That explains why Mr. Lemieux is more comfortable in English than in French. With all due respect to him, I attribute that to the fact that his father was transferred to various bases across Canada; that is why his son speaks better English than French. I respect that, but that is the result.
Mr. Lemieux was talking about units and he says that 7 out of 15 people should be bilingual, and that we don't understand this.
So, 7 out of 15 people are supposed to be bilingual, including the janitor or the mechanic. They would be considered part of the unit and 2 of the 7 people needed to comply with the act. Is this really the principle that underlines the Official Languages Act?
Mr. Fraser, it's clear that we don't want all anglophones to have to speak French, nor do we want all francophones to have to learn English. We want services to be provided in both languages and for people to be able to work and take training in their mother tongue.
I met with soldiers who contradicted what Mr. Lemieux said. I met with soldiers in Montreal who told me that if they wanted to get promoted they had to learn English because the manuals were in English. Eighty per cent of all National Defence training manuals are in English. Can a francophone really make it all the way up the ladder?
So, you said a little earlier that the commissioner did not have the mandate to say whether the closing of the Saint-Jean Royal Military College was a good thing. On the contrary, I think that the commissioner has the mandate to tell us whether this has hurt the francophone community.
Was it easier to learn in Saint-Jean than in Kingston? We know that Kingston is not a francophone city.