Official Languages Committee on Dec. 11th, 2023

[Nour Enayeh]

Ms. Boutiyeb, I'll let you answer that question.

[Soukaina Boutiyeb]

I'm not sure I understood your question.

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

Are you in favour of the measure requiring the federal government to enter into agreements with the provinces and territories to fund services specifically for francophone women facing violence?

[Soukaina Boutiyeb]

Thank you for repeating your question.

I know there are provincial and territorial agreements, and that's totally understandable.

However, national plans must also include language provisions and funding specifically for francophones in minority situations to ensure that the public and linguistic minorities have access to those services in French.

Provincial and territorial agreements are therefore to be expected, but the federal government must ensure that language provisions are automatically included in those agreements to guarantee that all francophone women in that situation have access to services in French.

These services must focus not only on prevention and awareness, but also on women who are victims or survivors of sexual assault.

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

Okay, thank you.

You talked a lot about the challenges immigrant women face. Canada is required under the new Official Languages Act to meet much more ambitious immigration targets, and the government has promised that.

Given the challenges faced by immigrant women, can you explain the various supports that francophone women need in the Canadian immigration system?

Do you believe that our immigration system does everything it should to accommodate francophone women?

[Soukaina Boutiyeb]

I'd like to take a step back to remind everyone that the French Language Services Commissioner of Ontario released a report showing that, even though immigrant women were not native French speakers, their children nevertheless spoke French in our francophone minority communities. We must therefore recognize that francophone women ensure that language is transmitted within the communities and that incredible work is being done in that regard.

That said, the migration path of immigrant women is a challenge, because each woman experiences a situation of her own, and integration is often done uniformly. No gender lens is applied to immigrant women's integration. They have no services tailored to their needs.

We've set forth recommendations. Sometimes it's as simple as ensuring that child care services are included in the services provided to women, or offering them at non-standard hours so that mothers can take advantage of them. The idea is to provide immigrant women with services tailored to their needs and to take into account the fact that migration pathways are changing. The needs of women today can change tomorrow. So we need to have a proactive system. Just because we did something yesterday doesn't mean we have to do the same thing for the next 15 years. We must always ensure that we adequately meet the needs of immigrant women, who ensure the vitality of our communities.

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

Okay.

You talked about early childhood. We know that a bill on the funding and accessibility of child care programs has been referred to the House of Commons. The Senate recently made an amendment to add the following:

8(1) The Government of Canada commits to maintaining long-term funding for early learning and child care programs and services, including early learning and child care programs and services for Indigenous peoples and official language minority communities.

(2) The funding must be provided primarily through agreements with provincial governments and Indigenous governing bodies and other Indigenous entities that represent the interests of an Indigenous group and its members.

This amendment clearly states that Indigenous peoples and official language minority communities must determine the type of services offered in our communities outside Quebec, obviously, including French-language child care services.

[The Chair, Liberal, René Arseneault]

You have five seconds left, Ms. Ashton.

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

Do you support that measure? Do you think it's very important?

[The Chair, Liberal, René Arseneault]

That's a great question, but you'll have to wait until the second round for an answer.

We will now begin the second round.

Mr. Dalton, you have the floor for five minutes.

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

Thank you very much.

Thank you to the witnesses.

My first questions are for the Alliance des femmes de la francophonie canadienne.

We're doing a study on the economy, and there's no question that women are highly skilled, but what more can the government do to help women and minority families prosper?

I know you've talked about this before, but could you tell us more?

[Soukaina Boutiyeb]

Thank you.

I can answer, and then Ms. Enayeh can take over if she has anything to add.

First of all, when we think about policies or programs, we have to put francophone women in the forefront. We mustn't forget them or put them in the background. When you put something in place, you have to automatically ask yourself how it will affect francophone women. Is it going to have a positive effect on them, or is it going to increase gender inequality or create another kind of inequality in society? Will it help people, or will it perpetuate negative effects on the public? Those are the questions that need to be asked first.

Then I could talk about GBA Plus, gender-based analysis plus, which Canada adopted Canada in 1995. We question the fact that a comprehensive analysis is not always conducted. Sometimes, people say that GBA Plus was applied, but we note that francophone women were left out. So we recommend taking more time to do that kind of analysis.

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

Thank you.

Can you paint us a picture of entrepreneurship among francophone and Canadian women in minority situations?

[Soukaina Boutiyeb]

It certainly won't be specific data on the subject, but it must be recognized that women often experience financial insecurity. Women must be encouraged by entrepreneurship and we need to ensure that they're not at risk of experiencing that type of insecurity. Women have responsibilities in everyday life. There is the issue of access to a pension plan. Not all women work for an organization that has a pension plan. In short, there are many factors that can have an impact on women's financial security in the future.

Entrepreneurship must be encouraged among women, but we must also provide them with concrete support to ensure that they succeed.

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

Thank you very much.

Mr. Salter, some of your statistics were quite surprising, as far as the unemployment rate among the anglophone minority goes.

Is your focus, as an organization, strictly on the anglophone minority group, or is it on the entire province of Quebec?

[Nicholas Salter]

The focus of our organization is on Quebec's English speakers. We focus on their employability. We think of ways to understand the problems, and we use a lot of the census data to better understand those problems. We want to mobilize solutions, which, as I mentioned in my opening remarks, include English employment services and skills training, as well as pairing with French-language training that targets specific professions and the workplace.

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

Is your funding strictly from the Province of Quebec?

[Nicholas Salter]

The majority comes from the Province of Quebec, yes.

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

Why are they doing this? Is it because they're concerned? Why are they funding your organization?

[Nicholas Salter]

They've clearly presented data that demonstrates that Quebec's English speakers are under-represented in the labour market. We're facing a labour market shortage, and the solution is a win-win situation, I think, for all governments. It's offering better English employment services targeted towards the people on the front lines by building the capacity of English-speaking OLMC organizations, as well as by pairing with French-language training to help people improve their French-language competency, get into certain professions, or improve their professional vocabulary and confidence.

Therefore, it's a win-win situation for all governments. The employability of English speakers is an opportunity to do economic development, as well as to protect the French language.

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

My understanding is that most young anglophones growing up are actually quite fluent in French, so these statistics are surprising. Are these unemployment rates more among the older generation? Can you make some sense of this? Is it more the immigrant population?

[Nicholas Salter]

[Technical difficulty—Editor] that two-thirds of the English-speaking community in the census indicate they are able to hold a conversation in French. Holding a conversation in French is different from being able to perform at a high level in a career. Again, one-third of the population isn't even able to hold a conversation in French. For the other two-thirds, their French-language competency is unclear.

Therefore, one thing we want to see is better data collection on French-language competency, so we can understand how to move people from, perhaps, beginner to intermediate and more expert levels. This would be, again, for the workplace and for a specific profession.

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

Are the trends getting worse, or are they stable? What does the current—

[Nicholas Salter]

[Technical difficulty—Editor] the unemployment gap that has been present for almost 20 years has doubled since the last census, from 2016 to 2021, from two percentage points to four percentage points. The employment income gap.... Median employment income is what most economists use, as a comparative average has distorting effects. Therefore, median employment income is what you would use for a comparative between populations. The gap in employment income has doubled in the last five years, as well.

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

Would you say that's because they're just not able to engage in the economy—that it's become more difficult for them, being strictly anglophone?