An anglophone MNA in the Couillard cabinet is defending a government decision not to create an office for anglophone affairs.
The recommendation, intended to serve Quebec’s anglo minority, was put forward to several anglophone MNAs by Official Languages Commissioner Graham Fraser during a meeting last September.
D’Arcy McGee MNA and Parliamentary Assistant to the Premier David Birnbaum said they had a good discussion, but he and his colleagues decided against it.
Birnbaum, who is the former head of Alliance Quebec and the Quebec English School Board Association, said he thinks anglophone rights in Quebec are best served another way.
Creating an office to take care of anglo affairs might ghettoize the community, he said.
“It’s not necessarily the best way in to have one office lobbying for space within the Quebec government. It's my view and the premier's that he and all of the Quebec government answer to all English-speaking Quebecers,” said Birnbaum.
The Quebec Community Groups Network said it's also been pushing for years to have anglophone concerns systemically represented in Quebec.
“Politicians are important of course, but we need some deeper systemic process to help the community in its work,” said Sylvia Martin-Laforge, director-general of QCGN.
Martin-Laforge said concerns over Bill 10's changes to healthcare and how they will affect anglophone institutions is a perfect example.
“So we would need for government to understand – deeply understand – why we would need amendments to Bill 10. Our history, our ways of doing things and this is one place where the minister has said he is giving us what we want, but we're not seeing it,” she said.
Birnbaum, one of three anglo MNAs, said those amendments are coming, adding that several top Quebec ministers in the Couillard government have already met with anglophone groups on bill 10 and other issues.
Birnbaum insists this is simply a matter of how they feel anglos can best be heard and served by government.
“I think it's much more important for anglos speak to the premier and to ministers and myself and my colleague MNAs and ministers about issues of concern to the anglo community,” he said.
With so much already on its plate, now is not the time to raise language concerns for the Couillard government, said UQAM political scientist Donald Cuccioletta.
“Bill 10, the restructuring of the health system, the educational system, plus the question of all of these pension plans they want to cut back on… I think he's got so much on his plate right now. If he dared go in that direction, of course there'd be a backlash from the francophone community, which is normal, but at the same time I don't think he can handle everything at the same time,” he said.
