Hon. Maria Chaput:

Honourable senators, my question is for the Leader of the Government in the Senate and has to do with how the likely budget cuts could affect official language minority communities.

We have learned that senior officials have been instructed to reduce spending in their respective departments by anywhere from 5 per cent to 10 per cent. I am not criticizing the decision, for it is necessary because of the current fragile economic situation.

However, such an approach could disproportionately harm certain programs that are under the responsibility of several departments simultaneously. For instance, consider the federal government's Roadmap for Canada's Linguistic Duality, which forms the basis of all funding programs for official language minority communities and whose costs are paid for by 13 agencies and departments, which have all been instructed to reduce their spending by between 5 per cent and 10 per cent.

There is nothing to prevent official language minority communities from losing not just 5 per cent or 10 per cent of their budgets, but rather 30 per cent, 40 per cent, or even more. What would happen if all the agencies and departments involved in the Roadmap, or even several of them, decided to reach their budget reduction targets in that manner?

Has the government thought of a way to ensure that the budget cuts will not be done in such a way that disproportionately targets a program like the Roadmap for Linguistic Duality?

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