Official Languages committee  I would like to tell the committee that there is a great program in Quebec called “Place aux jeunes”. It is a provincial program that encourages young people to go back to their communities. Rachel Garber, the Director General of the Townshippers Association, managed to implement

Official Languages committee  Maybe Bob could.

Official Languages committee  I would like to refer you to an article that came up at Metropolis, a conference that happened on the weekend. It was a document on “linguicism” by Richard Bourhis, a noted researcher who does a lot of international work and worked with the English-speaking community, on some of

Official Languages committee  The question was on the devolution of federal powers to the province. In Quebec, we have certainly experienced this devolution visibly in two important areas, immigration and training.

Official Languages committee  Yes, training. I don't think I want to talk about immigration because it's a complicated piece of work for a two-minute answer. But let me tell you about the impact of employment. Right now when an English-speaking person--even though they're bilingual--is looking for a job or f

Official Languages committee  From the perspective of youth and other questions, probably Nicola can talk to it a bit more. The renewal of the English-speaking community is a huge challenge. Because we are not a host society anymore for the attraction of new immigrants, which we understand, that puts enormous

Official Languages committee  In Quebec, we are between a rock and a hard place with regard to such decentralization. For most of our groups, including our own organization, the envelope for Quebec flows through the Quebec regional office. If you invite us back, we will tell you about our ability to take acti

Official Languages committee  I would like to stress one point. The English-speaking community in Quebec is still coming out of many years of demobilization. Any delay in keeping up the momentum has a huge impact on the overall momentum of the English-speaking community. Each one of the 32 organizations--an

Official Languages committee  I will interpret, for myself, Mr. Chong's comments. We believe the Government of Canada has an obligation, a commitment to official language minority communities in Canada, whether they be francophones outside Quebec or anglophones in Quebec. There are priorities and it's a core

Official Languages committee  That is the consideration. I think that any government in power would applaud some of the work that at least I know is being done in the English-speaking community about diversifying the funding to try to include the corporate and para-public sector. For example, many of you have

Official Languages committee  That is in smaller organizations.

Official Languages committee  That's absolutely true. So I think we have to separate this whole thing out into the philosophical idea that the Government of Canada has an obligation, and find logistical, practical ways of helping us deliver. I'm hoping that Mr. Chong understood our plea--and all of you this m

Official Languages committee  That's a big question. We think, from studying the report on the old blue-ribbon panel and the Government of Canada's action plan to reform the administration of grants and contributions programs, that a lot of thinking has been done on making the system more responsive. I think

Official Languages committee  Projects must be submitted in October. As for programming, it's November 16.

Official Languages committee  I cannot say it happened on a regular basis in the last 10 years, but in the last 2, 3 or 4 years, I don't remember people having received funding for projects before August or September. They did, however, receive confirmation. I believe that Mr.dePoe received his confirmation i