Mr. Chair, the commissioner was asked whether the government cuts translated into a loss of ground for bilingualism. That is the question that was put to him. His reply was “not necessarily”.
However, the Maurice-Lamontagne Institute in Mont-Joli is now closed. As you yourself specified, the Moncton institute has also closed its doors. These were the only two institutes in a francophone area. The Cooperative Development Program was also eliminated; the H.J. Michaud Research Farm was also closed, in New Brunswick; that was another francophone undertaking; then there was the closure of the French-language Moncton scientific library, and that of Mont-Joli; and the cut to the Destination Canada budget, and the list goes on.
Let's not forget the first question. I want to know whether the government cuts in those cases caused some backsliding.