Evidence of meeting #10 for Official Languages in the 45th Parliament, 1st session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was it’s.
A recording is available from Parliament.
President, Conseil scolaire francophone de la Colombie-Britannique
Yes, that's right, at least during the first year.
Conservative
Joël Godin Conservative Portneuf—Jacques-Cartier, QC
Yes, I understand.
You first asked that the federal government respect Part VII of the Official Languages Act in terms of funding granted for minority language education. It's one of your recommendations.
Are you claiming that the federal government isn't doing that work?
President, Conseil scolaire francophone de la Colombie-Britannique
What we’re asking for is greater accountability. We’re requesting an increase to the OLEP. We’re asking for more funding. It needs to be more transparent. We want to know why we receive $6 million when immersion receives $10 million.
Conservative
Joël Godin Conservative Portneuf—Jacques-Cartier, QC
Compared to other provinces, we can see that your situation is different. So you don't have the same tools.
With its new Official Languages Act, has the federal government given itself the tools to enforce the measures, truly stop the decline of French and protect and promote both official languages?
President, Conseil scolaire francophone de la Colombie-Britannique
We’re still waiting for the regulations resulting from the modernization of the Official Languages Act.
Conservative
Joël Godin Conservative Portneuf—Jacques-Cartier, QC
Indeed.
Secondly, you recommend that the government uphold its commitment to provide long‑term funding for early childhood services. We know that early childhood is your incubator; it ensures that you have students who will follow the entire continuum of education in French.
Why do you have this fear?
President, Conseil scolaire francophone de la Colombie-Britannique
Here again, the funding allocated to British Columbia for early childhood is not clear. I was here in 2018 and, at that time, I anticipated that we would need 2,600 early childhood spaces by now. However, a study by the Fédération des parents francophones de la Colombie‑Britannique revealed that the need was actually for 8,000 spaces.
Conservative
Joël Godin Conservative Portneuf—Jacques-Cartier, QC
If we took the census into account, we would be looking at 25,000.
President, Conseil scolaire francophone de la Colombie-Britannique
Yes. There are 76,000 children. There are still nearly 23,000 children under the age of 5 who could access French‑language child care services.
Conservative
Joël Godin Conservative Portneuf—Jacques-Cartier, QC
Thank you for staying passionate and continuing your fight every day. I’m sending you all the energy you need to continue this fight. It’s not normal for this to happen in British Columbia, and it shouldn't be the case anywhere else in Canada either. Thank you, Ms. Lavoie.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Yvan Baker
Thank you, Mr. Godin.
I now give the floor to Mr. Deschênes‑Thériault for three minutes.
Liberal
Guillaume Deschênes-Thériault Liberal Madawaska—Restigouche, NB
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
The University of Moncton is a member of the Consortium national de formation en santé, a francophone organization funded by federal funds. Last summer, the Minister of Health announced $78 million to improve access to health services within minority francophone communities, and I was very pleased to see that the University of Moncton would be among the beneficiaries of those investments.
How will these federal investments enhance the University of Moncton's capacity for training in health programs, at the Moncton campus, the Shippagan campus and the Edmundston campus, in my riding?
Rector and Vice-Chancellor, University of Moncton
We are very happy to have this funding, as it has allowed us to increase our capacity in health programs. Among other things, we were able to increase the number of spots in medical training and nursing programs, and more specifically in the training of nurse practitioners.
These funds have also allowed us to improve our infrastructure, including our simulation labs, at our three campuses.
This funding is therefore very useful to us, as the usual grants would not have allowed us to increase the number of registrations and, thus, the number of graduates in health.
Liberal
Guillaume Deschênes-Thériault Liberal Madawaska—Restigouche, NB
Thank you, Mr. Prud'homme.
I will now turn to Mr. Lang.
Earlier, we discussed the implementation of a comprehensive primary education program in northern New Brunswick. I would like to hear a little more about that from you.
What is the status of this? Is it something we could see happening soon?
Dean, Faculty of Education, University of Moncton
It will happen as quickly as the funding arrives.
In your first question, you mentioned investments in health, and I would say that something equivalent is needed for the field of education.
It is important to know that education is local. There are cultural differences from one place to another, whether it's the northwest of the province, where I come from, the northeast, or the south. You heard the representatives of the Société de l'Acadie du Nouveau-Brunswick speak, just before us, about the challenges in Fredericton, for example. We can also think about the situation in Saint John, New Brunswick. We need resources to understand the different situations. We just hired someone who specializes in multilingualism. However, if we create programs in the northwest and northeast of the province, we’ll need teaching resources, not only to train teachers but also to conduct research.
Research is very important because other universities elsewhere in Canada don’t do research focused on the situation in Rogersville, Edmundston or Campbellton. It is the University of Moncton that does that. However, it requires researchers and infrastructure. I’m thinking about the campuses in Edmundston and Shippagan, but especially the campus in Moncton, because it doesn’t have the necessary technology to offer high-level and high-quality courses at the three campuses simultaneously, namely in a co-modal manner, to make the best use of resources.
So, yes, it can go quickly, but it will require serious support to make the necessary efforts to quickly train a sufficient number of competent teachers.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Yvan Baker
Thank you very much, Mr. Deschênes‑Thériault.
On behalf of the committee, I thank all the witnesses for being with us.
Colleagues, our next meeting will take place this Thursday. We will then begin our study on the use of French in government communications.
I would also note that the Minister responsible for Official Languages and the President of the Treasury Board have agreed to appear on December 4 concerning their mandate and priorities and the use of French in government communications. They will appear during the first hour of the meeting, and the officials will be able to stay for the second hour. I just wanted to inform the committee members.
The meeting is adjourned.