signed that letter. We had invited all federal MPs from New Brunswick to condemn the appointment, but four of those members chose not to sign the letter. I have to say that they were Conservative, not Liberal, members.

[Arielle Kayabaga, Liberal, London West, ON]

Would you like to comment on the separation of powers?

[Ginette Petitpas Taylor, Liberal, Moncton—Riverview—Dieppe, NB]

I must say I was somewhat insulted at being characterized as the representative of the heritage minister.

The Prime Minister appointed me to the position of Minister of Official Languages; it was he who delegated that authority to me. Consequently, I am responsible for the official languages file. That file is obviously overseen by Canadian Heritage, but I manage the official languages file and all that pertains to the Official Languages Act.

[Arielle Kayabaga, Liberal, London West, ON]

Thank you for speaking to this important matter, and I apologize on behalf of the committee for the insult you suffered. Our purpose is to move the bill forward. We live in communities where French is in decline, and we want to see progress on this file.

Minister, I believe my time is up, but I want to thank you for being here. Thanks as well to Mr. Rodriguez for agreeing to testify before the committee.

[The Chair, Liberal, René Arseneault]

Thank you, Ms. Kayabaga. You stayed within your speaking time.

The committee's second vice-chair will ask the next questions.

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

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

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I think it's appalling that you aren't adhering to the spirit of the motion that was adopted, but I don't want to waste too much time on that.

Mr. Rodriguez, the Quebec government made a request that was intended somewhat as the premise of negotiations. It would like us to acknowledge that only one of the two official languages, French, is in the minority and threatened. You don't agree with that. You always refer to minorities, in the plural. You think that anglophones form the minority in Quebec. Based on that premise, part VII of the Official Languages Act, for which your department is responsible, has promoted only English as an official language and funded anglophone community groups for 52 years.

How will Bill C-13 change that?

[Pablo Rodriguez, Liberal, Honoré-Mercier, QC]

I understand what you mean. If there's a minority in Quebec, it's obviously the anglophone minority. We agree on that.

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

Even the UN doesn't recognize anglophones as a minority because they form the English Canadian majority. It's as though Canada's anglophone majority told us that the anglophones in Quebec were the English Canadian elite from the outset and had institutions that were more like the majority—

[Pablo Rodriguez, Liberal, Honoré-Mercier, QC]

So you don't acknowledge the existence of an anglophone minority in Quebec.

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

It's a numerical minority.