Bill C-13 has nothing for Quebec, Mario Beaulieu tells minister during committee hearing
OTTAWA — Bill C-13 modernizing the Official Languages Act has “nothing” for Quebec, the Bloc Québécois said after Treasury Board President Mona Fortier appeared before a parliamentary committee hearing.
“Your responses show that you have accepted none of the demands of the Quebec government,” Bloc language critic Mario Beaulieu said Thursday during a heated exchange with the minister.
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Beaulieu began by asking Fortier if she thought it was “feasible” to meet Quebec’s demand that French be the “predominant” language of the public service in the province. Fortier, a franco-Ontarian who has previously sat on the official languages committee, answered that federal services must be offered “in both official languages across the country.”
But federal institutional bilingualism “goes against the Charter of the French Language,” Beaulieu retorted. “In Quebec, it has to be predominant. It has to be the language of work, the common language.”
The Bloc MP also asked why 68 per cent of federal employees in Quebec have to be bilingual but only 13 per cent have that obligation in the rest of the country, according to data compiled by Radio-Canada.
Fortier replied that “there are designated (bilingual) regions” where fluency in both languages is required.
In an interview, Beaulieu said the data showed there’s a double standard and the public service is “anglicizing” Quebec.
Fortier rejected that suggestion and said designated regions “respect francophones and anglophones living in minority situations across the country.”
Pablo Rodriguez, minister of Canadian Heritage, said Wednesday many elements of the bill should please Quebec francophones, who would be able to work and receive services in their language in federally regulated companies.
“That’s fundamental,” he said. “We’re using a law that is our own jurisdiction to intervene in our own jurisdiction to promote French and defend French.”
During another round of committee questions, Beaulieu said Quebec is asking that French be recognized as the only minority language. “The only one that is threatened is French,” he said. “And you explain that in C-13 that’s rejected. You consider that in Quebec it’s English that is the minority language.”
Fortier said the government recognizes that there has been a decline in French in Quebec and across the country.
Conservative members of the committee also showed disappointment in Fortier’s statements. “There’s no openness,” said Conservative language critic Joël Godin, asking if the government really wants to improve the bill.
Official Languages Minister Ginette Petitpas Taylor and Rodriguez will be the final witnesses at the committee, as early as Thursday. The committee will then study the bill article by article during eight sessions, two per week, which would allow C-13 to be sent back to the House of Commons in mid-February or beginning of March.
The bill gives a new right to work and be served in French in Quebec and in regions with a strong francophone presence and in private businesses regulated by the federal government like banks, airlines and trains.
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