Mr. Speaker, it gives me great pleasure to rise in the House today to take part in this very interesting debate.
I would first like to thank the Conservative member who raised the matter. Honestly, I find that a little ironic. Perhaps my colleague simply wants us to talk more about the areas where the Conservatives had little success for the last 10 years. If that actually is his objective, I would take the opportunity to point out to him the consequences that the cuts have had on minority anglophones and francophones over the last 10 years.
First, I will talk about the court challenges program. The first decision of the Conservative government was to eliminate that program to ensure that minorities could not challenge it and that it could impose its will. That was not at all appreciated by the official language minority communities.
Then the Conservative government took issue with the long form census. They said that it was complicated, too expensive, and of no use, although the data could assist certain people, certain communities, or certain provinces. It was a tool that supported minorities, which the government did not consider to be particularly important. Accordingly, that was set aside.
Then the government turned to the Translation Bureau, another place where it could undermine linguistic duality. It decided to make major cuts, claiming that official documents would have very little long-term value. Once again, official language minority communities found themselves in a mess. That did not matter, though, because the Conservative government did not care much about these communities and said this would continue.
I will go on because the cuts to the official language minority communities in the past 10 years were very significant. I am really pleased that my colleague raised the issue.
Now, let us talk about the roadmap. It was the action plan. I think the only solid plan we had was the Dion plan. It was a true action plan. It included measures and data and provided for investments in communities to ensure their success. However, what did the Conservative government do? It held two rounds of negotiations. The first one took place nine years ago. The Conservative government decided not to increase funding and maintain the status quo for four years, when there was was normally an increase of 2% or 3%. In the end, investments in official language minority communities were reduced by 12%. The government said that it was not serious, because that would be renegotiated in five years. However, five years later, the government again decided to maintain the status quo for another five years.
Did the Conservative government have a vision? Yes, to weaken official language minority communities. Maintaining the status quo for another five years meant another 12% decrease in funding. They therefore provided 30% less funding than what was in the roadmap, an instrument to ensure the prosperity, vitality, and sustainability of our communities.
This is the kind of situation we went through for 10 years. However, we finally have a government that is interested in the issue and wants to make a difference for official language minority communities.
Not only do we need to work on a new action plan, on a new roadmap for official languages, but we also have to correct all the mistakes and ill intentions of the past 10 years.
I am very surprised that my colleague gave me an opportunity to speak to this fundamental issue.
The Conservatives decided to attack the Translation Bureau. They believed that it did not take an expert to work at the Translation Bureau—we can translate well enough; that should be all right; that should do it. They told all sorts of stories. For the House and for the country, there is no more important instrument than the Translation Bureau. We must ensure that official documents are translated perfectly.
As my colleague said earlier, countries from around the world come here to study the effectiveness of the Translation Bureau. What did the Conservatives do? They made cuts. They claimed that expertise was not necessary here or for their party. Instead of developing expertise, they made cuts—one cut, two cuts, 100 cuts. Not only will there be fewer people to do the work, but it was decided to give less work to the experts and to make more cuts. What will we do? We will send documents to firms with less subject matter expertise, and these firms will use terminology that we have never heard of. We will almost need to hire a firm to understand the terminology used by the other firm. That is what it will take. They do not believe that quality is essential. How can we be a centre of excellence if we do not have excellent expertise? It is both astounding and discouraging.
The Portage machine translation software was not about cuts. It was just a strategy to ensure that official language minority communities came out the losers once again. The previous government decided to once again make these communities the losers by creating a software called Portage, thanks to which translators would no longer be needed. Public servants could simply use the software application. They would enter the information they wanted translated into the software and hope that it produced an excellent translation.
Not one, not two, but hundreds of witnesses had to come and say that this was not a translation tool but a comprehension tool. It is shocking to see what a government that is not interested in and has no desire to help official language minority communities can do. If it is not a priority of that government, it gets ignored, and these communities often get ignored.
The Conservatives do not place a lot of importance on expertise. I would like to draw a little analogy. A few weeks ago, the Pittsburgh Penguins won the Stanley Cup. Congratulations Penguins, and congratulations to the best hockey player in the world, who is, of course, from Nova Scotia: Sidney Crosby. Even Don Cherry, who did not really like him because he is from eastern Canada, is now starting to love him because he is the best, but I digress. Did the Penguins go out and get members of their families or fans to play on their team so that they could win the Stanley Cup? No, they did not. They went and got experts, hockey players who could deliver the goods. That is exactly what we have done for the Translation Bureau. The previous government did not seek out experts, but the current government, the Liberal government did. Why? To make sure that we have the best translations, the best product. Translation is much like our Stanley Cup.
Now, let us talk about how we are going to ensure that our plan for translation is followed. Once again, as a result of the recommendations of witnesses and the great work of the Standing Committee on Official Languages, we are going to be able to find a way to do that.
I am beginning to lose my voice, but that is okay. Losing one's voice is not a problem when telling great stories about our government and bad stories about—