44th Parl. 1st Sess.
April 1, 2022 10:00AM
Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague, the Minister of Official Languages. I appreciate her openness, her intention and her drive.
Lately, situations have come up where we have felt that the federal government did not show official languages, especially French, the proper respect, and I got the impression that the minister was isolated and alone.
Can she confirm that she will be able to persuade her cabinet colleagues to move Bill C‑13 forward and give the Official Languages Act more teeth than its definition suggests? I think this bill is pretty wimpy. I would like it to pack much more of a punch.
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Madam Speaker, I want to thank my hon. colleague for his question and for his work on the Standing Committee on Official Languages.
I want to be perfectly clear. Bill C-13 does have real teeth. Last year, the former minister of official languages introduced Bill C-32. In my conversations with stakeholders and colleagues, I heard suggestions on how certain aspects of the bill could be improved, and that is exactly what we have done.
The bill we have introduced, Bill C-13, does have real teeth. The Commissioner of Official Languages will have more tools to do his job. Francophones will be given the choice to work and be served in French in businesses under federal jurisdiction.
I look forward to working with my counterparts to ensure that the bill ultimately receives royal assent.
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Madam Speaker, I thank the member for the question.
Today we are talking about a bill. We are talking about the terms we want to improve within the Official Languages Act, which we have had for 50 years. One of the services we provide is the translation of documents in French and English, as well as interpretation.
When we put the rules in place, we want to be sure that the provinces and territories receive the necessary documents in both official languages. We want to be sure we can represent both our official languages in our agreements.
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Madam Speaker, since 2015, the government has made significant investments, particularly in the action plan for official languages, which was implemented in 2017. An additional $500 million in funding was allocated to provide civil society with the resources it needs to serve communities across the country, whether in the areas of immigration, health or post-secondary education.
I think that we are already doing our part. We know that COVID-19 has been very difficult for the organizations, and we will continue to invest in our official languages communities.
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Madam Speaker, I thank the president of the Treasury Board for her intervention today and for her answer to my colleague for Sarnia—Lambton.
One of the things I noticed is that one of the changes appears to be that there might be a fine instigated here. It seems we are seeing a lot of ministers now giving their press conferences in only one language. Will that mean that ministers will now be fined for basically not responding in both languages?
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Madam Speaker, when government members do their presentations and communications to Canadians, they are always offered in both official languages. We will continue to do that with announcements and with all of the communications on the measures that the government is bringing forward.
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Madam Speaker, I would like to thank my hon. colleague for his remarks. I would also like to thank him for his work on the Standing Committee on Official Languages.
I would first like to point out that we have heard a lot of people across Canada say that the work done on official languages is non-partisan, and I also want to say that I appreciate my colleague's comments. Today is an important debate for our government. We will have another next Thursday when the budget is presented.
We are talking about measures to improve the bill, and I would like to know if my colleague would support a motion for a pre-study by the Standing Committee on Official Languages. It is important to invite community organizations and witnesses to discuss the issue and find ways of improving Bill C-13.
Will my colleague support a motion proposing a pre-study of Bill C‑13 by the Standing Committee on Official Languages?
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Madam Speaker, I would like to thank my colleague from Portneuf—Jacques-Cartier. I hope to work with him at the Standing Committee on Official Languages to improve Bill C-13.
We have heard extensively about problems with francophone immigration and the fact that the government's failure to meet the targets is contributing to the decline of the French language and the demographic weight of francophones. These targets were set in 2003, and they have never been met, because the Liberal and Conservative governments did not make it a priority.
Does my colleague agree that these clear principles should be enshrined in law so that future governments work harder to allow francophones to catch up demographically?
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Madam Speaker, I would like to thank my colleague from Churchill—Keewatinook Aski, with whom I am privileged to sit on the Standing Committee on Official Languages.
This week, the committee was told that the francophone immigration target should be increased, because it is now only 4.4%. This is therefore a very important measure to include in Bill C‑13. Instead of having a short paragraph on immigration, we need to define it more precisely.
I have said this to my colleague, and I am repeating it to the House of Commons: I am reaching out, and I want to work with her, the Bloc Québécois and the party in power to improve this bill and make it a historic act that will be effective for the next 50 years.
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Madam Speaker, I am going to quickly piggyback on my colleague's question about a clause that would allow the Governor in Council to decide whether agreements with provinces, territories and even other states will be translated, into French or any other language.
We know that these agreements are typically written in English, with the exception of agreements with Quebec. Otherwise, the translation can be provided on request. Moreover, in the English version of the bill, there is a major error as the sentence is actually incomplete.
My question is this: How can we talk about equality when not everything is automatically translated into both languages?
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Madam Speaker, Canadian are proud of both official languages, English and French. They must be protected and integrated into federal-provincial agreements. If the federal government does not enforce the Official Languages Act, who will?
Furthermore, the decline of French in Canada must stop now. Will the Minister of Official Languages commit to amending Bill C-13 to include language clauses, among other things?
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Madam Speaker, I thank the member for his question and for his work on official languages.
Our government understands the importance of the substantive equality of both official languages. This means strengthening the positive measures in the bill as well as co-operation with our partners and the provinces.
We will consider all the implications related to official languages. We will study the amendments and work with the opposition and with communities across the country on the bill.
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Mr. Speaker, we have a real problem with the enforcement of the Official Languages Act in this country. We had the Commissioner of Official Languages come to committee. He said that although there was a huge increase in the number of complaints about people not complying with the act, there is not much he can do about it. He reports to Treasury Board but does not have to update the Minister of Official Languages.
Does the member believe this has been adequately fixed in the bill?
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Mr. Speaker, I would say no because, number one, that responsibility will still be shared between Canadian Heritage and the Treasury Board, and number two, as Charles Castonguay said, it is clear that the Official Languages Act is a real fiasco.
It has been reported that 40% of francophones at federal institutions say they are not comfortable working in French.
The Standing Committee on Official Languages heard from the vice-president of the federal public service union. He told us that he felt that there is systemic discrimination in favour of English, even in Quebec. English is always assumed to be the first language, while French is a language of translation.
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Mr. Speaker, I commend my colleague from La Pointe-de-l'Île, and I hope we will be able to work together on improving Bill C-13 at the Standing Committee on Official Languages.
We agree that, when developing official languages policies, our first duty is to better protect the French language and slow its decline in—
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Yes, of course, Mr. Speaker, as long as it does not involve any interference in Quebec's jurisdictions.
However, I do not think that is the case. We have had many interesting discussion with representatives from the Fédération des communautés francophones et acadienne, who also seem to agree that we need a differentiated approach.
In fact, the Bloc Québécois believes that the Official Languages Act should apply to Quebec as little as possible because Quebec should be in charge of its own language policy.
We know that 91% of francophones in Canada live in Quebec. If we continue to weaken French in Quebec, it will also become increasingly difficult for francophone and Acadian communities to keep French alive.
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Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague from Louis-Saint-Laurent for his question. I see this as a very important issue. Things are relatively quiet now, but I do not think that Quebeckers will let their language disappear. Sooner or later a movement will form. The Official Languages Act is currently one of the main factors behind the anglicization of Quebec.
As my colleague pointed out, Quebec is inundated with English. It is on TV, on the radio; we hear English stations playing English music. On top of that, the Official Languages Act only supports the English language in Quebec. This means that all of the so-called positive measures help only the English language and push for provincial and municipal services to be offered in English. English is used in unions, community organizations and in all kinds of areas that fall under Quebec's jurisdiction.
If we do not stop the anglicization of Quebec, it will become a crisis.
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Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the member for her incredible work on the official languages committee.
The member spoke about the importance of the Treasury Board being in charge. I am a bit concerned about that, because the Treasury Board has a lot of different priorities. I am concerned that maybe official languages will fall to the bottom of what it is doing.
Would it not be better for the Minister of Canadian Heritage to have the power to act?
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Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for her comments and her question.
We think that should be Treasury Board's job because its primary responsibility is to ensure that measures applicable to the federal government are upheld by the entire public service and the federal government.
That is consistent with recommendations from the Commissioner of Official Languages and many other people who submitted comments on the modernization of the Official Languages Act.
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Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for her French and for the work she is doing as a francophile for francophone communities across Canada and in Manitoba.
My colleague and I have fathers with similar backgrounds. Her father was a member of the Manitoba legislature, and my father was here in the House when the Official Languages Act was enacted in 1969.
We are currently studying Bill C‑13 at second reading, and we have heard several opposition members offer up suggestions. Would my colleague be in favour of a motion asking the Standing Committee on Official Languages to conduct a pre-study of the bill before it is passed at second reading and referred to the committee?
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