Official Languages committee  That's a very good question. It's not easy. Obviously, we have to investigate. We don't really have the data to support this, but I think we've heard many times that there are a lot of parents who consider learning French as a real asset, as a great tool. They consider going through these immersion programs as really beneficial.

Official Languages committee  These data concern immersion schools. In other words, these are English-language schools that offer French-language immersion programs.

Official Languages committee  They are not counted, since this—

Official Languages committee  Since the committee meeting was to focus essentially on immersion programs, I did not present any data on the French schools. Every year, Statistics Canada publishes a document in which we provide and distinguish data on enrolments by province. However, data on immersion programs and French-language school programs are published separately for each of the provinces.

Official Languages committee  If you wish, we can easily send you that information. It is available on the Statistics Canada's website and provides statistics for the past five years.

Official Languages committee  Thank you for your question. We have to agree on what the expression "demolinguistic picture" means. If the goal is to paint a picture at a very specific geographic level, the census provides us with that information. It gathers data on the evolution of bilingualism, enrolments, the percentages of mother tongue populations, language use and populations for which English and French are the first official language spoken.

Official Languages committee  Once again, that depends on the geographic level. When we published on May 8, we mentioned that the data were considered to be of good quality for the provinces, the national level and the major metropolitan areas. Of course, we noted that more than 1,100 small municipalities would not have that information as a result of non-response rates that were too high and related problems.

Official Languages committee  We managed for the first time to measure the parent rights holders phenomenon accurately in the Survey on the Vitality of Official-Language Minorities in 2006. In the past, we had essentially used estimates based on census data on mother tongue, since that is one of the three important criteria.

Official Languages committee  These are minority programs, French-language schools where everything is done in French, including management.

Official Languages committee  The information that I conveyed to you in our remarks concerns only immersion programs. It does not concern minority schools, that is to say those considered to be French-language schools.

Official Languages committee  That is correct. For your information, approximately 15% of children who have at least one francophone parent are enrolled in immersion programs. We therefore clearly have information on the composition and total number of students enrolled. However, we would also have to know, over time, to what extent the fact that certain students could have attended minority schools but instead attend immersion schools influences the increase or decrease in the number of students enrolled in immersion programs.

Official Languages committee  I can use English, if you want.

Official Languages committee  The information is available for official language minorities. Earlier I mentioned the Survey on the Vitality of Official-Language Minorities, which was conducted in 2006, and in which we asked those kinds of questions. Unfortunately, we do not have that information on the entire population for which French is not the first official language spoken.

Official Languages committee  The parent is not necessarily required to speak very good French. Under section 23, the parent—

Official Languages committee  Yes. The parent must be francophone.