Official Languages Committee on June 9th, 2026

[Fayçal El-Khoury, Liberal, Laval—Les Îles, QC]

We will see.

[The Chair, Liberal, Yvan Baker]

Thank you, Mr. El-Khoury.

I pass the floor now to Mr. Beaulieu.

Mr. Beaulieu, you have the floor for one minute.

Before we continue, to help our interpreters, I would ask that you try not to speak over each other.

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

Do you think it's fair that the federal government provides substantial funding to your organization and all your affiliated organizations, but gives nothing to groups that defend the French language?

[Eva Ludvig]

I think it's important that we be properly supported, but again, I'm not here to discuss that question at this point. I would be glad to discuss the federally regulated businesses.

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

You say that 94% of anglophones speak French, but Statistics Canada's data on bilingualism indicate that it's 69%. It's been that way for some time. It's gone up by 2% since 2001. However, francophones are increasingly becoming bilingual.

Do you agree that even anglophones should be able to speak French when interacting with Canadians who speak other languages?

[Eva Ludvig]

Absolutely. We send our children to immersion classes.

French immersion was created by the English-speaking community because we understand the importance of it, and we respect that. However, we also want to be respected as English-speaking Quebeckers, the other official language minority community in Canada.

[The Chair, Liberal, Yvan Baker]

Thank you very much.

Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu.

Thank you, Ms. Ludvig.

I will now pass the floor to Monsieur Godin for two minutes.

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

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Before we go any further, I'd like to come back to adjourning debate on the motion I had moved. This adjournment was proposed on May 26. I'd like to reopen the debate on this motion.

I would remind you that, on March 5, 2021, Mélanie Joly, who was Minister of Official Languages at the time, simply issued a press release announcing the creation of an expert panel. The goal was to enable people to work effectively and to provide tools related to the preparation of the bill to modernize the Official Languages Act.

Mélanie Joly had prepared a white paper, but the roles of the ministers were reshuffled, and Ms. Joly unfortunately lost that portfolio. It was Ms. Petitpas Taylor who took over this responsibility. Actually, I may be mistaken about the timeline. It may have been Mr. Boissonnault, but that's not important to the story. What matters is the outcome.

We had a debate on the Standing Committee on Official Languages on May 26, and the Liberals voted against the motion I had moved. It simply asked that the committee receive the results of the expert panel's study. That would have enabled us to give Canadian Heritage the tools to be even more effective. We've never seen the results of this expert panel study.

I am going to read the motion from May 26, in which I requested—

[The Chair, Liberal, Yvan Baker]

Mr. Godin, allow me to interrupt you. Your speaking time, which was two minutes, has expired. I let you speak for your full two minutes. If you want to reopen the debate, then you're moving a dilatory motion.

Do you wish to reopen the debate on the motion?

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

That was the request I made from the very beginning.

[The Chair, Liberal, Yvan Baker]

In that case, I'll stop you there, and we'll go to a vote on the dilatory motion.

The question is this: Do we agree to reopen the debate?

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

Mr. Chair, before we vote, I'd like to speak to the clerk.

I understand that I'm losing my right to speak for now, but if I hadn't stopped speaking, would I have had the right to continue?

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

I have a point of order, Mr. Chair.

[The Chair, Liberal, Yvan Baker]

I'm aware that we have only one minute left in the meeting. We can raise points of order and have debates, and it's up to the committee members to decide how they want to do things.

That said, I didn't know if you wanted to reopen the debate. It wasn't clear to me. I understood that later in your presentation. When I understood that you were moving a dilatory motion, I should have interrupted you. I didn't, because I treated what you were saying as part of your two minutes of speaking time.

If I had cut you off after 30 or 45 seconds, we would have gone to a vote before coming back to the meeting.

Now, the meeting is almost over. I don't know if this is important, but what I propose is that we vote on the dilatory motion. If the motion is defeated, we will return to the meeting, which is almost over.

I would also remind you that you have practically used up your two minutes of speaking time.

Do you have a point of order, then?

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

No. I'm going to respond to what you just said, and it may preempt any points of order from other members. What you said in your explanation was that this might not be important, but, for me, it's very important to have this report.

With that, I open the debate. I wish to move the motion and reopen the debate on this matter. I therefore ask you to initiate the procedure.

[The Chair, Liberal, Yvan Baker]

All right.

Are there any other points of order? If not, we will proceed to the vote.

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

When a motion is moved during a meeting like this, we have the right to present it. Normally, as far as I know, we can't be cut off before we've finished speaking. I've never seen that happen.

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

That's my take on the situation as well.

[The Chair, Liberal, Yvan Baker]

I don't know if this changes anything, since the meeting is over, but as for your point of order—

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

I wasn't the one who raised the point of order.

[The Chair, Liberal, Yvan Baker]

You raised a point of order as well.

Isn't that right?

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

I asked to open the debate on a motion. Mr. Beaulieu raised a point of order. So you're answering me again, but you had already answered me. You can answer me again, I don't have a problem with that, but it was Mr. Beaulieu who asked you the question.

[The Chair, Liberal, Yvan Baker]

It wasn't clear to me. Technically, if you want to move a dilatory motion, you have to use specific language, and I didn't hear it. We can review the transcripts to see if I missed it. I didn't hear that language, which is why I let you speak for two minutes. Honestly, it was really to give you the freedom to express yourself, because I could see that you had something to say.

That is my response to you, Mr. Godin.

That is also my response to you, Mr. Beaulieu.

Therefore, I move that we vote on the dilatory motion.

Does it please the committee to adopt the motion?

(Motion negatived: nays 6; yeas 5 [See Minutes of Proceedings])

[The Chair, Liberal, Yvan Baker]

Are you able to stay for two more minutes?

All right.

Ms. Chenette, did you want to speak for two minutes?

[Madeleine Chenette, Liberal, Thérèse-De Blainville, QC]

May I?