Official Languages Committee on March 31st, 2023

[The Chair, Liberal, René Arseneault]

Mr. Godin, which amendments are you not moving?

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

Chair, I will not be moving amendments CPC‑59, CPC‑60, CPC‑61 and CPC‑62.

[The Chair, Liberal, René Arseneault]

Amendment CPC‑16 has been adopted.

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

Indeed, it has.

[The Chair, Liberal, René Arseneault]

We will momentarily suspend the meeting for the benefit of committee members.

[The Chair, Liberal, René Arseneault]

We will resume.

Mr. Godin, you do not want to move amendment CPC‑59. Is that correct?

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

Chair, I will repeat what I told you earlier. I am seeking unanimous consent to withdraw as a group amendments CPC‑59, CPC‑60, CPC‑61 and CPC‑62. I will not be moving them.

[The Chair, Liberal, René Arseneault]

Let's stick with amendment CPC‑59 for now. You are not moving it, is that correct?

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

Yes.

[The Chair, Liberal, René Arseneault]

We will deal with other amendments when we get to them.

Mr. Serré, you have the floor.

[Marc Serré, Liberal, Nickel Belt, ON]

Chair, with leave of the committee, I would like to move amendment CPC‑59.

I move that Bill C-13, in Clause 51, be amended by replacing line 5 on page 38 with the following:

51 Sections 107 and 108 of the Act are replaced by the following: 107 The persons holding the positions referred to in subsection 34(2) immediately before the coming into force of that provision shall continue in office.

This is the type of grandfathering provision that addresses employees. I think it would be good to keep it in the bill.

[The Chair, Liberal, René Arseneault]

Thank you, Mr. Serré

There being no questions, I will put amendment CPC‑59 to a vote.

(Amendment agreed to: yeas 7, nays 4)

[The Chair, Liberal, René Arseneault]

Mr. Godin, I understand that you do not want to move amendment CPC‑60. In fact, adoption of the amendment that Mr. Serré just moved means that amendments CPC‑60, LIB‑39, CPC‑61 and CPC‑62 cannot be moved in any event. That is what we wanted and that is what happened.

We are now at amendment BQ‑63.

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

About the court challenges program—

[The Chair, Liberal, René Arseneault]

Just a minute, Mr. Beaulieu.

I went too fast. Before moving on to amendment BQ‑63, we need to adopt clause 51 since we just finished reviewing it. I am putting to a vote clause 51 as amended.

(Clause 51 as amended agreed to)

(Clause52)

[The Chair, Liberal, René Arseneault]

This brings us to clause 52 and amendment BQ‑63.

Mr. Beaulieu, you may have the floor again. Do you want to move amendment BQ‑63?

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

Yes.

It has to do with the court challenges program, which raised a lot of issues in Quebec. Members will recall that an organization bragged about receiving money from the program for challenging bill 21 and that some had responded that the program could not be used to challenge provincial law.

To confirm that, I move that Bill C-13, in Clause 52, be amended by adding after line 15 on page 38 the following:

7.2 Section 7.1 does not apply in the case of any organization whose purpose is to intervene in any fashion in a test case involving the laws of a province.

[The Chair, Liberal, René Arseneault]

Thank you.

Since no one wants to ask any questions, I am putting amendment BQ‑63 to a vote.

(Amendment negatived: nays 10, yeas 1)

(Clauses 52 and 53 adopted)

(Clause 54)

[The Chair, Liberal, René Arseneault]

We are now considering clause 54 and we have amendment CPC‑63.

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

I decided a long time ago not to move it, Chair.

[The Chair, Liberal, René Arseneault]

It is part of the amendments package.

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

In fact, I am not moving it, Chair.

[The Chair, Liberal, René Arseneault]

That's great, Mr. Godin.

We will now move on to amendment BQ‑64. Is anyone moving it?

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

Chair, I think this is the moment that many people in Quebec have been waiting for.

We know that applying the Charter of the French Language to federally regulated businesses has broad consensus in Quebec. The unions, the big cities and all the former premiers, including those from the Liberal Party, support this amendment. I do not expect the Liberals to support it, but all the opposition parties have said they would support it.

I move that that Bill C-13, in Clause 54, be amended

(a) by replacing line 13 on page 39 with the following: Whereas the Government of Canada is committed to respecting Quebec’s choices regarding its linguistic development provided for in the Charter of the French Language; Whereas the Government of Canada recognizes and respects the (b) by replacing line 17 on page 39 with the following: Canadian society, including that Quebec’s Charter of the French Language provides that French is the official and common language of Quebec;

This amendment changes the preamble so that the Charter of the French Language applies to all businesses in Quebec.

[The Chair, Liberal, René Arseneault]

Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu.

Do you have any comments, Mr. Godin?