Official Languages Minister Ginette Petitpas Taylor would like to see the bill modernizing the Official Languages Act passed as soon as possible, but she admits that she is “not sure where the government is going” since parliament will be adjourned in less than a month. two weeks.
The Minister spoke to To have to in Toronto on the sidelines of a consultation for the new Action Plan on Official Languages, a cornerstone in the implementation of the new law. According to Ginette Petitpas Taylor, the five-year action plan, which must now be renewed, goes hand in hand with the law. “Implementation of the bill is very important and part of that will be included in the action plan,” she said.
The bill is currently under review by the Standing Committee on Official Languages. At a committee meeting on Monday, the Liberals sought to speed up the adoption process. Opposition members accused the Liberal Party of taking too long to introduce the bill and now not taking the time to study it. The House of Commons will adjourn on June 23.
While the Standing Committee on Official Languages is examining the bill, the Acadian minister is touring the country to consult Francophone communities in order to draft an Action Plan on Official Languages. The consultation in Toronto was not on the schedule published in May by Canadian Heritage. The organizations were contacted on Monday to see if they would like to attend the meeting four days later.
Nine organizations were present at the Toronto consultation, including the University of French Ontario (UOF), the Center francophone de Toronto, the Conseil scolaire Viamonde and FrancoQueer. “Government officials were there to listen to us. It was nice to be able to express ourselves”, testified the general manager of FrancoQueer, Arnaud Baudry, after the meeting.
Priority immigration
There was a lot of talk about Francophone immigration during the meeting. Arnaud Baudry wants better support for Francophone and queer asylum seekers and refugees who set foot in Toronto, while UOF rector Pierre Ouellette reiterated the importance of finding solutions to the problem of permits. studies for African students. The duty revealed in February that the refusal rate of foreign students was much higher in French-speaking establishments than in English-speaking ones.
Although this was what emerged from the roundtable discussions on June 10, immigration was not specifically on the agenda. A virtual meeting on the subject took place on June 2, otherwise, “roughly speaking, the participants share what they want to share with us,” said the Minister. During the last consultations, in 2016, participants criticized the fact that the themes and the participants were selected in advance by Canadian Heritage.
No discussion on the house of la francophonie
There was no question of the Maison de la francophonie in Toronto during the consultations, according to the minister. In October, the chairman of the project’s steering committee, Me. Kip Daechsel, told the To have to that the future of the project was at stake since it had still not obtained funding from Canadian Heritage and that a real estate company ready to sell commercial space was waiting to find out if the house would be its next tenant.
“We recognize that this is an issue and a priority for the community,” said Minister Petitpas Taylor, who said she wanted to continue working with stakeholders on the file. The project of a house of the Francophonie has been in the cards for years, but has never been realized. The Minister of Official Languages believes that there is “nothing that is not achievable” and that she would continue to work on the file.
Me. Kip Daechsel, who did not attend the meeting, said he was encouraged by the Minister’s comments and “more optimistic than ever” about the future of the project because of the work carried out by his team over the past few years. last eight months. The risk that the real estate company will sell the space to another tenant still exists, says the chairman of the steering committee, but the project is still progressing well with ministry officials.
Ready to work with Ontario
One of the stakeholders in the project could possibly be the Ontario Ministry of Francophone Affairs, which said in October that it was monitoring the project closely. We still don’t know if Minister Caroline Mulroney will hold the portfolio of Francophone Affairs in the Ford government’s next cabinet. “I will continue to work with all my provincial counterparts,” said Ginette Petitpas Taylor.
The federal minister says she met with Minister Mulroney a few times, including during the inauguration of the Université de l’Ontario français in November. The cancellation of the university’s project in 2018 led to a monster demonstration in Ottawa, in which Ginette Petitpas Taylor’s predecessor at Official Languages, Mélanie Joly, participated.
Going to Quebec
After her visit to the capital of Ontario, then visits to Regina and Edmonton, Ginette Petitpas Taylor will stop in Quebec in July to meet Anglo-Quebecers. In its latest action plan, the federal government created a special fund of $5.3 million for English-speaking communities in Quebec.
This amount was used to identify needs and find sustainable ways to provide services to Anglophones. Asked if the government expected the Anglophone community to ask for more funding in light of Bill 96 in Quebec, the Minister of Official Languages said only that the government would continue to support Minority Canadians.
This story is supported by the Local Journalism Initiative, funded by the Government of Canada.