Liberals are working with official-language minority communities to develop a strategy for the future of official languages in Canada, hosting a roundtable today that will address areas of failure on the Harper government.
“The Harper Conservatives have completely ignored the importance of official languages in Canada,” said Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff. “We’re engaging community experts to find out what Canada needs to do to protect the future status of official languages. The Liberal Party strongly believes that our official languages must be safeguarded.”
Today’s official languages roundtable, hosted by Liberal Official Languages Critic Mauril Bélanger and the Deputy Leader of the Opposition in the Senate, Senator Claudette Tardif, heard from organizations serving official-language minority communities on the status of Canada’s progress on official languages.
“Following numerous reports by the Official Languages Commissioner and the ongoing denunciations by community organizations, we can see that our communities face a laissez-faire approach from the Harper government, and this trend must be reversed,” said Mr. Bélanger.
The opening address, “After the Roadmap” looked at strategies for replacing the 2008 Roadmap for Canada’s Linguistic Duality, set to expire in 2013. The Harper government has so far failed to commit to a replacement plan.
During the governance panel, former Minister of Official Languages, Stéphane Dion, and former Deputy Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs, Marie Fortin, addressed the need for action on official languages governance, and heard presentations from the Québec Community Group Network (QCGN) and the Fédération des communautés francophones et acadiennes (FCFA).
“It is time to think seriously about the future for official-language minority communities, specifically ‘post-Roadmap.’ It would be unfortunate to lose all the work and progress made over the last 40 years under the Official Languages Act, the five-year Action Plan for Official Languages, and five more of the Roadmap – due to a lack of a coherent, strategic national plan,” said Senator Tardif.
