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20th Festival du Bois

Coquitlam, British Columbia
March 8, 2009

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Hello.
Good morning everyone,

I am very pleased to be here with you to take part in the 20^th Festival du Bois organized by the Société Francophone de Maillardville.

It's always nice to be home in British Columbia, and I am delighted to join you here in your celebrations, especially since this is where I learned French.

We have two good reasons for celebrating today: the 20^th Festival du Bois and the Maillardville centennial. Moreover, the occasion of this centennial is why Coquitlam was named a Cultural Capital of Canada for 2009.

Your community has a wealth of customs and traditions that have endured since the arrival of the first pioneers in Maillardville. The community gives a unique character to the region and is a stakeholder in its history.

The Festival du Bois is the most important Francophone cultural event in the region. This festival makes a tangible contribution to your community's development. It is a real force behind the local economy and provides great visibility to the region's artists and artisans.

I would like to highlight the work accomplished by the Société Francophone de Maillardville for making the Festival du Bois a special place for British Columbia's Francophone community to meet and celebrate.

For 20 years now, the Festival du Bois has been offering diverse cultural programming. This year, I want to congratulate the organizers, as not only did they plan French-Canadian music, but have also included a variety of dance and musical performances from a number of regions around the world. What a wonderful way to honour Canada's cultural diversity!

Today, on behalf of Prime Minister Stephen Harper and the Government of Canada, I take great pleasure in announcing 35,000 dollars in funding to the Société francophone de Maillardville for the Festival du Bois.

Support for this festival reiterates our Government's commitment to linguistic duality and the vitality of official-language minority communities.

Last June, we confirmed this same commitment by presenting our Roadmap for Canada's Linguistic Duality.

The Roadmap represents an unprecedented government-wide investment of 1.1 billion dollars over five years. The Roadmap targets five priority sectors: health, justice, immigration, economic development and, above all, culture.

Our Government has sent a clear signal of the important contribution the cultural sector makes in stimulating and strengthening the Canadian economy. The Economic Action Plan laid out in Budget 2009 demonstrates our Government's commitment to arts, culture, and heritage by providing 540 million dollars to ensure as much stability as possible for this sector when it is facing challenging times.

In closing, because Canada will welcome the world at the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games in less than a year, I would like to wish you every success with the "international Francophone village" project.

This activity will coincide with the Games and will highlight the historic presence of the French language and culture in Canada. Visitors coming from all over the world will discover a Canadian Francophonie that is dynamic and very much alive.

Enjoy the Festival, everyone!