Question Period Note: Official Languages Sector Organizations in the Context of COVID-19

The current health crisis is having significant impacts in various spheres of activity, including the official languages sector in Canada and in official language minority communities. The Government of Canada is taking measures to support recipient organizations of the official languages support programs.

• It is important to support official languages sector organizations, who are experiencing the impacts of the current health crisis, like many other sectors.
• We made use of the available flexibilities in our official languages support programs, and rationalized our processes in order to provide funds to recipient organizations as quickly as possible.
• Numerous measures are put in place by the Government of Canada to support Canadians. I encourage official languages sector organizations to claim them.

• Canadian Heritage has revised the administrative functioning of its official languages support programs (OLSPs) in order to accelerate the transfer of funds to recipient organizations in this period of crisis, by making use of available flexibilities and by improving processes. The Department is also taking administrative measures to accommodate official languages sector organizations, for example by pushing back certain deadlines.
o OLSP core funding supports the operational costs of more than 280 non-profit organizations. The OLSPs represent approximately $431 million annually
(2019-2020 forecast). Requests for proposals for 2020-2021 projects under six program components were conducted in fall 2019 and winter 2020, and the approval process is underway.
• The Government of Canada’s Economic Response Plan for COVID-19 includes a number of measures to support employers, workers and Canadians in general. Eligible OLSP recipient organizations will be able to avail themselves of some of these measures. For example:

o The Emergency Wage Subsidy and the Temporary Wage Subsidy;
o The Canada Emergency Commercial Rent Assistance Canada;
o Temporary flexibilities to the Canada Summer Jobs program;
o A new Emergency Support Fund for cultural, heritage and sport organizations
($500 million);
o A new Emergency Community Support Fund to help vulnerable Canadians through charitable and non-profit organizations providing essential services to people in need ($350 million);
o Flexibilities to the New Horizons for Seniors program, allowing recipient organizations to use funding to provide immediate and essential services to seniors impacted by COVID-19; and
o An Emergency contribution to United Way Canada to fund practical services offered to seniors by local organizations ($9 million).
• With regard to the new Emergency Support Fund for cultural, heritage and sport organizations, Canadian Heritage has indicated that the process with proceed in two phases.
o Under Phase 1, close to 80 cultural organizations who are clients of the OLSPs will be eligible for emergency funding through existing Canadian Heritage programs.
o As part of Phase 2, Canadian Heritage will provide emergency funding to other cultural organizations, including some that do not currently receive funding from the Department.
• In response to COVID-19, several organizations from Francophone minority communities have carried out studies in the past month to quantify and qualify the impact of the pandemic on their activities:
o The Fédération des communautés francophones et acadienne (FCFA) conducted a survey of its members to better understand the challenges of their member organizations in the context of the crisis, and the effectiveness of the temporary assistance programs announced by governments. The survey reveals that the main problems identified by the organizations relate to the postponement and cancellation of activities, loss of income, and the challenges of remote activities. The survey identifies the hardest hit sectors as community media, arts and culture, small business, and child care.
o The FCFA also presented a brief to the federal government, in which it made three recommendations, namely the establishment of a community emergency fund of
$50 million, the application of a Francophone lens to all of the financial assistance announced and the fact that federal institutions are proactively strengthening communications with organizations in the Francophone community sector.
o The Association of Colleges and Universities of the Canadian Francophonie (ACUFC) presented to the Government of Canada a brief outlining the short-term needs of its 22 member institutions, providing additional support of $ 90 million to maintain their assets and continue their mission.
o The Fédération culturelle canadienne-française (FCCF) conducted an analysis of phase 1 of the Emergency Fund. According to her, barely 25% of the 367 organizations analyzed were able to qualify and the amounts awarded were qualified as minimal, and that 47% of them were not PCH clients and were not eligible for them.
• Francophone communities outside Quebec represent vulnerable populations in the current context, due to their demographic composition (greater proportion of persons over the age of 65) and their presence in greater proportions in rural settings and smaller communities.

None