Evidence of meeting #24 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 draft.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Liberal
Guillaume Deschênes-Thériault Liberal Madawaska—Restigouche, NB
Thank you.
Mr. Poliquin and Mr. Rémillard, as mentioned, the guiding principle of the modernized version of the act is progress toward substantive equality. How does that play out? What does progress towards substantive equality mean to you? Should this objective be defined? What's your understanding of progress toward substantive equality?
Executive Director , Fédération des associations de juristes d'expression française de common law inc.
I can answer that, and I'm sure Mr. Poliquin can chime in too.
In part, progress is what's measurable. For example, is French being used more? I think that's one of the objectives. Has the francophone population grown? Has French become a more common public language? These things can be quantified, at least in part. There may be a qualitative element as well, but it's largely quantitative. That's where performance indicators or some kind of indicator will be involved. As to where it should be in the regulations or whether it should be better defined, I'm not sure, but, in my opinion, performance indicators will largely define whether or not there has been progress.
I don't know if I've answered your question.
Liberal
Guillaume Deschênes-Thériault Liberal Madawaska—Restigouche, NB
That's fine, thank you.
Mr. Poliquin, I'd like to hear your comments on this.
Legal Advisor, Fédération culturelle canadienne-française
I would reiterate what we heard from Professor Léger, who testified before us. Substantive equality is equality of outcomes, not equality of treatment. To achieve substantive equality, some communities, particularly francophone minority communities, will require different treatment that meets their own needs. The act already mentions that. To achieve substantive equality, we'll have to take into account the specific needs of all the different communities and their diverse character. That's already in the act.
To do that—and this ties in to what Mr. Rémillard was saying—we need to establish performance indicators to assess the specific needs of each community. The Fédération des communautés francophones et acadienne suggests evaluating the vitality of institutions, the use of French and the visibility of French, among other recommendations. That's all in the work done by Ms. Cardinal, which Ms. Henrie‑Cadieux mentioned earlier.
Liberal
Guillaume Deschênes-Thériault Liberal Madawaska—Restigouche, NB
Thank you.
Ms. Juneau, in the arts and culture sector, what does robust implementation of part VII the act look like in concrete terms?
Do you have any examples of issues with federal arts and culture policies or programs that could be problematic right now and that a more robust implementation of part VII could ease, particularly with help from regulations like the ones under consideration?
Chair, Fédération culturelle canadienne-française
I think culture is no exception in that sense. The people drafting part VII regulations should really take the time to define what positive measures and dialogue and consultation activities are, and when to use one rather than the other. Oversight and accountability mechanisms should also be defined. I think that, if these elements are clear, then we, the community, will be able to use these tools to initiate dialogues, make our needs known and ask for the accommodations we need to move towards the substantive equality we are seeking.
In that sense, I think the arts and culture sector is no exception. We need the same guidelines, the same processes, the same criteria and the same definitions to apply in our dealings with partners, including institutions in the arts and culture space and the Department of Immigration, because we also have projects in the arts and culture sector that can contribute to that. Again, I would point to the recommendations we made regarding the regulations as a whole, which will serve us well if we put them into practice.
Liberal
Guillaume Deschênes-Thériault Liberal Madawaska—Restigouche, NB
I would like to take this opportunity to say I hope you enjoy the first-ever pan-Canadian summit on artistic education, which the Fédération culturelle canadienne-française is hosting this week in Ottawa. I look forward to hearing about the outcomes of your summit.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Yvan Baker
Thank you, Mr. Deschênes‑Thériault.
On behalf of my colleagues and members of Parliament, I would like to thank all the witnesses for being with us and for their testimony.
Our next meeting will be on Thursday. In the first hour, we're going to hear from witnesses on the part VII regulations. In the second hour, we'll cover two topics. First, we'll consider the draft report on administrative monetary penalties. The clerk will circulate the second version of that right after this meeting. In the second part of Thursday's meeting, we'll look at drafting instructions for the report on part VII.
Lucie, our analyst, will probably send questions for you to look at to guide our discussion tomorrow. Is that okay?
Mr. Godin, you have the floor.
Conservative
Joël Godin Conservative Portneuf—Jacques-Cartier, QC
Would it be possible to have an answer to the question I asked at the beginning of the meeting by Thursday?
Have you put in the request?
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Yvan Baker
I have put in the request, but I don't know if we'll get an answer or not. We'll certainly do our best.
Thanks, everyone.
The meeting is adjourned.