We have prepared a chart. It is hot off the press, because I have just finished it. It illustrates data that are essential for you, because the federal government is our most important partner. We could simply explain this in words, but we have prepared charts that the clerk will distribute to you shortly.
First of all, it is wonderful to be here in Ottawa. The Yukon is the most western part of Canada. It is situated 200 km west of Vancouver, and is the most remote and most northern point, but we care very much about French language and culture. I have attended Acadian celebrations because many members of my family, the Landrys, are Acadian. Moreover, the celebrations for Quebec City's 400th anniversary took place this year.
My son is part of the first Franco-Yukon generation that is now transmitting its language. We were completely assimilated. What does Dawson City mean, or the gold rush or the Klondike? Dawson City was founded by Joseph Ladue, a francophone. The first school in the north was a French-language school. During the very first elections, before the Yukon even existed—the Yukon was founded following the gold rush—there were francophones there. French language and culture existed even before the Yukon itself did because the first nations, the Métis people and francophones worked together.
Unfortunately, there were no francophone institutions there until the mid-1980s. This means that, in the Yukon, there was neither a French-language school, nor a French-language organization that could speak for francophones, nor any services in French. Thanks to the federal government, the government of the territory and the people of the Yukon, which took the initiative without going to court even once, we succeeded through dialogue in establishing institutions because of the work done by pioneers and people who were—as you are—Canadian parliamentarians.
The results have been significant. The assimilation rate is dropping constantly. In the Yukon, there are more people speaking French at home than there are francophones. You might well wonder how that could be. According to Statistics Canada, my children are not francophones because my spouse is an anglophone. The first language they learned and understood at home with their mother was English.
This may be a paradox, but it is the kind of paradox that most francophones here experience. In our French-language school, 78% of young francophones are from mixed families. What is a mixed family? You saw the statistics yesterday. More and more people are marrying someone of a different culture, or of a different race. This is not unusual in the Yukon. The result is that the number of people speaking French is constantly growing. In the Yukon, over 3,600 people speak French. That is almost 12% of the entire Yukon population, and 20% of its young people. When we say that French language and culture are alive and well here, those are not just words, but the absolute truth. We have seen how it is growing. We are now talking about agreements between the Canadian government and the community. The first francophones came together in the Yukon in the 1980s, with the federal legislation that was developed and the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. It did not happen on its own—we need your ongoing support.
Are Canada-community agreements important? Is there any way of improving them? Absolutely. They are very important. Without federal government support, without the work that you do here... I am saying much the same as a member of your committee did—not everyone watches television, and even fewer people watch all programs, but in the Yukon we often watch parliamentary debates.
We had the opportunity of meeting Bernard Lord, who chaired the hearings on renewal of the action plan. I went to Vancouver. I was very happy to receive the government's invitation. This came about after the meeting we had with Minister Verner in spring. We are looking forward to see what the government puts on the table, because all this takes a great deal of energy. Our community is small, and we have to put in a great deal of work whenever there are hearings or consultations like these.
On that issue, I read in the press releases that we had invested—and when we invest, we want to know whether we will have a return on our investment.
When I look at my RRSP funds, I wonder whether they have gained in value. The results are significant—the anglophone community is increasingly bilingual, the francophone community is increasingly numerous, and the assimilation rate is dropping. In my view, when people instituted programs like the collaboration accords, the goal was to ensure that communities would flourish and gain in visibility. Those achievements were not arrived at only through our work, but also through the work of our partners.
Of course, these are not things we can achieve without funding. We hope that the agreements will be renewed and the funding increased. In Yukon, we have full employment. We are undergoing what's being called the boom in the west. We often talk about it. Last year, for the first time in Canada's history, we had the opportunity of welcoming the Canada Games at Whitehorse in the Yukon. It's said that the games were the most bilingual in Canada's history. Just imagine—this was in the most northern and most western part of the country, the region furthest away from the cradle of French language and culture on the continent.
So in answer to the question about whether our work is generating results, I would answer yes. To the question asking whether we could do more, I would also answer yes. To the question on whether my children and grandchildren will be able to live and grow up speaking French in the Yukon, I can only hope that the answer will be yes.
