Official Languages Committee on Dec. 4th, 2025

[The Chair, Liberal, Yvan Baker]

I’m sorry, Mr. Beaulieu, but your time is up. I have already given you a little more time.

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

That’s good, thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Yvan Baker]

We will now move on to the second round of questions. There are about 22 and a half minutes left in the first part of our meeting, and the second round of questions should last exactly 22 and a half minutes. I will therefore be stricter about respecting speaking times, to allow us to finish the question round without having to shorten speaking times. I ask for your help with that.

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

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

Good morning, Minister.

You are the President of the Treasury Board, as you know, and you oversee expenditures before funds are released.

What is the approximate annual budget of the Office of the Prime Minister?

[Shafqat Ali]

Chair, thank you for the question.

I'm here at the committee on official languages—

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

Thank you. I will tell you—

[Shafqat Ali]

—to talk about my mandate as President of the Treasury Board on the Official Languages Act—

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

Indeed, he is not answering the questions.

[The Chair, Liberal, Yvan Baker]

Wait a moment, Mr. Dalton. So, I’m going to stop the clock.

I ask all members to try not to speak at the same time as someone else. I know it requires respect, but I ask for your help and co-operation in this regard, out of consideration for the interpreters.

Mr. Dalton, the floor is yours.

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

Thank you.

The answer to my question is $11.4 million.

According to CBC/Radio-Canada, the Prime Minister only speaks French 17% of the time during public activities. We all agreed, within this committee, that this was unacceptable, given the bilingualism required for many positions. I doubt that the Prime Minister writes his speeches himself. It’s probably his staff who handle that.

Given the budget of $11.4 million for his political staff, does his refusal to speak French during public appearances reflect his own wishes or those of the people around him?

[Shafqat Ali]

Chair, I reject that misleading question from my colleague. Conservatives try to mislead Canadians. The Prime Minister does speak French. Characterizing him as not speaking French is false and misleading, and I reject that. The Prime Minister does speak French.

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

Mr. Chair, he is not answering the questions.

[Shafqat Ali]

You know, if you have any questions, I'm here as the President of the Treasury Board to talk about Official Languages Act implementation for the federal government and the department. If you have a question, yes, you're welcome to ask the Prime Minister, but seeing as the Prime Minister does not refuse to answer a question in French, saying that he does not speak French is totally false, misleading and disinformation.

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

He takes a lot longer to respond than I take to ask the question.

The Prime Minister took two French courses in July and one in August. In September, it seems that he lost his French teacher.

I wonder if it’s due to a lack of money. I’m not going to ask you the question directly, since you won’t answer it. I’ll tell you the answer: No, it is not because of a lack of money that he was unable to hire another French teacher.

We have $15 billion for Stellantis so it can open factories in the United States, but not here. It was just announced with President Trump. That was wasted.

Algoma was given $400 million a few months ago, although people knew that it was in trouble. Then, 1,000 employees received a layoff notice before Christmas.

I’m talking about money because you are the ones responsible for it.

The government gave $500 million to the European Space Agency. However, half of the contract is tied to Brookfield, Mark Carney’s company.

It’s not due to a lack of money in his budget that the Prime Minister does not take French lessons and only delivers 17% of his speeches in French.

It’s a rhetorical question, but I think you can understand that, for many people, including we Conservatives as the official opposition, it shows a lack of appreciation for the francophonie and the French language.

We have also heard the comments from Marc Miller, who’s tired of the discussion about the decline of French.

[The Chair, Liberal, Yvan Baker]

You have 15 seconds left.

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

All right, Mr. Chair.

Can you understand that francophones and Conservatives are worried?

[The Chair, Liberal, Yvan Baker]

Please give a very brief response, as Mr. Dalton’s time is up.

[Shafqat Ali]

Chair, that's the problem with the Conservatives. I'm here at committee with officials to talk about the Official Languages Act in the public service. My Conservative colleague is playing politics.

If you have a question around accounts, come to the public accounts committee or the government operations committee. This is the committee for the Official Languages Act. You have to ask questions on that. You're focusing on your clips rather than focusing on your work.

As parliamentarians, we're here to work hard to deliver for Canadians, to build Canada strong and to deal with issues that face affordability and other issues, not just clips—

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

I have a point of order, Mr. Chair. In a previous round, you gave the President of the Treasury Board an additional 15 seconds to respond. In this case, it’s been more than 15 seconds. At some point, discipline is needed. I would invite you to conclude this intervention.

[The Chair, Liberal, Yvan Baker]

Minister, Mr. Dalton’s time is indeed up, so I must interrupt you here.

That said, I think you already know this, but I want to remind you that, as chair, I always try to give flexibility to the witnesses, no matter who they are. If a question is asked in the last seconds of a member’s speaking time, I allow the relevant witness to provide an answer. Often, it means that I give a little more time for that intervention. That’s why I allowed the minister to respond. I do it not only for the minister, but for everyone. That’s always my approach.

I now give the floor to Mr. Deschênes-Thériault for five minutes.

[Guillaume Deschênes-Thériault, Liberal, Madawaska—Restigouche, NB]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Minister.

The President of the Treasury Board is responsible for playing a leading role within the federal government in the implementation of the Official Languages Act. This includes part VII of the act, which states that “the Government of Canada is committed to enhancing the vitality of the English and French linguistic minority communities in Canada and supporting and assisting their development”. As part of that commitment, “Every federal institution has the duty to ensure that the commitments under [part VII] are implemented by the taking of positive measures.”

All departments are therefore involved, not just one. Treasury Board has a leadership role to play in ensuring the implementation of part VII of the act across the entire government machinery.

Minister, I would like to hear you explain how you see the leadership role of Treasury Board in the implementation of the Official Languages Act.

[Shafqat Ali]

Thank you very much.

This is an important question.

As President of the Treasury Board, I'm responsible for the coordination and good governance of the act. My department sets policies and monitors compliance, ensuring institutions meet obligations in serving the public service. Bilingualism in the serving of the public is a core of the mandate, and supporting the minority communities is also a part of it. Notably, I'm responsible for part IV and part V. You talked about part VII, the participation of English- and French-speaking Canadians and promoting equal opportunities for employment and advancement for both official languages communities within the public service.

I am, as President of the Treasury Board, committed to ensuring that the Official Languages Act is implemented fully across the public service. That is my goal. As we said, in the public service, 96% of employees are bilingual. To further respond to your technicality, I'm going to ask Bill Matthews, secretary, to highlight a bit more to fill you in on our leadership and implementation of the policy.

[Bill Matthews]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I would just like to add two small items.

With respect to part VII, initially, after the regulations have been established, the Treasury Board Secretariat will assist the committee and other stakeholders in reviewing them.

Secondly, after the regulations have been adopted, the Treasury Board Secretariat will need to provide departments with guidelines to assist them in implementing the new regulations with respect to positive measures.

I imagine that the time I have to respond is up.

[Guillaume Deschênes-Thériault, Liberal, Madawaska—Restigouche, NB]

I have a little time left, but I would like to take advantage of the minute and a half I have to ask a second question.

At Treasury Board, you’re currently conducting a comprehensive review of expenditures to enhance the efficiency of our public service. Several efforts have been made in this respect in recent months.

I would like you to explain to us the efforts that are being made in this exercise to protect bilingualism within the public service and to ensure full compliance with our obligations under the Official Languages Act.

[Shafqat Ali]

Again, that's a very important question. As I said, bilingualism remains a priority for the Government of Canada. All departments must continue to meet their obligations under the Official Languages Act. The CER would not have any impact on delivery of services in both official languages across federal government institutions.