Madam Speaker, listening to the member for Bonaventure-Îles-de-la-Madeleine, I thought he would continue right to the end of the debate.
Ottawa is the capital of Canada, and yet the rate of assimilation of francophones there is 30 per cent. I think we have to stop denying the problem and take some action to stop the disappearance of francophones outside Quebec.
Before I give you the figures on the assimilation of francophones in Ottawa-Carleton and Vanier, it is important to give you a brief background on Canada's capital and its founding.
The city is located on the Ottawa River, on the eastern side of the border between Ontario and Quebec, some 160 kilometres from Montreal. I believe the word Ottawa comes from the name of a tribe and means perhaps "do business". In 1827, the town, already of some size, was known as Bytown and the City of Hull was known as Wrightstown.
On the last day of 1857, officials in the colonial office announced that the city of Ottawa would be the national capital. Construction of the Parliament buildings began in 1859 and was completed in 1866. The city became the capital of the new Dominion in 1867.
In 1949, the federal government was the principal employer. For some 30 years, the federal public service grew by leaps and bounds. Until quite recently, government services were concentrated essentially in Ottawa, which became a tourist centre making tourism today its second largest industry. Annually, Ottawa welcomes some 2.5 million visitors.
Generally speaking, the Protestant and English community settled in Upper Town while the Catholic and French community settled in Lower Town. It went the same way for religious establishments, that is churches, schools, hospitals, as well as for ethnic groups and even political organizations.
Ottawa, at the end of the 19th century, became the centre of Catholic and Protestant Orangemen activism. Being the Franco-Ontarian capital, it was at the very heart of the language conflict. In 1927, the secret order of Jacques Cartier, to counter the Orangemen's influence and promote advancement of francophones in the civil service, was founded.
There was a time when francophones could stay inside their community in Lower Town, since they had their own French schools, cultural life and economy.
Today, the assimilation rate is the following: the proportion of French speaking residents in Ottawa-Carleton dropped to 16 per cent in 1991, compared with 19 per cent in 1981. In Vanier, a town with a French majority, French speaking residents went down to 52 per cent in 1991 from 63 per cent in 1981. Now, only 47 per cent of Vanier residents still speak French at home. In Lower Town, the francophone stronghold, 60 per cent of residents described French as their mother language in 1981, but there were only 40 per cent of them in 1991.
The fact that the community was decreasing this way led to the closure of five schools: Guigues, Duhamel, Routhier, Brébeuf and Bolton. Sainte-Anne's school had a one year reprieve thanks to the support of my colleague for Québec-Est. In the whole of Ottawa, the proportion of people having French as their mother language dropped from 19 to 16 per cent, while those who still speak French at home account for only 11 per cent.
Ottawa is Canada's capital. This city should reflect the linguistic duality. Given the fact that English is the official working language, the federal government becomes an assimilation agent for francophones and has a direct impact on the assimilation of the francophone communities of Ottawa-Carleton-Vanier.
In a press conference given on October 17, 1995, my colleague, the member for Rimouski-Témiscouata who was the critic of the official opposition for Canadian heritage at that time, criticized the governments of the anglophone provinces and the federal government.
She accused them of enforcing linguistic policies that did nothing to slow down the assimilation of francophones outside Quebec and have led to the erosion of Quebec's cultural specificity.
She concluded by reaffirming the support of the Bloc Quebecois for the francophone and Acadian communities. She also mentioned that her party had made specific commitments with respect to them and approved the proposal of the Partenaires pour la souveraineté advocating the creation of a commission, whose mandate it is to investigate and make recommendations concerning the promotion of rights, as well as the preservation of the culture of francophone and Acadian communities in Canada, and that of the anglophone community in Quebec.
The federal government has the gall to describe Ottawa as a bilingual city based on the size of its francophone population. In 1968, the Canadian government passed the Official Languages Act. The City of Ottawa only became bilingual in 1970.
Even if the Ontario government claimed to offer more and more services in French during the ensuing years, Franco-Ontarians always found them insufficient.
In 1976, a movement called "C'est le temps" came into being. Hundreds of motorists in Ottawa refused to renew their licence plates because the forms were only in English. Twenty-seven francophones spent a few hours behind bars for refusing to pay a fine. The government finally came out with bilingual forms.
In 1986, Ontario passed Bill 8 dealing with services in French. This Act grants francophones an important right. They can receive from the provincial government services in French in the Ottawa region and in 21 other French-speaking regions in Ontario.
I want to congratulate all the francophones outside Quebec who have been fighting for their culture. I admire the tenacity and courage with which they are trying to slow down the ever increasing threat of assimilation.
Unfortunately, reality is different. In spite of the continuous fight put up by francophones in Ottawa and elsewhere, Ottawa, the nation's capital, is far from bilingual. Journalist Michel Vastel wrote an article for L'Actualité entitled ``The capital, bilingual? Only the walls speak French there''.
He described, among other things, the situation of the movie industry in Ottawa, saying that in Vanier, a small francophone municipality of 18,000 people living in the very heart of the capital, there were eight theatres of the Cineplex Odeon chain and they all presented movies in English most of the time. In Gloucester, where one third of the population is French speaking, Famous Players made a commitment to present French movies in order to obtain its licence, but in its six theatres, movies are in English all the time.
Madam Speaker, since you are saying I must conclude, I will just say that clearly the national capital is not bilingual, in spite of what members of the federal government and the Reform Party claim. The Bloc Quebecois wants to counter the growing assimilation of Acadians and francophones outside Quebec. The motion by my colleague, the member for Québec-Est, depicts reality as it is and must be agreed to.