Standing Committee on Official Languages

Comité permanent des langues officielles

For immediate release

Ottawa, April 19, 2018 -

The Honorable Denis Paradis, Chair of the Standing Committee of the House of Commons on Official Languages, tabled a report in the House of Commons today entitled Adult Literacy and Skills Development: An essential component of official language minority communities education continuum.

The Committee’s report contains seven recommendations. The Committee recommends that the Government of Canada recognize that adult literacy and essential skills development is an integral part of Canada’s minority-language education continuum and allocate resources to it accordingly. The Committee also recommends that the Government’s adult literacy and essential skills development program architecture be designed to include family literacy, community literacy and employment skills development as strategic development priorities for official language minority communities (OLMCs).

The Committee also looked at cooperation between the federal government and the provincial and territorial governments. An analysis of the existing bilateral agreements shows that the clauses relating to OLMCs do not commit the provinces and territories to take measures to ensure that OLMCs receive adult literacy and essential skills development services of the same quality that the majority receive. The Committee thus recommends that the bilateral agreements include binding clauses concerning official language minority communities (OLMCs), including clauses respecting consultations with community representatives and accountability obligations.

The report is available on the Committee’s web page on the Parliament of Canada Internet site at http://www.ourcommons.ca/Committees/en/LANG. People who do not have access to an electronic version of the report can obtain a copy by contacting the Committee Clerk.

The House of Commons Standing Committee on Official Languages is composed of 11 members. The Chair is the Honorable Denis Paradis (Brome—Missisquoi) and the vice chairs are Alupa Clarke (Beauport—Limoilou) and François Choquette (Drummond). The other members are René Arseneault (Madawaska—Restigouche), Sylvie Boucher (Beauport—Côte-de-Beaupré—Île d’Orléans—Charlevoix), Sean Casey (Charlottetown), Bernard Généreux (Montmagny—L’Islet—Kamouraska–Rivière-du-Loup), Linda Lapointe (Rivière-des-Mille-Îles), Paul Lefebvre (Sudbury), Darrell Samson (Sackville—Preston—Chezzetcook) and Dan Vandal (Saint-Boniface—Saint-Vital).