Official Languages Committee on Nov. 1st, 2023

[The Chair, Liberal, René Arseneault]

I now call the meeting to order.

Welcome to the 73rd meeting of the House of Commons Standing Committee on Official Languages.

Pursuant to Standing Order 108(3) and the motion adopted by the committee on September 20, 2023, the committee is meeting to continue its study on economic development of official language minority communities.

Once again, I will spare you the instructions about using Zoom, because our guests are participating in person and the parliamentarians who are participating remotely are regulars.

I will simply remind you to make sure your earpiece is not too close to the microphone when the mic is on, since that could result in feedback and cause injury to the interpreters and technicians.

I would like to welcome the officials from the Department of Industry. With us are Etienne‑René Massie, Assistant Deputy Minister, Small Business and Marketplace Services, Kasi McMicking, Associate Assistant Deputy Minister, Strategy and Innovation Policy Sector, and Marie‑Caroline Badjeck, Acting Director, Strategy and Innovation Policy Sector.

Ladies, Mr. Massie, I believe this is your first appearance at a meeting of the Official Languages Committee, because I have sat on this committee for at least seven years and I have never seen you here.

The way we work is this. You have five minutes to make your presentation, which Ms. McMicking will be doing today. After the presentation, there will be a round of questions. I am strict about the time allowed for the presentation, because I want to leave as much time as possible for the members from each party to ask their questions.

I know I talk rather fast. I will try to slow the tide, for our interpreters.

Ms. McMicking, you have the floor for five minutes.

[Kasi McMicking, Associate Assistant Deputy Minister, Strategy and Innovation Policy Sector, Department of Industry]

Good morning, Mr. Chair and distinguished members of the committee.

I will be speaking very quickly.

I want to start by recognizing that we are meeting today on the land of the Algonquin Anishinaabe people.

Thank you for giving me the opportunity to appear before this committee to speak to you about how Innovation, Science and Economic Development, or ISED, supports the economic development of official language minority communities, or OLMCs. Almost two million Canadians belong to OLMCs. In addition, at least half of the owners of 123,000 businesses all across Canada have the minority official language as their first language spoken.

Although ISED works with the regional development agencies, my presentation today will be limited to my department's activities.

I would like to talk to you about the Economic Development Initiative. The EDI is funded by the renewed funding for the new Action Plan for Official Languages 2023‑2028 and has a total budget of $30.5 million over five years. The funding is divided between ISED, which receives $1.6 million in operating funds, and the regional development agencies, which administer the financial contributions.

Innovation, Science and Economic Development coordinates and facilitates the discussions about priorities and planning that take place among the agencies, at the national level. It also conducts economic research and analyzes policies in order to better understand the OLMCs' economic needs.

The research component carried out by ISED focuses on knowledge acquisition and the collection of high quality data that contribute to strengthening capacities and establishing partnerships and to guiding federal policies, programs and services.

Between 2018 and 2023, almost 40 studies or analyses were completed in collaboration with various stakeholders. In 2019, for example, the department commissioned Statistics Canada to develop a methodology for identifying businesses that might be associated with official language minorities. Before that study was done, there was no national and regional inventory of business owners who belonged to official language minorities.

The first report produced for the study, in 2020, shows that in 2017 at least half of the owners of 6.5% of Canadian SMEs had the minority official language of the province where the business was based as their first official language spoken. The report also showed that in Canada as a whole, official language minority business owners are slightly younger, slightly less often women, and slightly more often immigrants than are other business owners.

Providing reliable and usable statistical data at the national and regional levels, for decision-making based on businesses and economic development in OLMCs, is an important objective of our research component. The department plans to continue its partnership with Statistics Canada in 2023‑24 in order to update the data I have presented here using 2021 Census data and provide an overview of the investments made in businesses owned by both urban and rural minority official language owners.

For several years, ISED has also held consultations with OLMCs to understand their issues and immediate needs, to better align our policies, programs and services, and to inform the EDI research component.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, we consulted virtually with hundreds of stakeholders through six sessions—three in French and three in English—to better understand the impact of COVID-19 on community economic development and the tourism industry, and to share best practices.

EDI has been in place for 15 years. ISED coordinates through committees—one English and one French—that include representatives from OLMCs, and through an interdepartmental federal working group that meets regularly to discuss all aspects of delivery of the initiative.

[The Chair, Liberal, René Arseneault]

Wrap it up in 15 seconds, if you can.

[Kasi McMicking]

A key component for addressing support for entrepreneurs has been the programming under the leadership of my colleague, Etienne-René, which has been designed and delivered for women, Black and 2SLGBTQI+ entrepreneurs. Official languages have been considered in the conception and design of these programs, as well as the launch and the ultimate delivery of the programming. How they plan to provide services in both official languages was a factor in the ultimate selection of successful recipients.

[The Chair, Liberal, René Arseneault]

Thank you, Ms. McMicking. You can continue further through the questions and elaborate more if you want.

The next round of questions will be asked by each party, with six minutes for each interaction. I'll be very strict on the time because I want a second round for everyone.

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

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

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thanks to the departmental representatives for being here today.

The objective is to get a clear understanding of the situation. We are doing a study with the aim of finding tools that would enable businesses in official language minority communities to be more prosperous. From what I have understood, they are believed to need more help to expand and prosper in the current market, which is more difficult.

Ms. McMicking, in your presentation, you said that you had done a lot of studies and analyses, but I am looking at things from the point of view of an entrepreneur. What is the process by which these businesses can obtain government assistance? Is there government assistance that specifically targets this category of businesses?

[Kasi McMicking]

Yes. What I've described is what ISED's programming does in the context of the EDI program. This is a program of $30.5 million over five years that we actually work with our colleagues in the regional development agencies to implement. That is directed very specifically towards OLMCs.

What I described was the ISED piece of this puzzle, which is quite a small but very important piece because it is the mechanism by which we collaborate and work with the OLMCs to determine what they need, as well as collaborate with them to share best practices—through engagement, for example.

The programming piece of this is run through the regional development agencies. I believe that our colleagues from ACOA and CEDQ will be here to speak later on.

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

Thank you.

What I understand is that you work with the agencies in the seven territories and areas defined. However, the business has to apply to the agencies, not to you. You coordinate the programs. If we do some searching, we see that the structure is relatively complex.

First, then, can you tell us what the windows are that the businesses can approach to obtain financial and other types of assistance?

Second, do you target specific sectors? There are programs that support certain sectors, such as tourism, or certain industries. Do you target specific sectors, and is that tailored to each of the seven regions? We know that Canada is a large and diverse country.

[Kasi McMicking]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

There are basically two answers to the member's question. The first is with regard to the EDI piece of the program. The one-stop shop for each of them depends on which region they are located in.

The second piece of that answer is that there are also a variety of programs that exist, such as the Black entrepreneurship program or the women entrepreneurship strategy, which ISED conducts. Through the research work and through our partnership with my colleague, Etienne, we ensure these contain a lens that will ensure that official-language minority communities' needs are applied in terms of the application to these programs.

If I may, Mr. Chair, I will turn to my colleague, Etienne, to just supplement how these programs work.

[Etienne-René Massie, Assistant Deputy Minister, Small Business and Marketplace Services, Department of Industry]

For all the programs our department provides, we apply certain conditions. We fund groups that are located in communities, in the provinces and territories, and offer various services for entrepreneurs, be they mentoring, sponsorship or training. All our recipients must offer their services in both official languages of Canada.

In some cases, when we evaluate projects, we make sure that the official language minority communities are able to be part of them and receive services. There are often partnerships between organizations in the communities and our recipients.

Regarding whether we cover specific sectors, I would say there are very few, because when we make a choice, we eliminate certain sectors. We therefore try to maintain a more general approach.

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

Thank you, Mr. Massie.

You used the term “recipient”. So is this a lottery, a draw? How are responsibilities and budget envelopes allocated? Obviously there is money associated with it.

[Etienne-René Massie]

When the government grants funds to entrepreneurship programs, our usual approach is to call for competitive bids. We prepare a guide that explains what we want to fund. People are then invited to submit a bid. There are consortiums or organizations that submit applications. We do not work directly with the entrepreneurs. We do it indirectly. We find a third party, which then works with the entrepreneurs.

Regarding the strategy for women...

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

I am going to stop you there, Mr. Massie...

[The Chair, Liberal, René Arseneault]

Thank you, Mr. Godin. That is just about all the time you have. This time goes very quickly, but you will be able to come back to this.

The next questions will be from our colleague Angelo Iacono, who has six minutes.

[Angelo Iacono, Liberal, Alfred-Pellan, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thanks to the witnesses for being with us this afternoon.

What role does Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada play in the economic development of official language minority communities, the OLMCs?

[Kasi McMicking]

In terms of the economic development of OLMCs, ISED plays a couple of different roles.

We play the direct-funding role that Etienne has just described, as well as the research and data role, and the convening role that I described in my remarks earlier. What we're able to do through the convening, through the various events we hold with OLMCs and through the research we conduct in partnership with them is better determine, first of all, how OLMCs are actually comprised and, second of all, what it is they are in need of at this particular point in time.

These things have shifted. For example, during the COVID-19 sessions I described earlier, what we discovered were very specific things with regard to these entrepreneurs' needs regarding labour mobility, labour sources and issues with the tourism industry. There are long-standing issues and there are these evolutionary issues that we see over time.

Our activity is to work with them to determine what their needs are.

[Angelo Iacono, Liberal, Alfred-Pellan, QC]

What initiatives are you proposing, to support OLMCs in rural areas, particularly when it comes to developing telecommunication services?

[Marie-Caroline Badjeck, Acting Director, Strategy and Innovation Policy Sector, Department of Industry]

Good afternoon.

As my Assistant Deputy Minister said, one of the important jobs we do when it comes to rural areas involves data, the statistics. The goal is to have a better understanding of the needs of OLMCs in rural areas, from an economic point of view, but possibly also in terms of infrastructure.

This year, our priority is to work with Statistics Canada on this data. We are also continuing to work with our partners, including RDEE, two representatives of which appeared before you on Monday. We are working with partners nation-wide so they can tell us what rural communities and their members need.

As my Assistant Deputy Minister said, we have monitoring committees. With the regional development agencies, we can transfer the knowledge we receive from our partners, RDEE for example, and discuss what has to be done for rural areas. On our part, this mainly means strategic planning. Our priority this year relates to statistics and our collaboration with Statistics Canada on the subject of rural areas and OLMCs.

[Angelo Iacono, Liberal, Alfred-Pellan, QC]

How does the department ensure access by postsecondary institutions in official language minority communities to funding for digital research infrastructure?

[Marie-Caroline Badjeck]

To answer your question, I think we would have to consult our colleagues in the research sector. We will then be able to provide you with an answer.

[Angelo Iacono, Liberal, Alfred-Pellan, QC]

Thank you.

What initiatives does your department adopt for complying with the Official Languages Act?

[Etienne-René Massie]

If I may, I will answer the question.

In the programming we offer, whether under the Women Entrepreneurship Strategy, Futurpreneur Canada, or the Black Entrepreneurship Program, we incorporate obligations into our contribution agreement. There are very specific clauses that require that every applicant who approaches our department to access these services offer the services in both official languages.

[Angelo Iacono, Liberal, Alfred-Pellan, QC]

Thank you.

What are the main barriers that OLMCs face?

[Etienne-René Massie]

Are you talking about the main barriers to participation in economic terms?

[Angelo Iacono, Liberal, Alfred-Pellan, QC]

Yes.