Official Languages Committee on Feb. 3rd, 2023

[The Chair, Liberal, René Arseneault]

We are resuming the meeting.

Mr. Serré, the floor is yours again.

[Marc Serré, Liberal, Nickel Belt, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Amendment LIB‑6 is identical to amendments LIB‑7 and NDP‑3; its aim is to make the complementary roles explicit. We spoke earlier about the Department of Canadian Heritage and the President of the Treasury Board, and also government procurement regulations. This amendment will continue to assign responsibility to a single department and is limited to proposing that the Department of Canadian Heritage consult the President of the Treasury Board.

[The Chair, Liberal, René Arseneault]

Thank you.

Mr. Housefather, you have the floor.

[Anthony Housefather, Liberal, Mount Royal, QC]

Thank you.

Obviously I supported LIB-6, but I now need to ask the officials a question. Based on the adoption of the previous amendment, would LIB-6 now conflict with what was in CPC-7, which was just adopted, to create confusion in any way in the act? It seems to me that the CPC amendment made the Treasury Board responsible for certain things. Could you...?

[Julie Boyer]

The previous amendment that passed would make the Treasury Board responsible for overseeing the implementation of the legislation. This amendment proposes that Canadian Heritage retain a role of coordinating the pan-government strategy for official languages. It is usually developed through consultations with stakeholders.

It's a different role, and I'll leave it at that.

[Anthony Housefather, Liberal, Mount Royal, QC]

As long as you know that it creates confusion now....

Perfect, thanks.

[The Chair, Liberal, René Arseneault]

Thank you for clarifying for us, Ms. Boyer.

Mr. Généreux, you have the floor.

[Bernard Généreux, Conservative, Montmagny—L'Islet—Kamouraska—Rivière-du-Loup, QC]

Mr. Chair, we agree on that and we don't see any problem. We are ready to vote.

[The Chair, Liberal, René Arseneault]

Are there any other questions?

Mr. Beaulieu, you have the floor.

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

I would like to ask a brief question.

Amendment CPC‑7 assigns responsibility and coordination to Treasury Board. Amendment LIB‑6 proposes to add responsibility for maintaining a government-wide strategy to Canadian Heritage, in cooperation with the other ministers of the Crown.

Essentially, Canadian Heritage would develop the strategy, but Treasury Board would still be the decision-making body. Is that it?

[Julie Boyer]

Yes, that is what it seems to me to be.

[The Chair, Liberal, René Arseneault]

Thank you.

We will now go to the vote on amendment LIB‑6.

(Amendment agreed to: yeas 11; nays 0)

[The Chair, Liberal, René Arseneault]

That ends discussion in connection with the proposed amendments for clause 4.

We will go to the vote on clause 4 as amended.

(Clause 4 as amended agreed to)

[The Chair, Liberal, René Arseneault]

We will now go to the vote on clause 5.

(Clause 5 agreed to [See Minutes of Proceedings])

(Clause 6)

[The Chair, Liberal, René Arseneault]

We will now move on to clause 6 of the bill and amendment CPC‑8, the text of which is on page 22 of the amendment package.

Mr. Généreux, you have the floor.

[Bernard Généreux, Conservative, Montmagny—L'Islet—Kamouraska—Rivière-du-Loup, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Amendment CPC‑8 would amend Bill C‑13 by adding the following to section 6, after

communication means any form of communication, including oral, written, electronic or virtual communications; (communication)

publication means any form of publication, regardless of the medium, including printed, electronic or virtual publications; (publication)

service means any form of service provided or made available, including oral, written, electronic or virtual services. (service)

It is essentially a matter of semantics that does not change the substance of the bill. This amendment simply clarifies the terminology.

[The Chair, Liberal, René Arseneault]

Does anyone want to add anything?

Mr. Serré, you have the floor.

[Marc Serré, Liberal, Nickel Belt, ON]

Mr. Chair, one little change would need to be made, since the English version is not the same as the French version.

In the part of the amendment that defines “publication”, the French version states: “papier, électronique, virtuel ou autre.” However, the English is narrower, since it says only:

“printed, electronic or virtual publications”.

I would therefore like to add “or other” to the English version, to reflect what the French says.

[The Chair, Liberal, René Arseneault]

Thank you for pointing that out. In fact, it would also have to be added to the definition of “service”.

Are you moving a subamendment to say that, Mr. Serré?

[Marc Serré, Liberal, Nickel Belt, ON]

Yes, Mr. Chair, because the text has to be the same in both languages.

[The Chair, Liberal, René Arseneault]

Right.

So I invite you to read the text as you would like it to be, so that the English version reflects the French version properly.

[Marc Serré, Liberal, Nickel Belt, ON]

I just want the English version to correspond to the French version.

This is what there would be in the first paragraph:

“'communication' means any form of communication, including oral, written, electronic or virtual communication or other”.

The same thing would apply to the second paragraph:

“'publication' means any form of publication, regardless of the medium, including printed, electronic or virtual publications, or other”.

And the third paragraph would be:

“'service' means any form of service provided or made available, including oral, written, electronic, virtual services, or other”.

[The Chair, Liberal, René Arseneault]

Mr. Housefather, do you want to add something?

[Anthony Housefather, Liberal, Mount Royal, QC]

If my colleague Mr. Serré would allow me, I can help him, because I am an anglophone and it is a bit easier for me.

I think what he wants to say is:

“'communication' means any form of communication including oral, written, electronic, virtual, or other communications”; “'publication' means any form of publication, regardless of the medium, including printed, electronic, virtual, or other publications”; and “'service' means any form of service provided or made available, including oral, written, electronic, virtual, or other services”.

If we say it that way, it will be the same thing as in French.

[The Chair, Liberal, René Arseneault]

Is that in fact what you wanted to say, Mr. Serré?