William Floch ‘has expertise that we need’

Will head secretariat dedicated to English-speaking community

The Couillard government has named a former federal civil servant specializing in official languages at Canadian Heritage as the head of its new English-language community secretariat.

William Floch, a former executive director of the Townshippers’ Association who has studied, researched and written extensively on the community, will head the new provincial government ministry, officials said Thursday.

Kathleen Weil, the minister responsible for the community and the secretariat, is to make the formal announcement at an afternoon news conference Friday at Quebec City’s Morin Centre just hours before the Quebec Liberals kick off a weekend policy convention.

“He has the expertise that we need,” Weil said in an interview. “He has the expertise in terms of his knowledge of the community in all of its diversity all over Quebec. Plus he has extraordinary government experience.”

The nomination fulfils a promise made by Premier Philippe Couillard last June when he announced the creation of the secretariat — something minority groups have been seeking for years — in an interview with the Montreal Gazette. The organization will have a $1-million budget.

He followed that up by naming Weil in the October cabinet shuffle.

Floch hits the ground running, starting in his new function Monday. He will be based in Quebec City — at the heart of Quebec’s civil service — but have a satellite office in Montreal.

He will carry the title of assistant secretary general, but the job has the same status as an assistant deputy minister, which means he will travel at the highest levels of government.

Weil said one of Floch’s first jobs will be to gather data on minorities, which will allow the secretariat to push other ministries toward making policies that respond to the needs of the community.

Weil has already announced plans to tour the province to meet with various minority groups and sketch out priority actions.

Weil described Floch’s arrival as historic because he will be working within the government machine.

“We’re going to have to knock on a lot of doors,” Weil said. “I can do it on a political level, so that if a new policy or program comes out, I can say, ‘Let’s look at the impact on the English-speaking community.’ ”

Floch will carry the quest further within the government apparatus, she said.

Weil said initial reaction to the news of the secretariat from minority groups has been positive.

“They sort of feel something has changed, that they are actually going to have a piece of the government devoted to us, that their voice is going to be heard,” Weil said.

“We’re honing our capacity to respond to these needs in a more structured, functional way.”

Born in Flin Flon, Man., Floch, who is bilingual, has a bachelor’s degree in English, history and education from Bishop’s University.

Not well known to the general public, Floch nevertheless is widely respected among the many groups active in Quebec’s Englishspeaking community.

Besides 17 years employed in the federal machine in research and policy development, he has done work for the old anglophone rights group, Alliance Quebec, and the Townshippers, and taught English as a second language at Champlain College in Lennoxville.

The announcement comes as the Couillard government continues trying to re-build bridges with the community. Couillard has conceded some of his government’s past actions reflected a lack of communication.

GOVERNMENT MOTIVATION

The fact the party recently slipped into second place in the polls behind the Coalition Avenir Québec — which is also courting the non-francophone vote — is another factor motivating the government.

The party will take another step toward re-building a bridge this weekend at a party policy convention. Five specific policy resolutions aimed to help the community engaged are up for debate.

One calls on the government to assess the potential impact on English-speaking citizens of any new legislation or regulations.

Another calls on the government to propose an “ambitious strategy for improving the integration of the English-speaking community in the labour market.

Also on Thursday, Couillard’s office made two announcements. Former democratic institutions minister, Rita de Santis, will head a new effort to increase diversity in the Quebec civil service.

D’Arcy-McGee MNA David Birnbaum was also named chairman of the party’s Montreal caucus.