Official Languages Committee on March 12th, 2026

[The Chair, Liberal, Yvan Baker]

Ms. Mingarelli, you have 50 seconds left.

[Giovanna Mingarelli, Liberal, Prescott—Russell—Cumberland, ON]

Should the regulations provide incentives to support creating new spaces in immersion programs in underserved regions?

[The Chair, Liberal, Yvan Baker]

I made a mistake. You had one minute and 50 seconds left.

[Giovanna Mingarelli, Liberal, Prescott—Russell—Cumberland, ON]

That's fantastic. Thank you.

[Derrek Bentley]

As I said, it would be interesting to include positive measures, such as setting targets, but I'm not sure that should be right in the regulations. We think it would be good to require that, but we're not sure the regulations are necessarily the place to put something specific like that.

That said, it's important to have targets and expectations for real-world impacts.

We're not lawyers, and we're not sure if that kind of thing can be included in the regulations.

[Ahdithya Rajan P. Visweswaran]

I'd like to add something.

The way the regulation is written right now, we can't even talk about linguistic duality, French immersion schools or how the majority is engaged in official languages. The regulation has this asymmetry toward the protection of all OLM communities. Is the regulation a place for that? We can't really answer that. As it's currently written, it is leaning toward OLMC protection, so it probably wouldn't even fit.

[The Chair, Liberal, Yvan Baker]

You have 30 seconds.

[Giovanna Mingarelli, Liberal, Prescott—Russell—Cumberland, ON]

Thank you so much for your response.

My last question is for the witnesses from Droits collectifs Québec.

How do you think we can strike a balance between federal language rights and Quebec's Charter of the French Language?

[The Chair, Liberal, Yvan Baker]

I would ask you to keep your answer brief, as you have 10 seconds left.

[François Côté]

Those are two separate questions.

It's the federal government's job to ensure compliance with its obligations under the Official Languages Act and to stop treating French in Quebec as undeserving of protection and funding. Let's not forget that French is in a minority situation within the Canadian federation.

[The Chair, Liberal, Yvan Baker]

Thank you, Ms. Mingarelli.

I will now give the floor to Mr. Beaulieu for six minutes.

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

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

My first question is for the witnesses from Droits collectifs Québec.

You said that there are sections in the new Official Languages Act that prescribe asymmetrical measures in favour of French in Quebec.

Can you tell us a bit more about those sections?

[François Côté]

Let's keep in mind that the Official Languages Act, following the amendments that were announced to the preamble and section 2, in particular, recognizes that French is in a minority situation in every Canadian province including Quebec.

The French language is dominant at the local level, which is entirely consistent with the principles established in the Ballantyne decision by the Human Rights Committee of the United Nations. However, at the federation level, Canada as a whole is the unit of measurement, and Quebec is indeed a minority on that scale.

In a way, the amendments to the Official Languages Act are, at least in theory, a consistent application of this finding. It's clear that Quebec, the French language and francophones in Quebec are indeed a linguistic minority in a Canada-wide context and must be treated as such. At the very least, that's the theory underpinning the act, and that's what is unfortunately lacking in the draft regulations. The act and the attendant draft regulations refer to the federal government's obligation to adopt positive measures to protect and promote French in all provinces, including Quebec.

Let me give you my legal opinion. In accordance with the statutory obligations and commitments set out in the Official Languages Act after section 41 was amended, the federal government is obligated to adopt measures that will have a concrete impact and to help increase the demographic weight of French in Quebec. It must also provide funding for culture, health, justice and education. Unfortunately, funding is still sorely lacking, and it is conspicuously absent from the proposed regulations.

If we're talking about asymmetrical federalism, that's one way of looking at it. We could also talk about the federal government's attempt at internal consistency in recognizing that French is in jeopardy across Canada, including in Quebec. It would be logical and legitimate to expect the government to act in a manner consistent with what it says.

[Étienne-Alexis Boucher]

I would just like to add to what my colleague said, sir.

After extensive research and access to information requests, it appears that there has been only one agreement between Quebec and Ottawa with respect to the Action Plan for Official Languages 2023‑2028. The purpose of this plan is to implement legislative provisions of the Official Languages Act.

This agreement concerns the anglophone minority in Quebec. Of course, we know that English speakers in Quebec are in a minority situation. However, I would refer again to the Ballantyne case. Indeed, under international law, an anglophone is considered to be part of the majority language group wherever they are in Canada, be it Moncton, Vancouver, Montreal or Toronto.

Unfortunately, the government did not act on this. Perhaps intergovernmental negotiations are to blame. Nothing would have prevented Canadian Heritage, for example, from setting up a program for civil society organizations that specialize in implementing initiatives to promote the French language, organizations like the Société nationale des Québécoises et des Québécois d'Abitibi‑Témiscamingue et du Nord‑du‑Québec.

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

It's really strange because there are very specific sections stating that there must be measures for French in Quebec, but we haven't seen anything at all.

Consultations were held in connection with the Action Plan for Official Languages 2023‑2028. I believe you participated, but only after considerable effort on your part.

Please tell us about your experience.

[Étienne-Alexis Boucher]

During those consultations, the only groups the minister reached out to at the time were groups representing English-speaking Quebeckers. I'll reiterate that these people have language rights. I'm not disputing that. However, it is clear that, during the consultations, the Canadian government never demonstrated that it understood its obligations, regulatory or otherwise, which are to adopt meaningful policies that support French across Canada, including in Quebec, so it wasn't a very pleasant experience.

[The Chair, Liberal, Yvan Baker]

You have 50 seconds left.

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

The act also prescribes consultations for the draft regulations.

Were you or representatives of groups that defend French or promote French in Quebec asked to take part in the consultations?

[François Côté]

Not as far as I know.

We get the impression that Quebec's francophone civil society simply wasn't invited to take part in the consultations. Both the act and the draft regulations fail to provide for mechanisms to identify stakeholders and their representation, which is problematic when it comes to reaching out to Quebec civil society and francophones in Quebec.

[The Chair, Liberal, Yvan Baker]

Thank you.

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

Thank you. I'll come back to that.

[The Chair, Liberal, Yvan Baker]

Colleagues, we're moving into the second round. Given that we have about 17 minutes left for this panel, I have to shorten the second round. The Conservatives and the Liberals will have three minutes per member. Mr. Beaulieu will have a minute and a half for his questions.

Mr. Bélanger, you have the floor for three minutes.

[Jim Belanger, Conservative, Sudbury East—Manitoulin—Nickel Belt, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Ms. Chouinard, there have been many discussions about the importance of consulting stakeholders while developing these regulations.

In your opinion, was the consultation process rigorous enough?

Do you feel that the voices of francophone minority communities were heard in a meaningful way?

[Stéphanie Chouinard]

The consultation process did indeed take place, but the opinions of those communities were not taken into account.

I read several of the Treasury Board submissions that were sent in, and I would say that there were solutions. Treasury Board had them right there. I believe that a number of very interesting solutions were ignored and are not in the draft regulations.

[Jim Belanger, Conservative, Sudbury East—Manitoulin—Nickel Belt, ON]

Do we have enough statistics and data for federal institutions to identify concrete, measurable targets?