Debates of April 14th, 2021

Laurentian University in Sudbury

[Alexandre Boulerice, NDP, Rosemont—La Petite-Patrie, QC]

Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague for that fundamental question.

Access to services and training is one side of it, but midwives can then provide care and use the expertise they gained at university. The demand for the midwifery program was high because it meets a need in the community. Pregnant women need access to midwifery services. If this program and the training and services it provides are abolished, women are the ones who will suffer because they will not have access to a midwife when they give birth.

[The Assistant Deputy Speaker, NDP, Carol Hughes]

We have time for a brief question.

The hon. member for Bellechasse—Les Etchemins—Lévis.

[Steven Blaney, Conservative, Bellechasse—Les Etchemins—Lévis, QC]

Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague for his speech.

Mr. Boulerice, do you agree with me that even though tonight's emergency debate is about the critical condition and major financial problems that Laurentian University is going through, it is also about the French language being in crisis, as well as the decline of second-language educational institutions and our francophone institutions?

You talked about the Université de Moncton and the University of Alberta's Campus Saint-Jean. Today, we are discussing Laurentian University. Is there not a crisis in the francophone community? The budget is being tabled next week, and action could be taken. However, instead of acting now, Liberals are proposing—

[The Assistant Deputy Speaker, NDP, Carol Hughes]

I am sorry to interrupt the member for Bellechasse—Les Etchemins—Lévis, but I asked him to be brief. I also would like to remind him not to address his colleagues in the House by name. He must address his remarks to the Chair, not to the members directly.

The hon. member for Rosemont—La Petite-Patrie has time for a short answer.

[Steven Blaney, Conservative, Bellechasse—Les Etchemins—Lévis, QC]

I am sorry, Madam Speaker.

[Alexandre Boulerice, NDP, Rosemont—La Petite-Patrie, QC]

Madam Speaker, French is indeed fragile and in decline everywhere in Canada, including in Quebec.

It is unfortunate that French educational institutions are not being given more resources, because there is a demand for education in French. We see it in elementary schools, high schools and universities all over the country. More resources should be devoted to education in French.

[Paul Lefebvre, Liberal, Sudbury, ON]

Madam Speaker, I am the member of Parliament for Sudbury, and I am currently about one kilometre from Laurentian University.

Laurentian is a flagship institution in our community and a major economic and cultural driver. As we know, it is actually a tricultural institution.

My family has a long history with Laurentian. I come from Kapuskasing, but back in my day, Laurentian offered courses at the Université de Hearst. My mother is a graduate of Laurentian. She took distance education courses. For nine years, she worked on the kitchen table to get her degree in social work, which she managed to do.

My kids went to the Touche-à-Tout daycare on the Laurentian campus. They learned to swim in Laurentian's pool. We go cross-country skiing as a family on the university grounds.

I even taught a few advanced taxation classes at Laurentian's school of business, filling in for a colleague who had taken a year's sabbatical. My wife Lynne teaches students in the Faculty of Medicine at both Laurentian University and Lakehead University. She teaches many students.

My family has very close ties to Laurentian, and I am not the only one in this situation. Our entire community is the same way.

The city of Sudbury and Laurentian have a very close and important relationship. I can look at some of the amazing professors we have there, such as Dr. Peter Beckett, who studies regreening, and its international institution on regreening. As the House may know, Sudbury's environment was devastated because of mining practices back in the forties, fifties and sixties, but because of the ingenuity of the professors and students in the department at Laurentian, we were able to regreen and plant 14 million trees in our area alone.

I think of John Gunn and the Vale Living with Lakes Centre. All of the lakes were decimated, but this changed because of his research. There are other world-class researchers doing research right now. I think of David Pearson and new folks like Dr. Nate Basiliko and Nadia Mykytczuk, just to name a few. We know that we have amazing indigenous professors as well, and students who are learning not only their language, but social work and the many other very important programs at Laurentian.

We were blessed to have professors like Gaétan Gervais, Robert Dickson and Fernand Dorais, and graduates like Daniel Aubin. The La Nuit sur l'étang festival, which has been one of our flagship annual events since 1973, was created by a Laurentian student. Furthermore, the Franco-Ontarian flag comes from Laurentian University, in Sudbury. [Technical difficulty—Editor] Gaétan Gervais and his students.

I had the honour of chairing the 2011 Canadian Francophone Games, which were hosted by Laurentian University. The people of Sudbury have a meaningful history with Laurentian University.

In 2015, when I became the MP for Sudbury, one of the first things I did was to contact and reach out to Laurentian's leadership at the time and encourage them to apply for the research grants and capital grants that were about to come online. In the spring of 2016, we announced the first of many large research funds for Laurentian.

Metal earth was a $55-million multi-sector project designed to modernize the research for the deposit of metals. It was right at Laurentian because of the amazing professors it has. Shortly after that, we announced a $27-million investment in a new research centre to replace the cramped 40-year-old science building. The Cliff Fielding centre for research, innovation and engineering was opened three years later, on time and under budget. It is home to Laurentian's family of internationally recognized mining and engineering facilities.

Since then, I have returned to Laurentian regularly to announce more than $10 million in funding for the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council, the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council and CFI. This was for Laurentian researchers and graduate students. We celebrated research week annually at the end of February before the pandemic hit.

Our government has provided funding for research projects on indigenous health, in conjunction with Health Sciences North and Sudbury, and for the study and preservation of indigenous languages. We have provided over $840,000 to Laurentian for research designed to help first nations communities adapt to climate change. We have also provided $1.5 million for Laurentian researchers to work with Wikwemikong Health Centre and Health Sciences North in Sudbury to assess the health of indigenous children across the country. In all, our government has provided more than $10 million in research grants to Laurentian alone.

If we add it all up, over the last five years we have invested over $100 million in Laurentian University capital projects and research projects. This is on top of the annual subsidies the federal government provides through the French languages program and services.

As I said, I have been engaged with Laurentian from day one, since I became a member of Parliament, and in December and January I continued discussions on how I could help. If it is not through the research funding that I just talked about, it is through a new program on indigenous languages that we created. I invited Laurentian to apply to it, but unfortunately they missed the first round. I then went back to them to encourage them to apply for that funding in the second round.

The federal government also transfers money to the province through the official languages in education program, or OLEP. The province then distributes that funding. Laurentian University has received more than $1 million over the past five years. The federal government transfers around $16 million a year to the Government of Ontario.

On February 1, when Laurentian decided to protect itself from creditors through the Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act process, all of the residents of Sudbury and I were shocked and in disbelief. People do not realize this, but one of the largest creditors is the federal government. What has happened is that all the funding I talked about, which was still in Laurentian's coffers, is not there anymore because of the process under the CCAA.

Teachers and students who are conducting world-class research have, since day one, been left without knowing their future or what is going on, and that has certainly left many questions and a lot of people frustrated, to say the least. The effect on the teachers, students and families has been devastating as well. These are professionals. These are students, some graduate students, who have come here to learn from these professionals. The whole process since day one has been extremely difficult.

Monday, April 12 was certainly a dark day for our community, for the Laurentian community and also for the Sudbury community. More than 100 professors and 70 staff members were laid off. These are professionals, experts in their fields. I have close friends who were affected and who lost their jobs. I have friends and family members who are Laurentian University students and who do not know what will happen on May 1 or September 1.

We have talked about the various faculties that were affected. The French-language Faculty of Education was producing our future leaders and our future high school teachers. Without them, there can be no French-language education.

With regard to the environmental studies program, Sudbury is known to be a world-class pillar. It is something I have championed and mentioned on every platform I could get on. When I talk about my community, I say we are leaders in environmental reclamation and that mining and the environment can be together, with the economy at the forefront. That is because of Laurentian University and its ingenuity.

There is also the physics department. We have the SNOLAB, a world-class research facility, which is two kilometres underground. It is not too far from here. A Nobel Peace Prize was won because of the research that was conducted along with Laurentian.

The French midwifery program receives more than 300 applications each year. Only 30 students are admitted. Still, the decision was made to abolish these programs to allow the university to survive.

We are going through a difficult period. We are having a hard time understanding, and we have plenty of questions. Anxiety is high, and that worries me. I am worried about the mental health of the students, the professors and their families. They do not know what will happen. It is taking a long time for communication to flow and, sometimes, very little information is shared. Our community is going through a very difficult time.

The unfortunate announcement was made on Monday, April 12. When I woke up on Tuesday morning, I told my wife that we were going to have to keep fighting. This fight is far from over. A total of 24 programs were abolished, and our education is again being compromised. I never really thought this would happen in my community, in my backyard. I am so proud of the people who are here. Now we must start thinking about the next steps.

During the restructuring period, from February 1 to April 12, I spoke with the Minister of Economic Development and Official Languages to see what we could do. As members have seen, we are speaking to officials from the Province of Ontario.

Universities and colleges are a creation of provincial law. The provinces have more than a leadership role to play. It is their responsibility and it is their jurisdiction. That being said, certainly our government has been steadfast since the beginning and has said that we will be there to work with the provinces to determine and help out as we move forward. The Prime Minister has said the same thing.

As I said, when I woke up Tuesday morning, I said to myself that we have to keep fighting. I got lots of calls from my friends in the community, and we talked about what we can and must do to make sure our community keeps its post-secondary institution. The community I am so proud of is coming together to make sure that young people, like my children, can earn an art degree in our region. The battle is not over. We really have to get the conversation going. This is a process we have to go through. It is frustrating, but at the same time, we have to keep dreaming. We are hopeful that we will keep being able to get an education in the language and program of our choice in our region. This region is very important to the francophone community in Ontario and Canada.

As my colleagues will have noticed, I am the one who got the entire 20-minute opening slot today given the importance of this topic. I thank my NDP colleagues for raising this matter this evening. This is an important subject, and some people think it is a final decision. I, however, think we have to keep the conversation going now that the process has started and seems to be wrapping up. We really need to have a conversation with provincial representatives, which is what we are doing today.

That is why one of the things I did was think of solutions, of what I can do. A month and a half ago, in mid-February, I started coming up with ideas. As mentioned earlier, I used to be the parliamentary secretary to the minister of natural resources and I decided not to run in the next election.

Because I am no longer a parliamentary secretary, I can bring forward my private member's bill, and I have been working on it since mid to late February. We talk about the frustrating aspect of the CCAA, that public institutions like post-secondary institutions can avail themselves of the protection through that process. I believe the reason that law is there is not to protect creditors with respect to public institutions like post-secondary institutions.

That being said, when there is a CCAA proceeding, it is not the role of any politician to insert themselves in an independent judiciary process. I have been asked by my constituents to get involved and stop it. We are not China; we are not Russia. Politicians do not stop an independent judicial process. I know that is frustrating. If we could, we would when we do not agree with it, but that is not how the democracy we live in works.

I will go back to my private member's bill. On Monday, I will be tabling in Routine Proceedings, for the first time as a member of Parliament, amendments to the CCAA to ensure that post-secondary institutions cannot avail themselves of the protection of that act. The reason why I am doing this is very simple.

The carnage and the anxiety I have seen in my community should not be repeated anywhere else across the country. We are living through a stressful time that should not be happening, if the provinces would take their responsibility and r jurisdiction seriously.

We knew the situation Laurentian was in, and it is not the only one. We cannot continue cutting post-secondary funding at the provincial level and expect the federal government to always come in with a cheque. It is responsibility of the provinces. They have a duty. As I said, universities and colleges are creations of provincial laws.

That is why I hope all members of Parliament will support my private member's bill to amend the CCAA to ensure that it is not used to basically restructure public institutions across the country.

We all have to make sure this never happens again. We also have to come up with short- and long-term solutions for Laurentian University. I, personally, will never stop supporting Laurentian, but we certainly need to look at the big picture to see how we can ensure the survival of our programs and make sure that the teaching staff that was laid off has a future in our community.

I think that the federal and provincial governments have a role to play in that. We have to ensure the survival of our institutions across Canada. That is why I am pleased to participate in today's debate. I thank the many residents of Sudbury who have written to me.

For all my constituents in Sudbury who have written to me or who have reached out to me, I have engaged with not only with the administration, I am engaged with the union, I am engaged with the students and I am engaged with the professors. I am engaging in all the discussions to find solutions in these very difficult times.

I wish none of my colleagues in the House of Commons have to go through what we are going through in Sudbury and at Laurentian University.

I look forward to questions from colleagues.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker, for giving me the time to talk about home and of how proud I am, and to say that it is a difficult time for everyone.

[Steven Blaney, Conservative, Bellechasse—Les Etchemins—Lévis, QC]

Mr. Speaker, I extend warm greetings to my colleague from Sudbury. His speech conveyed his commitment to his community and illustrated the challenges that lie ahead.

I want him to know that I graduated from the Université de Sherbrooke, the first private university in Quebec, and I have seen how that institution has contributed to Sherbrooke's development. I certainly understand why he is so concerned about this situation. I look forward to seeing his bill so I can study it and decide where I stand.

In the meantime, we need to address the problems facing our universities. However, there are two challenges here, since we also have to think about our minority institutions. We know how important these institutions are to the vitality of communities, and the member for Sudbury is a living example of this.

I have three questions for him. First, does my colleague recognize that the unique situation of the francophone component of the university requires special attention, and does he recognize the federal government's constitutional responsibilities, particularly under the Official Languages Act and section 23 of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms?

Second, could he talk about his vision with respect to the solutions proposed by the Assemblée de la francophonie de l'Ontario, specifically, the moratorium? Also, does he think there could be a francophone identity at the University of Sudbury?

Lastly, I would like him to comment on the fact that the university's satellite colleges were shut down two weeks ago, and that does not make any sense. I would like him to comment on all of that.

[Paul Lefebvre, Liberal, Sudbury, ON]

Mr. Speaker, that is a big question. I could gladly talk about it for 20 minutes.

Cuts were made at Huntington University in Sudbury and at Thorneloe University . These are historic institutions that play a major role in our community. We must not forget that. The University of Sudbury is a francophone and indigenous university. This is a very important issue.

Obviously, it is vital that we support French-language post-secondary institutions across the country. The federal government has done that. In its new action plan, the government increased the envelope for French-language post-secondary institutions. We are also providing support to the Université de l'Ontario français in Toronto. If we want a bilingual country, we need to ensure that people are graduating from universities and colleges in both languages across the country. Laurentian University plays a very important role in that.

The federal government transferred $16 million to Ontario under the official languages in education program. Laurentian University received about $1 million of that funding. We do not know how the provinces are redistributing that money, but we know that there is an internal mechanism for doing so.

Of course, we are going to continue to support our institutions across the country, which are very important. I will continue to advocate for such support.

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

Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for his speech.

I liked what he said earlier. He asked if we wanted a bilingual country. Recently, there was an unprecedented admission that French is in decline, even though we had been aware of that decline for a long time. Assimilation rates in the francophone and Acadian communities go up year after year. I think that the overall rate of language transfer to English among francophones is around 40%.

We see what is happening with Laurentian University and the University of Alberta's Campus Saint-Jean. There are more and more important signs.

I would like to know what my colleague thinks. Has the decline of French been ignored for too long?

Is a major reform of the Official Languages Act not overdue?

[Paul Lefebvre, Liberal, Sudbury, ON]

Mr. Speaker, I thank the member for his question.

I am a fourth-generation Franco-Ontarian. My children are part of the fifth generation. I did all my schooling in French in Ontario because those who came before me fought so that I could have that right.

Yes, we must continue to fight, because French is an integral part of who we are, not just in French Ontario, but also in Quebec. We must continue to fight. We are part of North America. We have challenges to overcome. However, I am proud of where I come from, and I am proud to fight alongside members of my community. We will continue to fight for the survival of our institutions as we have for 60, 50 or 40 years. Our accomplishments are greater than ever before. However, the cancellation of French-language programs at Laurentian is hard to accept. Over the past 20, 30 or 40 years, we have racked up many victories. This is a setback, but we will keep fighting and moving forward.

[Charlie Angus, NDP, Timmins—James Bay, ON]

Mr. Speaker, I understand the emotion in the voice of my colleague from Sudbury. This is a devastation of things we have built and believed in, not just for Sudbury but across the north. I would like to ask him about a couple of things.

My colleague talked about the amount of money that was put into capital projects recently. That would normally sound great, but when I look at what is under the CCAA, a lot of Laurentian's debts apparently came from a lot of these building projects. Now we see the stripping of the re-greening program, the water rehabilitation, as he talked about, the physics, the work that has been done on the university.

I appreciate the fact that my hon. colleague wants to bring forward a private member's bill, but we need more. This is not just the jurisdiction of the provincial government. The Prime Minister stayed at Laurentian. He held his cabinet meeting at Laurentian. This is a national symbol. We have a national moment here. Were there problems with the management, absolutely. However, what has my colleague asked the Prime Minister to do to help Laurentian so we can preserve this important institution for his children, my children and the children to come?

[Paul Lefebvre, Liberal, Sudbury, ON]

Mr. Speaker, with respect to the first comment on infrastructure and buildings, the building that we actually funded was the Cliff Fielding building, which was fully funded. On the other construction, I am not sure how Laurentian would have financed it, but I know that the Cliff Fielding building is the one we financed, and it was fully funded, with private funding as well.

I will reiterate from my speech that, certainly, we are working with the provinces to find a solution. At the end of the day, it is not the federal government. We have no straight line except to create programs that all universities can apply to. There is no straight line of funding going to universities except through the research councils. That is just the way our jurisdictions are through our Constitution.

That being said, it does not mean that we cannot advocate, and certainly that is what we are doing today. I have talked with the PMO and I have talked with the ministers responsible, as he is doing today, asking them how we can continue. We have been quite clear that we are ready, willing and able to work with the Province of Ontario to help Laurentian University move forward, as well as look at our programming on the francophone side.

As I mentioned, the community is coming together right now, and that includes my friends, relatives and family members. We are coming together to ensure the survival of our programs.

Clearly, the federal government has a role to play. We must have these discussions. These things do not happen overnight. We have done this before, and we will do it again.

[Mark Gerretsen, Liberal, Kingston and the Islands, ON]

Mr. Speaker, the member has been very passionate about this issue all week. Being in the Ontario caucus with him, I have heard him talk about it quite a bit.

I would go back to a previous question from the Bloc member who talked about Saint-Jean and another university in Ontario. We, as this particular government, have been there to support French-language rights in post-secondary education over the last number of years. We reopened Saint-Jean. We worked in Ontario with that post-secondary education.

I wonder if the member would like to hit on those points.

[Paul Lefebvre, Liberal, Sudbury, ON]

Mr. Speaker, certainly, we have been there with historic funding for our francophone institutions across the country. It is still being challenged. At the end of the day, if a provincial government keeps cutting funding for post-secondary institutions, as we have seen in Ontario and Alberta, then, yes, there will be consequences, and that is what we are seeing right now.

Yes, we want to continue supporting. At the end of the day, that is why we need to change the Federal-Provincial Fiscal Arrangements Act to ensure that the provinces will stop doing this. We need to ensure that we have strong institutions, that the funding is there, that we are not cutting the funding and that there is an oversight to ensure that this never happens again anywhere across the country. We need to ensure that our students are not stuck at exam time not knowing where their teachers are because they just lost their job. That cannot happen again. We have to be there for them.

[Steven Blaney, Conservative, Bellechasse—Les Etchemins—Lévis, QC]

Mr. Speaker, I wish to inform you that I will be sharing my time with the hon. member for Portneuf—Jacques-Cartier.

We just heard a moving account from a member whose very important community has seen its university put on the chopping block. We also examined this very troubling situation yesterday at the Standing Committee on Official Languages.

For francophone minorities outside Quebec, linguistic institutions are the pillar, the core around which a minority community can flourish. In North America, where English is the dominant language, it is particularly important to ensure that minorities have their own institutions, even in the most remote areas of Canada. Earlier a member referred to Campus Saint-Jean, which is located in western Canada. Other examples are the Université de Moncton in Atlantic Canada, and Laurentian University, which we are talking about now.

Yesterday I had a chance to ask the Minister of Official Languages questions, and I hope she will take part in tonight's debate. She told us she was looking for solutions for Laurentian University. That was yesterday. Today I hope she has had time to think about the solutions being put forward by, for and with the francophone community, including the member of her own caucus who obviously wants to find a solution.

Yesterday the minister presented her white paper to us. This white paper was not without interest, but there was nothing concrete. For five years now, communities have been calling for the modernization of the Official Languages Act and for concrete action.

I have here a news release from the Fédération des communautés francophones et acadienne du Canada, which joins the Assemblée de la francophonie de l'Ontario in calling on the government to intervene and ensure that the University of Sudbury is able to take over, collect the funding that Laurentian was receiving for French-language university education, and become a university by and for francophones.

There are solutions. My colleague mentioned this earlier this evening. This is a full-frontal attack on an institution that plays an important role in northern Ontario.

What we got from the minister yesterday was, unfortunately, a white paper. A white paper is all well and good, but we want concrete action. This issue needs to be addressed. We also need to address Campus Saint-Jean and the Université de Moncton, but we especially need to address what is going on at Laurentian University. That is what we can see.

We are often asked what the Conservatives think about it, and yet our commitment is clear. Even before the Laurentian University crisis, we had committed to increasing funding for francophone post-secondary education in minority communities and to creating a new funding envelope for that.

Next week, a budget will be tabled. Of course, we are still in a pandemic. In the last few years, we realized that budgets for our institutions—such as the Laurentian University—were not indexed. We asked the minister if she intended to index the funding, but our question remained unanswered.

It is still time to do it and to make sure that funds allocated to the Laurentian University to support post-secondary education in French are used only for that purpose. The AFO is calling for that.

I hope the minister will grant that request from the francophone community, so that funds earmarked for the francophone community in northern Ontario indeed are used to its benefit. Teachers and professors must be allowed to remain active, and important programs in engineering and education must be maintained. We have mentioned in particular the programs for caregivers and for women and men who assist women in giving birth.

As parliamentarians, we have the opportunity tonight to make a statement and to encourage the minister to take concrete action for the Laurentian University community. I want to mention that the government does not need to do that out of charity. Indeed, section 23 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms says that the government must enforce the right to minority-language education.

The mandate letter of the present Minister of Official Languages reminds her of her duty to enhance the vitality of minority language communities, to protect their institutions and to increase bilingualism across the country. She must protect the institutions of the francophone minority and, of course, the institutions of the anglophone minority in Quebec.

We have an emergency on our hands. We do not want a white paper that might be tabled after the next election. What I would have liked the minister to do yesterday was present her bill and the concrete actions she would be taking, but instead she told us that she would be holding further consultations and that some measures would eventually be taken.

While the minister jabbers on, we are seeing real tragedies happening all over the country, and tonight we are focusing on Laurentian University in particular. That is why, in this time of great urgency, the members of the Standing Committee on Official Languages are unanimously recommending that the government live up to its obligation to provide help, as well as support, to teaching institutions nationwide that teach official languages and enhance the vitality of official language minority communities.

Tonight, we can see how badly Sudbury and all of northern Ontario have been shaken by this crisis. The minister has a responsibility and an obligation to act to support Laurentian University. I hope that she is in problem-solving mode tonight and that she will offer solutions as well as evaluate the solutions that are being put forward.

As I was saying, the Assemblée de la francophonie de l'Ontario, or AFO, has proposed some very specific courses of action that I would like to share with the House, since we are having a constructive debate.

The AFO is proposing a one-year moratorium on cutting programs. We cannot necessarily react very quickly to this crisis, so there needs to be some breathing room. It is also important that the $12 million in federal and provincial funding that has already been allocated for university education be transferred as soon as possible so it can be used to retain professors and ensure that the students and community that rely on their francophone institution can maintain this connection. This is a shared responsibility between the federal and provincial governments, of course, and the AFO reminds us that the two governments demonstrated their ability to work together on the issue of Ontario's French-language university. We believe that they could do it again for Laurentian University.

This time, we want the minister to take action. I have a lot of respect for her, but she sometimes goes on partisan rants that can get a bit annoying after awhile. I am thinking here of her references to what she calls Conservative cuts.

I want to remind the minister that the program for official language minority communities was in force until 2015 and was part of the roadmap for official languages proposed by the Conservative government, the second iteration of which was developed by Bernard Lord. When the Liberals took office, the communities no longer had access to that program. They had to wait for the Université de l'Ontario français crisis before the minister finally realized that nothing was being done with the program. That is when the minister reinstated the court challenges program.

The communities do not want us to argue semantics. They want action. The minister has been in office for five years. She has the ability and the responsibility to take action, and that is what we expect in the case of Laurentian University. I believe that the Liberal member is going to speak to her personally in order to ask her to take concrete action.

[Élisabeth Brière, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Economic Development and Official Languages (Economic Development Agency of Canada for the Regions of Quebec)]

Mr. Speaker, I thank my hon. colleague for his speech. I would remind him that the minister is very passionate and active on the ground. She promotes and seeks to protect both of our official languages across Canada and Quebec for all minority language communities. We changed the census questionnaire, we supported the creation of the Université de l'Ontario français and we put together a landmark $2.7-billion action plan to support those communities. On this side of the House, we appoint bilingual judges to the Supreme Court of Canada. The minister has been focused on strengthening the Official Languages Act since day one.

These are meaningful steps that have been taken to promote and protect our two official languages.

We understand how desperate Laurentian University's situation is. The minister reached out quickly to the provincial government, and we will always be there to support it.

That was more of a comment than a question.

[Steven Blaney, Conservative, Bellechasse—Les Etchemins—Lévis, QC]

Mr. Speaker, I agree that there was no question in my colleague from Sherbrooke's comments.

I will remind her that the Standing Committee on Official Languages is currently studying the federal government's pitiful management of the pandemic, especially from a linguistic standpoint. Her government submitted tons of documents in English only to the Standing Committee on Health, in violation of the act. Instead of patting itself on the back, the government should take a long, hard look at how it is violating the Official Languages Act and showing its contempt for communities by not meeting their number one demand, which calls for an actual modernization of the act and not a white paper that is nothing but wishful thinking and accomplishes nothing.

I would invite my colleague to urge her minister to walk the talk.

[Elizabeth May, Green, Saanich—Gulf Islands, BC]

Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for his speech.

My question is about Laurentian University's tricultural mandate. Laurentian is pretty much one of a kind in that it prioritizes French, English and indigenous languages. It gives all three cultures priority.

What does my colleague think of the threat to this tricultural mandate, which is pretty much one of a kind in Canada?

[Steven Blaney, Conservative, Bellechasse—Les Etchemins—Lévis, QC]

Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for asking her question in French. She is absolutely right in saying that Laurentian University operates at the intersection of anglophone and francophone communities as well as indigenous communities, which we have not talked about yet but are an important component.

Here are my thoughts on colleague's question. Both the indigenous community and the francophone minority are at a disadvantage relative to the anglophone community, which is the dominant community, of course. Solution-wise, it would be great to have an institution that focuses on the francophone and indigenous parts of the equation, which would mean overhauling the governance model so we would have an institution created by and for francophone and indigenous communities.

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

Mr. Speaker, I would like to take this opportunity to thank you for granting the NDP's request for an emergency debate.

I think tonight's debate transcends partisanship. As parliamentarians, we have to think about this situation. I listened to the member for Sudbury and sensed a lot of emotion in his speech. This is happening right in his backyard, in his community. As he mentioned, he represents the people of Sudbury. His friends and family members who study or work at Laurentian University do not know what will happen to them.

I thank the Speaker for granting the request by the member from the other opposition party. It is very commendable, and I wanted to highlight that.

My thoughts go out to the member for Sudbury. I was sad to hear during his speech that he will not be running in the next election. I had the chance to work with him on a number of files. I appreciate him greatly. It is unfortunate that we may never run into each other in person again. If he is listening, I send him and his wife my regards.

I want to talk about the importance of emergency debates and their criteria. House of Commons Standing Order 52 states the following regarding requests for leave:

(1) Leave to make a motion for the adjournment of the House for the purpose of discussing a specific and important matter requiring urgent consideration must be asked for after the ordinary daily routine of business as set out in sections (3) and (4) of Standing Order 30 is concluded.

Mr. Speaker, I do not want to belabour the point, but I thank you once again for granting the request for tonight's debate.

I am saddened to see the people of that region having to face a loss and reduction in services in addition to the pandemic. The pillars of the French fact in northern Ontario have been shaken. It is sad because these people should not have to face this on top of a pandemic. I think we have to be aware of that and work together to find solutions.

This is what happens when a government has had no vision for more than five years. The Minister of Official Languages has been in office since 2015. I respect the minister. In fact, I told her so yesterday at the Standing Committee on Official Languages. The fact remains that she is not taking action. She is holding consultations. Earlier, her colleague said the minister was promoting the French fact and the two official languages and that she was very present. However, she is always in reaction mode. The government seems to wait until the house is on fire before taking action.

Recently, in December, a white paper on official languages was proposed to us, but it is just another case of postponing decisions and having to hold more consultations to make sure that whatever is put in place some day will be effective. However, that day might be too late, and new consultations will need to be launched. It is important to act. That white paper is no solution.

I met with people from the Canadian Association of University Teachers, or CAUT. They were speaking out against the insolvency situation that started on February 1. This is the first time a Canadian public university has become insolvent. I heard the comments from the CAUT representatives. They are urging the federal government to work with the Province of Ontario to provide the funding that Laurentian University needs and to help bilingual and francophone post-secondary institutions. Given the vital role that these post-secondary institutions play in meeting Canada's current and future challenges, they recommend that the federal government develop a national strategy with the territories and provinces, in order to provide sufficient stable funding to promote high-quality post-secondary education.

I met with these people on February 17. They filed for bankruptcy protection on February 1. Today is April 14. The Minister of Official Languages may have a plan, and Monday's budget may contain some solutions. However, these people filed for bankruptcy protection on February 1. As a member of Parliament, I met with faculty representatives on February 17. There was no reaction until Monday, April 12. As I said before, the government is waiting for the house to catch fire before it reacts.

Mr. Speaker, last fall, we requested an emergency debate on the decline of the French fact in Quebec, especially in Montreal. We are here tonight to discuss Laurentian University, which is in financial straits. What does tomorrow hold?

I have the privilege of sitting on the Standing Committee on Official Languages. Yesterday, the committee heard from the minister and other stakeholders. The stakeholders mentioned that we could not wait for the Official Languages Act to be updated. If Laurentian University is in trouble today, other Canadian universities will also have problems in the future, be it tomorrow or the next day.

Does the government want to turn its back on post-secondary institutions that teach linguistic minorities? If so, it had better tell us. It is not taking action, and that does not sit well with me. I have to talk about what the Conservative Party of Canada has done. I am not trying to be opportunistic. As soon as our new leader was appointed, we presented a clear plan. In the first 100 days of a Conservative government, we will invest the money to sustain our institutions, defend the French fact and protect official language minority communities.

Today, we have to come together because the problem is bigger than the 28 programs that were cut. It is a society-wide problem. As long as Canada has two official languages, and as long as the people of Portneuf—Jacques-Cartier place their trust in me, I will rise in the House to defend the French fact. We have to roll up our sleeves and find solutions that give Canadian citizens access to education in French.

Our professors and our students have been wronged. Down the line, that will either stifle our French language or ignite it.

In closing, I would like to read a brief excerpt from the preamble to the Official Languages Act:

...to respect the constitutional guarantees of minority language educational rights and to enhance opportunities for all to learn both English and French;

That is what the preamble to the Official Languages Act says, so I think the minister needs to act immediately.

[Scott Duvall, NDP, Hamilton Mountain, ON]

Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague from Timmins—James Bay and my colleague from London—Fanshawe for bringing forward this important emergency debate this evening.

Members who have already spoken have made it clear Laurentian University in Sudbury is of importance. I am concerned about a number of aspects about this. There are important protections of the CCAA that provide safeguards other than relief of debts for assets. There are certain protections for pensions of workers in these situations.

I know some of these protections do not go far enough. In fact, I have a bill before Parliament that would expand those protections. We need a comprehensive solution that maintains some of the protections for workers that exist with the CCAA.

With that being said, I do fear invoking the CCAA in this way for a public university might be a sneaky way to privatize it. If this were done by the board or the administration of the university, I wonder if the province should not have had the opportunity to step in here and protect the state of the university, including ensuring it remains a public university. I wonder if the member would like to speak to some of those points.

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

Mr. Speaker, it is important to be able to see what is happening in the institutions. In the preamble, there are indicators that call on us to react, observe and demand accountability. It is not interference. It is about holding those in charge accountable.

On the other hand, we have a responsibility to ensure that everything is going well. In this case, we could see this problem coming a mile off. Let me be clear: We are going to see more problems at other post-secondary institutions. We have to put mechanisms in place to protect our institutions and, most importantly, to protect the French fact.

[Marie-France Lalonde, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Economic Development and Official Languages (FedDev Ontario and Official Languages)]

Mr. Speaker, I am very pleased to be able to ask my hon. colleague from Portneuf—Jacques-Cartier a question.

I listened to his speech very carefully tonight. He said that, within the first 100 days of forming a Conservative government, his leader would move forward to find solutions for francophones.

I recall that in November 2018, a Progressive Conservative leader made the same promises to francophones in Ontario. What did that leader do? He slashed everything.

I would like to know how anyone can trust the Conservatives when they were in power between 2012 and 2015 and made no investments in francophones, either in Canada or in Ontario.

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

Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank my colleague, with whom I have the privilege of serving on the Standing Committee on Official Languages.

I will provide her with some information. From 2009 to 2015, investments did not increase. From 2015 to 2021, there were no investments in institutions.

My colleague attended yesterday's committee meeting. Representatives from Campus Saint-Jean pointed out that there were no increases during that whole time.

I invite my colleague to do the math with me. From 2009 to 2015 is six years. From 2015 to 2021 is also six years. We cannot change the past, but we can change the future. What we do know is that if the Liberal government remains in power, the French fact will be in trouble.