Canada: Language boss says bilingualism bucks can't be tracked

Thu Dec 20 14:55:51 UTC 2007

 --    Thursday* » *December 20* » *2007
    Language boss says bilingualism bucks can't be tracked
    *Kate Jaimet* CanWest News Service
Wednesday, December 19, 2007

    [image: Canada's Official Languages Commissioner Graham Fraser] CREDIT:
REUTERS/Chris Wattie Canada's Official Languages Commissioner Graham Fraser

OTTAWA - The federal government is unable to track millions of dollars that
it hands out to provinces to foster bilingualism among school children, says
Commissioner of Official Languages Graham Fraser.

Fraser made the comment in the wake of 2006 census data showing that
bilingualism is going down, not up, among teenagers - despite a
multimillion-dollar federal action plan that aims at making half of all
high-school graduates bilingual by 2013.

"Over the years, millions of dollars have gone from Ottawa to provincial
capitals, from provincial capitals to school boards, from school boards to
schools and there is very little accountability once it leaves Ottawa in
terms of that money actually arriving where it's intended to go," Fraser
said. "Sometimes parents joke about money being diverted for sports
equipment, saying, 'That's an immersion basketball court, you know.' I'm
told that that happens, and I've never been told the contrary, and I've
asked."

But Hubert Lussier, the director-general of official languages support
programs at the Department of Canadian Heritage, said accountability
measures are in place.

"The stories that Mr. Fraser refers to, I've heard several times, and they
tend to be pretty old stories," Lussier said.

He said a protocol, signed in 2005, requires provinces and territories to
provide action plans and financial reports when they receive federal money
for language education.

"We ask the province to provide an action plan which specifies how much and
how they're going to spend the money," Lussier said. "We've got to . .  .
receive financial reports on how they spend the money, and they also have to
submit certified financial reports which live up to pretty rigorous
standards. So I would say we have pretty decent accountability measures."

Annual federal government spending on English and French-language education
stood at $281 million for 2005-06, with an additional $639 million spent by
the provinces, according to the annual report by the Department of Canadian
Heritage.

The money is spent to help anglophones in Quebec - and francophones in other
provinces - go to school in their maternal language, and to help students
learn a second official language.

James Shea, executive director of Canadian Parents for French, says despite
the accountability measures, it's still difficult to track the dollars,
because each province decides what to put in to its report.

"There are mechanisms that allow for reporting but there are no teeth in it
and there's no standard reporting format for all jurisdictions," said Shea,
whose organization represents 25,000 parents of children learning French as
a second language. "It's like you can file your income tax, but you design
the form."

Lussier agreed there are variations, but said that doesn't diminish the
rigour of the reporting.

"Each province submits financial reports in the way that they are meant to
submit it to their own jurisdiction. But we need to see some reports that
have the figures associated with the action plans and the intended areas
where money should be spent," he said.

The most recent drive toward bilingualism dates from the time of Jean
Chretien's Liberal government, when then-intergovernmental affairs minister
Stephane Dion launched an Action Plan on Official Languages in 2003. The
plan expires in 2008, and former New Brunswick Premier Bernard Lord has been
commissioned by the current Conservative government to make recommendations
next month about the future of official languages policy.

The 2003 plan set the target of increasing the number of bilingual high
school students aged 15 to 19 from 24 per cent in 2001, to 50 per cent in
2013.

But according to the most recent census, only 22.8 per cent of anglophones
and francophones in that age range considered themselves bilingual in 2006,
a decline of 1.2 per cent since 2001.

"It's going to be tough (to meet the 50-per-cent target), given that there's
been slippage rather than advance," said Fraser. "That's evidence that
there's a problem."

Lussier said the department is still aiming toward the target, but
acknowledges it is "very ambitious."

Liberal Official Languages critic Mauril Belanger said funds may have to be
reallocated, or even increased, to meet the objective.

"I believe in my country and I have the intention of making sure that
linguistic duality is a keystone of Canadian public policy," Belanger said.
"Fifty per cent by 2013? One can doubt it, I recognize that. But does it
mean that we have to give up and abandon it? Absolutely not."

*Ottawa Citizen*
*
http://www.canada.com/topics/news/politics/story.html?id=bcbd1e7d-14b5-40c5-b869-5582fff5104a&k=67481
*

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