Official Languages Committee on Feb. 15th, 2024

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

Mr. Chair, I agree with you completely. We've been wanting to proceed with the vote for a while now.

[The Chair, Liberal, René Arseneault]

The vote is on Mr. Godin's motion.

(Motion agreed to: yeas 6; nays 5)

[The Chair, Liberal, René Arseneault]

The motion passes.

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

Will you send it to us?

[The Chair, Liberal, René Arseneault]

Yes, once it's been written up, I'll send it to the committee members while respecting its content as much as possible.

Let's return to our witnesses.

Mr. Godin, you've used up 15 seconds of your allotted time. You have the floor.

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

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I'd like to thank our witnesses for their patience.

Mr. Dupuis, you mentioned that your business is a family business. You managed to multiply this wealth that is your business and pass it on to your children, which is much to your credit. I'm thinking you may have inherited it from your parents or grandparents.

I'd like you to explain to us what kind of tools aren't currently offered that would make it easier to sustain a francophone business in Alberta, and that would make it more attractive for francophones to consume your products and work for you.

[Patrick Dupuis]

Thank you, Mr. Godin.

There's one tool I find important. We've started the process on some funding applications, and what we noticed is that there are a lot of bureaucratic roadblocks we need to manoeuver around.

Francophones in minority language communities don't necessarily get any explanation of how that process works. No one helps us understand the government processes. Not everyone understands them. That is the most serious lack, in my opinion.

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

If I understand correctly, you want us to cut the red tape. You're spending a lot of time filling out countless forms. Cutting this red tape would speed up processing and response times, which would allow you to run your cheese-making operation more efficiently.

Is that right?

[Patrick Dupuis]

Yes, that's right.

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

Thank you, Mr. Dupuis.

Mr. Thomas, you mentioned that recruiting francophone immigrants is always harder in rural regions. You really pointed to that as a problem.

As president and CEO of the Conseil économique du Nouveau-Brunswick, what would you do if you were in our shoes? What measures would you put in place to make the rural regions of New Brunswick and elsewhere in Canada more attractive to francophone immigration, but also to promote economic development outside of the rural markets?

[Gaëtan Thomas]

Thank you, Mr. Godin.

That's a really important question.

The are many factors that make rural regions less attractive for international immigration. There are a lot of French-language resources in developing countries, like those in Africa, for example.

People from African cities who are more educated and have had the opportunity to graduate from grade 12 or equivalent are much more interested in cities like Montreal, Vancouver or Moncton. Tracadie isn't always the obvious choice, for instance. That said, we can always do more.

I completely agree with Mr. Dupuis about the fact that federal rules are very complicated for small businesses. There's a lot of paperwork. On average, we receive two applications for each international student that is accepted. This approach is more more suited to big cities than to smaller municipalities. Indeed, it sometimes takes seven or eight letters before a candidate from Africa will choose to settle in Bathurst, Edmunston or Shippagan. That's the hard part. We talk about centralizing and about doing what looks good, but that can lead to even greater access.

In terms of applications, sometimes seconds languages come into play. Over the last seven to 10 years, the proportion of French spoken at home has dropped in New Brunswick. That's why we need to welcome more immigrants who mainly speak French. That said, passing the French test isn't always easy. When we get applications, more often than not there are many more anglophone candidates. That's why I'm saying that New Brunswick should be master of its own destiny and maintain a ratio of one-third anglophones to two-thirds francophones.

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

Mr. Thomas, immigration is one thing, but are you able to keep young francophones in your community so that they can build the future of our rural regions?

[Gaëtan Thomas]

Yes, but we'll need more decentralized services.

For example, technology can be used anywhere these days. When rural regions don't have high-speed Internet, young people have no choice but to gravitate toward larger urban centres. If the regions also had high-speed Internet, I can promise you that francophones would stay put.

[The Chair, Liberal, René Arseneault]

Thank you.

[Gaëtan Thomas]

A lot of people in Ottawa and Fredericton work from home. Why not give these people the option of working from home in Dalhousie, Campbellton or Tracadie?

[The Chair, Liberal, René Arseneault]

That's a solid argument, Mr. Thomas.

[Gaëtan Thomas]

I see it as an incredible opportunity.

[The Chair, Liberal, René Arseneault]

I have to interrupt you because Mr. Godin's time is up.

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

[Darrell Samson, Liberal, Sackville—Preston—Chezzetcook, NS]

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.

I thank the witnesses for being here today, especially Mr. Dupuis, given what time it is in his part of the country.

Mr. Dupuis, have you gotten any support from the provincial or federal government? You talked about how complicated the application process is. Were there any programs in place to help you get started, or to promote your development?

[Patrick Dupuis]

We got a lot of support. We applied for support in the context of many programs. The Conseil de développement économique de l'Alberta guided us in finding as much support as we could.

For instance, to help us set up our economuseum, the first in Alberta, the organization helped us get provincial funding through Travel Alberta, municipal funding, and federal funding through Prairies Economic Development Canada, as well as many other grants that were available.

[Darrell Samson, Liberal, Sackville—Preston—Chezzetcook, NS]

I'm happy to hear that you've gotten support from the Conseil de développement économique de l'Alberta, whose role it is to promote economic development in rural regions. It's one way of making a contribution. I'm glad about that.

Is your municipality bilingual? I see that it's Vermilion.

[Patrick Dupuis]

No. Out of roughly 4,500 people, there are maybe 20 francophone families.

[Darrell Samson, Liberal, Sackville—Preston—Chezzetcook, NS]

Thank you.

Mr. Thomas, I'm very happy that you could join us. I was also quite happy to hear you acknowledge, in your opening remarks, the contribution of Mr. Robichaud, a key player in the development of bilingualism in New Brunswick.

My question deals with the support you received from the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency, or ACOA. Is the ACOA working closely with you, and to what extent? I know that you don't receive any funding from the agency, but what exactly is your relationship to the ACOA?

[Gaëtan Thomas]

We've always had an excellent relationship with the ACOA. The agency has always supported the work of the Conseil économique du Nouveau-Brunswick, like the Rendez-vous Acadie-Québec, the next edition of which will occur in the Acadian peninsula from May 28 to 30.

It's a bit more complicated for small businesses. Like Mr. Dupuis said, for francophone entrepreneurs in minority francophone communities, the forms are quite complicated. The French-language forms are even more so, at times. And small businesses don't always have the resources to fill them out.

For example, I was part of the application selection committee for the digital boost 2.0 program. Fewer than 15% of the applications came from francophone companies. Small francophone companies are less likely to get support because they don't really have the necessary staff to fill out the forms. Quite often, they just give up and never submit an application. It's the same problem Mr. Dupuis was talking about. The programs are there, but the problem is finding a way to help businesses fill out those forms.

[Darrell Samson, Liberal, Sackville—Preston—Chezzetcook, NS]

The ACOA's role is to guide small businesses and francophone businesses and to work closely with them. Thank you for your answer.

You mentioned that finding workers is difficult in rural regions. Do you think that a rural economic development strategy should harness the potential of retired seniors who would like to work part time?