Ottawa, March 21, 2005
Notes for an Appearance Before the Senate
Standing Committee on Official Languages
Dr. Dyane Adam - Commissioner of Official Languages
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Mr. Chair, Honourable Senators,
Thank you for having invited me to appear in the course of your review of education within Francophone minority communities. I am delighted by the committee’s effective follow-up on this important matter.
Introduction
Outside of the home, the main living space for Francophones is the school, where a sense of belonging develops and values are built.
One goal of the Action Plan for Official Languages is to implement measures that will promote the establishment of a comprehensive educational system and a full Francophone educational administration in minority communities.
Such a system must be tailored to community needs, rather than simply being modelled on the majority system. We seek to create an educational continuum from early childhood to the post-secondary period, which will also include continuing education and adult training programs.
I would like to discuss the key components of this continuum: access, quality and continuity. I shall conclude by discussing our expectations and those of the communities, and the excessively slow implementation of the Action Plan.
1. Access
The first challenge is to recruit and to retain students. The Action Plan’s goal is clear: boost the proportion of eligible students while enhancing educational quality. The bar is high: provide French language instruction to 80 percent of the target school population by 2013. Any drop in student numbers will have an adverse impact on the vitality of the communities and the institutions involved. Without the ongoing recovery of this target group (rights holders), many Francophone educational systems will find themselves in difficulty, because one segment of this community will have lost its constitutional rights for future generations.
That is why we must formulate a national recruitment plan, in partnership with the provinces and the communities. Such a project must define all issues, whether they pertain to the development of infrastructure or needed improvements in the educational system.
Such a plan must rely on hosting programs, the support of exogamous parents and targeted early childhood development initiatives. Access to Francophone schooling is prepared long in advance, from the time of the child’s birth.
In the recent federal budget, the Government of Canada said that it would devote $5 billion over five years to fund a national Early Learning and Child Care initiative. Negotiations have begun, but we do not know what shape this initiative will take in terms of minority community needs. Our experience shows that the lack of clear linguistic provisions within intergovernmental agreements has often resulted in official language minority communities being left by the wayside.
Our discussions with central agencies and the government’s public responses on these negotiations offer no clear indication of results for early childhood services in the minority language. Francophone communities have, nonetheless, defined their vision, which is one of high quality, universally accessible and affordable services, run by parents and associated with primary schools. I ask your committee to remind the Government of Canada that inertia and lack of leadership fail to comply with the letter or with the spirit of Part VII of the Act.
"Access" also means we must bolster our Francophone post-secondary networks. Both levels of government must empower post-secondary Francophone institutions to offer a full range of programs. To improve access to education, it must be possible to provide input on the range of programs offered. Moreover, in the Rae Report, Ontario recognized the educational and identity-related mission of the post-secondary French language educational network and the financial resources associated with it. Post-secondary networks wish to develop their programs and remain on the lookout for emerging student groups within their institutions, such as graduates of French immersion programs and international students.
2. Quality and continuity
Educational equality means far more than just equal access. It means ensuring conditions and funding throughout the educational process that will guarantee equal performance for both official language communities.
Parents also seek quality education and true educational alternatives. At the present time, gaps may exist when compared to the majority. Efforts are needed to catch up, by providing better training to teachers and by developing better educational resources. This also assumes that efforts will be invested to make quality a priority.
For example, students who attend French language schools in Edmonton or in Fredericton must be able to complete their primary school studies under optimal conditions and have unimpeded access to high quality secondary and post-secondary studies in their language. It is only under such circumstances that these individuals can fully participate in an English-dominated working environment without losing their language or their identity. The same rule applies for continuing education and adult education, which underlie the development of these communities.
To meet this goal, we must also expand the French language educational space. We must reconfigure this space through technological means and through co-operation among communities and among governments. Universities and colleges, for example, possess language resources that could serve to enhance the availability of post-secondary French language services.
To overcome these many challenges, the Table sectorielle de l’éducation, which comprises the main French language community organizations operating in the field of education, is preparing for a summit, which will be held in June 2005. At this summit, a comprehensive plan will be proposed, that seeks to fully implement educational rights throughout the entire educational continuum. I hope that all levels of government participate in this event and commit to taking action. Your report will serve to remind the federal government of its obligations toward these communities and the concerted effort they have demonstrated.
3. Meeting expectations
I would now like to say a few words about expectations.
Let us be clear: the communities feel a legitimate and steadily growing sense of frustration. They have expressed their desire to be equal partners in the implementation of section 23. This means they must be regularly consulted on all projects that pertain to them, particularly with respect to implementation of the Action Plan. On the other hand, not only do the provincial governments sometimes fail to view the school boards as partners, they are even less likely to consider these boards as equal partners.
Furthermore, delays in concluding the memorandum of understanding with the Council of Ministers of Education (Canada), as well as the bilateral agreements, have caused deep concern. In view of the size of the challenges to be met, the delays that have occurred are unacceptable and have an adverse effect on the provinces and on the communities, which find it difficult to plan their activities for the coming year. This situation could negatively impact second language instruction, for example. We must work better and faster. The Minister responsible for Official Languages and the Minister of Canadian Heritage have indicated that they wish to conclude these agreements before the end of the month. This means that time is running out.
We all seek greater accountability and more leadership from all levels of government. The federal government must play its role as champion of the official languages in education. It must rally all stakeholders around a common vision that can serve as a catalyst for the actions of its provincial and territorial partners. Doing so also presumes heightened responsibility and greater accountability. This is what we recommended in our last Annual Report. However, we continue to await the Action Plan’s accountability framework, as well as the establishment of performance indicators.
Although the second year of this five-year plan will soon draw to a close, we still lack a clear notion of what has been done and what remains to be done. We thus eagerly await the progress report that the government is scheduled to produce this fall. We need tangible results.
Furthermore I would be pleased to discuss with you at another time other aspects of the Action Plan, such as the educational needs of Quebec’s English language community and the instruction of French and English as second languages. All of the topics are to a certain extent related, because their overall purpose is to reinforce Canada’s bilingual identity.
Conclusion
Finally, to contend with the gradual erosion of minority French language communities, we must repair past injustices by ensuring true educational equality. This also means creating genuine partnerships between provincial governments and school boards. Repairing the injustices of the past requires leadership from the federal government, the active participation of provincial and territorial governments and involvement of communities at all phases. It also requires an unwavering sense of responsibility and accountability.
I perceive within these communities a great desire to work together and a new concerted effort to ensure the full achievement of educational rights. The strategy formulated by the Fédération nationale des conseils scolaires francophones to complement the French language educational system is an excellent example of this promising vitality. It is beginning by developing the educational systems of our official language minority communities that we will fortify Canada’s French language communities of tomorrow.
Thank you. I will be happy to answer your questions.
