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Speeches

Speech by the Honourable Madeleine Meilleur Minister Responsible for Francophone Affairs and Minister of Culture

at the Conférence ministérielle sur les Affaires francophones
Hôtel Beauséjour
Moncton, New Brunswick
Thursday, October 14, 2004

As Minister Responsible for Francophones Affaires and Minister of Culture, I am glad to be here.

I congratulate the Fédération culturelle canadienne-française for their excellent work.

The study Recherche-action sur le lien langue-culture-éducation en milieu minoritaire francophone shows the various and innovative steps in these areas across the country.

The reports, challenges and solutions from this study corroborate the steps taken over the last few years by the Ontario Ministry of Education.

The research clearly shows the impact of arts and culture on the development of a student's identity, and on his sense of belonging to the surrounding Francophone community.

The presence of culture and the arts in schools is the subject of a growing interest by schools, school boards and various ministries of education across Canada.

Let me share with you an example of a success story of a collaboration between the arts and education, administered by the Royal Conservatory of Music.

That is Learning Through the Arts, which brings actors, musicians, painters and writers into more than 170 schools across Canada.

Together with teachers, these artists create lively ways to present curriculum, bringing new vitality to the classroom.

Students learn math, language, history and social studies by making images, creating dances, telling stories and singing songs.

At the end of a three-year study, Queen's University discovered that students in this program scored 11 per cent better in math than students in other schools.

The Ontario government values arts education as a key contributor to achieving our priority of success for students.

Research shows that children involved in the arts do better in school and gain valuable life skills.

I have asked my Parliamentary Assistant, Jennifer Mossop, to take the lead in consulting with Ontario's cultural agencies and stakeholders to identify the issues and opportunities in this very important area.

We are also working closely with our colleagues at the Ministries of Education, Children and Youth Services, and Training, Colleges and Universities to look at how we can improve arts education in our public school system, as well as apprenticeship training to encourage our young people to pursue rewarding careers in arts and culture.

Getting back to Recherche-action sur le lien langue-culture-éducation en milieu minoritaire francophone, generally, these initiatives depend on a common element: the close partnership between education, arts and community stakeholders.

In order to develop, a French-language school that backs-up its cultural mandate needs continuous collaboration between these stakeholders.

In Ontario, we support the three types of initiatives mentioned in the study.

First, initiatives from the education sector.

Schools offer arts education programs, and the school boards support the schools with funding for cultural events.

The Ministry of Education has published the policy document Investir dans l'animation culturelle, and funds projects with cultural events in French-language Ontario schools.

We have developed a policy on linguistic development in Ontario for French-language education to be published in October 2004.

This policy is a holistic look at the language-culture-education link and proposes specific and systematic action paths for education stakeholders.

The revision of the framework programs of the Ontario curriculum for grades one to 12 will highlight the necessary ingredients of the language-culture-education link in pedagogical practise and teaching in general.

Secondly, we also have initiatives from the community and cultural sectors.

For example, cultural centres provide full-time art study programs at summer camps, and Théâtre-Action organises a festival of franco-ontarian de theatre annually in the education sector.

Thirdly, we have initiatives from the arts sector.

The Ontario Arts Council funds the Artistes en milieu éducatif program.

We are aiming at putting in place our policy on linguistic development, and so offering students a linguistic and cultural foundation to guarantee academic success.

It will also help control the challenges posed by the language-culture-education link.

This control requires the contribution of young people in the various action plans that come from the policy and the school boards.

It also rests on the relationship between family, school and community.

It takes into account the contribution and integration of newcomers while protecting their regional cultural identities.

Welcoming newcomers is important for all our provinces.

But, in Ontario we know that it is equally important these says to go beyond our borders, and we are committed to become a member of the International Organization of the Francophonie.

The presence of Ontario will help open up new economic avenues and partnerships with the 56 countries and governments where French is spoken and where they share our common values.

Our language and values form the basis of the study by the Federation culturelle canadienne-française.

It is undeniable that the recommendations of your study are well-founded since they are based on collaboration and dialogue.

These are the essential factors to establishing interventions to the provincial and national plans.

They will allow youth to develop their sense of belonging to a unique and dynamic francophone culture.

Youth are our future.

With such programs, and with the tenacity that francophones have demonstrated for 400 years in North America, I am sure that this future will be bright.