QUESTION PERIOD — Ministry of Canadian Heritage
Action Plan for Official Languages 2023–2028
September 25, 2025
Good afternoon, minister.
As part of the Action Plan for Official Languages 2023–2028, $4 billion has been allocated over five years for official languages. Of this amount, $3 billion is allocated to your department and $1.1 billion to 10 other departments that deal with issues related to official languages. Through the Minister of Finance, the government has instructed that budgets be cut by 5.7% in 2026-27, gradually increasing this rate to 15% in 2028-29.
I am concerned about the budgets allocated to other departments. If cuts are made, they will be made to official languages. What steps or actions have you taken with your colleagues to ensure that budgets for official languages that are not at the core of the department are not cut?
I understand what you mean, senator. It is important to understand that the downsizing effort that the Minister of Finance has tasked his cabinet colleagues with is not a one-size-fits-all exercise. Of course conversations are being had between my team, the Minister of Finance’s team, the Minister of Finance and me, and the Prime Minister. What we are trying to do is ensure that Canadians are getting more for their money. There are cases of duplication within organizations. I’m not necessarily talking about official languages, but I will give you another example from Canadian Heritage. We have Telefilm Canada, which was created to fund films.
I’m sorry. I was talking about languages.
Of course. However, let me give you a quick example. Telefilm Canada funds films. The Canada Media Fund funds television. We created these institutions at a time when people watched television on TV and movies in theatres. Nowadays, everyone watches that kind of content on their phone or tablet. Do we need two institutions that do basically the same thing? Shouldn’t we combine them to save money for Canadians? That’s the kind of thing we’re looking at now. I have certainly had a lot of discussions with the Minister of Finance and the Prime Minister about the importance of delivering on our official languages commitments.
Still, will the departments, such as Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, which has an $84-million budget, be cut by 15%?
I’m the Minister of Canadian Identity and Culture and Minister responsible for Official Languages. I’m not the Minister of Finance. We’ll know the budgets for every department and Crown corporation when the budget is released on November 4.
Your budget is $3 billion. If that budget is cut by 15%, that amounts to $433 million. Now it’s your turn. You were supposed to send your figures to the Minister of Finance in August. Where in your department did you recommend to the Minister of Finance and the Prime Minister that cuts be made? You have to cut 15%. Where do you cut $400 million?
I don’t share your point of view and I disagree with your characterization of this exercise. That’s not exactly what the department and I have been doing. We’ve been working to identify areas where savings could be made and duplication could be reduced in various programs and departments to be as efficient as possible. That’s what we’ve been working on over the summer.
You have to find 15%. You have to cut $433 million. You have made recommendations to the Minister of Finance. For example, will you cut minority language education, which has a budget of $752 million, or support for second language learning, which has a budget of $428 million? Are you cutting those budgets?
As I said, I don’t agree with your characterization of reduced investments in official languages. I simply do not agree.
