Official Languages committee  Mr. Chairman, may I conclude with a comment on the QCGN? I wouldn't want to put this question to everyone here: Who has ever heard of QCGN before this morning? I wouldn't want to ask. Peter mentioned it. It's a $3 million-initiative. We are reorganizing everything. In fact, we have just hired a new director general.

Official Languages committee  We prefer older people who go to Florida but stay only two or three months and come back to Quebec for the rest of the year. That's important, because they are there when our activities take place. We organized a social activity a couple of weeks ago to celebrate a series of events including the departure of Karen Macdonald, owner of the Quebec Chronicle-Telegraph, an English newspaper.

Official Languages committee  Yes, to some extent. I completely agree with their willingness, with their plans to go look elsewhere and go study elsewhere. I hope that, when they leave, they do so with a desire to return. But at the moment, they leave to go—they are not thinking about coming back. Perhaps if we could get them to think about it, some of them might come back.

Official Languages committee  That's right. To my mind, that is an important consideration.

Official Languages committee  You're referring to our organization in Quebec City?

Official Languages committee  The VEQ has been around for 25 years. To some extent, it is now taken for granted. I was a member of the board from 1983 to 1986, and I have now been back for three or four years. I am the president at the moment. We have to meet with people and to find out exactly what they expect of us.

Official Languages committee  I do not know whether Peter can talk about the activities of the Quebec Community Groups Network.

Official Languages committee  We always come back to the same thing: the vitality of the community. It is very important for francophones and mainly for anglophones, in our region. We tend to look to young people. Everyone knows that.

Official Languages committee  Exactly. But the trouble when you say that is you don't want to make it look as though you have to take it from what's being done outside Quebec.

Official Languages committee  My experience as president of VEQ, as I said before, is mainly through one ministry, PCH, or Canadian Heritage. As our president, Martin Murphy, in Montreal keeps saying at all of our meetings, the reality is that through Canadian Heritage you're looking at an envelope of about $33 million for the support of minority language communities.

Official Languages committee  Communication. There are 15,000 anglophones living in a region with a population of 700,000. We have a weekly anglophone newspaper called The Quebec Chronicle-Telegraph, which is very helpful to the community. The problem is reaching people. When individuals, particularly anglophones, arrive in the Quebec City region, we need to know that they are there and we need to let them know that we have something to offer them that could be helpful.

Official Languages committee  I have a quick comment and then I'll let Peter answer. The grid, as you'll see at the very bottom in small letters, was actually done by Russ Kueber, who is a member of CHSSN, the Jim Carter group. That's how much we depend on him, and he is an expert in community development.

Official Languages committee  Second, you're absolutely right about networking with an organization like the QCGN. People come from Gaspé, from the Maggies, from the lower north shore. We have three meetings a year for two or three days; they're serious meetings. It's expensive to bring all those people together, but for me the value of networking--although there's a lot more to the meetings than that--is very important.

Official Languages committee  I teach in a public, English-language Cegep in Quebec City that has 1,000 students. It is St. Lawrence Campus of Champlain College, which is located in Lennoxville as well. The vast majority of our students are francophones who come to do their Cegep in French; that is the choice they make.

Official Languages committee  Good morning. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. My name is Robert Donnely. I'm president of the Voice of English-Speaking Québec, which is based in Quebec City. This morning you had some organizations presenting some ideas. In the second half this morning you're going to get a presentation from me, representing one of the 25 organizations within the QCGN, the Quebec Community Groups Network.