That's a very good question. I do appreciate that it is a complex issue in Canada because of the jurisdiction issue.
There are models that I am familiar with, primarily the one in the U.S. Interestingly, the U.S. has several national centres that are concerned with foreign and second language learning, many more than we have in Canada, even though they have no official language. Interestingly, in the models they provide, funding comes from either a federal agency—in their case, they do actually have a Department of Education, whereas we don't—or an agency like Heritage Canada or Official Languages. They have money to put out RFPs for research centres or service centres to provide certain kinds of research or support systems.
These centres I've seen in other countries around the world are usually initiatives of the federal government. They are not necessarily created in collaboration with the provinces, but in the final analysis they actually serve the needs of many of the provinces.
But clearly the big issue is partly money. Money needs to be available to create these centres. It makes a lot of sense that these centres might be located in universities, because there are in fact mechanisms for the federal government to provide additional support for universities to carry out research and professional endeavours.
My view is that the federal government, with some creativity, might be able to take some initiatives in this regard and not step on too many provincial toes by actually locating these centres either within existing university centres or through existing national associations, such as Canadian Parents for French, the Association canadienne des professeurs d'immersion, and CASLT, the Canadian Association of Second Language Teachers. Some of this centre type of work could possibly be provided through existing national centres if they were given financial support from the federal government.
I think the dilemma.... This is maybe beyond my realm of competence, but if you try to create these centres through collaborative efforts with the provinces, it's going to be terribly hard to get consensus of any sort, even though I think if you talk to educators and researchers they know what needs to be done.