Official Languages Committee on Feb. 15th, 2024

[Marc Gauthier]

My only comment is that if francophone immigrants are sent to regions where there are no francophones, they may well not remain in that community. If a francophone community is prepared to accept them and integrate them, that would facilitate the integration process.

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

I couldn't agree more, Mr. Gauthier.

Ms. Arbez, you spoke about people who wanted to live their lives in French.

[Madeleine Arbez]

Yes.

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

Generally speaking, is it possible for these people to live in French?

[Madeleine Arbez]

In Manitoba, there are certainly regions where it's possible to do that. Our goal is to make it possible to live in French in these communities.

Mr. Gauthier mentioned the English language. When there is francophone economic immigration recruitment, we make sure that people have a basic knowledge of English.

[The Chair, Liberal, René Arseneault]

Thank you very much, Ms. Arbez.

[Madeleine Arbez]

Nevertheless, our focus is on French.

[The Chair, Liberal, René Arseneault]

Thank you very much, Ms. Arbez and Mr. Beaulieu.

Ms. Ashton, the floor is yours for two minutes.

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

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.

My questions are for Mr. Afane and they are similar to those I asked Ms. Arbez.

There are many parallels with the current state of affairs in the Northwest Territories.

Do you think the federal government needs to be part of the solution with respect to the labour shortage in early childhood and education, and in economic development?

Does the labour shortage make it less likely that families will remain in your area? Is it a barrier to retention and to economic development in the Northwest Territories?

[Francois Afane]

Thank you very much for your question.

My answer to all your questions, Ms. Ashton, is yes.

There's a chronic labour shortage in our region. I've often said that if we could put dogs or other animals to work we would. That's indicative of just how little respect our community gets.

For us, the early childhood challenge is huge. Families decide to leave our regions because they don't have access to child care services. We have only one francophone child care centre in Yellowknife. Its capacity is 37 spaces, and there are over 50 on the waiting list. That's just the official list.

If you factor in the other francophone families that send their children to anglophone schools and child care centres, the potential is enormous. We need support and assistance. Children are the future. Once children begin child care in English, they continue their education in English and become completely anglicized.

We need support from the federal government. Early childhood education is vital to the survival of our communities. I only talked about Yellowknife. In other small communities, there aren't any francophone child care centres at all. Some small communities are dying a slow death because once the children become adults they leave and never return.

Government support would reinvigorate our francophone communities, and also make it possible for families that want to settle and remain in the community do so. That would contribute to retention.

[The Chair, Liberal, René Arseneault]

Thank you, Mr. Afane and Ms. Ashton.

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

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, René Arseneault]

I'm going to have to adjourn the meeting because the room will soon be occupied by another committee, but I would first like to thank Ms. Arbez, Mr. Afane and Mr. Gauthier for their testimony, which will definitely contribute to our committee's work.

If there's any information you didn't have time to tell us about, you could always send it in writing to our clerk, who would then distribute it to the committee members.

Thank you once again for getting involved. It's been truly interesting. It's wonderful to see what a big and beautiful country we live in, and that also applies to francophones everywhere. I wish you all a pleasant weekend.

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

I was just wondering what our agenda will be for our next meeting. Are we going to continue to study this report?

[The Chair, Liberal, René Arseneault]

Yes, and there will be witnesses.

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

Okay. So that's in two weeks, on Monday.

[The Chair, Liberal, René Arseneault]

Right.

Thanks to everyone.

The meeting is adjourned.