Evidence of meeting #39 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 alberta.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Yvan Baker
Yes. You can do that.
If we still have a quorum, I'm going to give the floor to Ms. Chenette for two minutes.
Conservative
Joël Godin Conservative Portneuf—Jacques-Cartier, QC
There will no longer be a quorum, because we're leaving.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Yvan Baker
It's up to you, but I'm giving her the floor. She has the right to speak. If there's no quorum, I…
Liberal
Madeleine Chenette Liberal Thérèse-De Blainville, QC
Thank you, Ms. Ludvig and Ms. Sandilands.
My question, listening to you, is this. Clearly, when you're saying equal rules for the English-French duality, what we apply in the rest of Canada is to know where there are territories with a francophone capacity that we want to keep. Therefore, we're not saying the services are going to need to be delivered in French only. It needs to include French, knowing that the English is there. It's the bilingualism that we're looking for.
To clarify, do you want to have the same exercise done in Quebec to determine where there is a critical mass of anglophones and to deliver bilingualism there, which is more Quebec? I just want to clarify your ask.
President, TALQ
Our ask here was to make sure that there's monitoring and evaluation to make sure that we don't lose services and opportunities for employment. That's because the act does not include the English-speaking community of Quebec, and—
Liberal
Madeleine Chenette Liberal Thérèse-De Blainville, QC
I hear you, but I want to look at the practicality of it.
In order to do that, to monitor.... In the rest of Canada, we're going to be monitoring where the francophone community is. Therefore, in order to do that in Quebec, it would mean that we would monitor the anglophone community and see where they need to have access to English services from a federal—
President, TALQ
That falls under the Official Languages Act and the responsibilities of Canadian Heritage—
President, TALQ
That's why we said it's very important that part VII, which is the protection of minority language communities.... It's important that it be amended to make sure that the English-speaking community's vitality is evaluated and monitored with this new act.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Yvan Baker
Thank you, Ms. Ludvig.
Thank you, Madame Chenette.
Ms. Ludvig and Ms. Sandilands, thank you very much for being here. We appreciate your work and we appreciate your coming to our committee. I think we've learned a lot from your testimony.
Colleagues, we're adjourning.