Official Languages committee  Long live Isle Madame! Our government is also aware that official language minority community media face significant challenges. For the first time in an action plan, the government is responding directly. On October 4, I outlined the implementation of the Community Media Support Fund, with an envelope of $14.5 million, including $4.5 million for hiring interns and $10 million for special projects, to be managed together with the Official Languages Community Media Consortium, which brings together thousands of organizations, throughout the country.

Official Languages committee  I am happy to be here.

Official Languages committee  Thank you.

Official Languages committee  I like that, “Madam Minister Mélanie”. Thank you, Mr. Chairman Denis, I appreciate your kind words. I am pleased to be here with you today, and to see familiar faces. I want to emphasize the presence of my parliamentary secretary, Ms. Alaina Lockhart, and I want to thank her for her work.

Official Languages  Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague from Sackville—Preston—Chezzetcook for his excellent question. Our official language minority communities are very important to us. In order to have strong communities, we need strong media outlets, like community newspapers and radio stations.

Official Languages  Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague from Nickel Belt. I would like to join him in celebrating Franco-Ontarian Day, which is why I am wearing green and white today. This morning I was at École élémentaire catholique Notre-Dame-des-Champs, where I got to meet 300 students and announce $7.5 million in funding to give students at 700 francophone schools and 300 anglophone schools in minority communities access to cultural activities.

Official Languages  Mr. Speaker, we have developed an excellent action plan for official languages. We have invested $2.7 billion in official languages, which is the largest investment in official languages in our history. We want to protect and promote the rights of language minority communities, and we will achieve this by investing in our children, in early childhood, and in education to ensure the survival of our official language communities.