Canadian Heritage committee  Exactly, because we did our share of work.

Canadian Heritage committee  It would be complicated, and I'll explain why. In a community such as Timmins, we had a good sector of the forest industry. It was owned by a francophone from Timmins. But he had takeovers. These people grow old. I'm talking about Malette Lumber Inc., which is really, really big.

Canadian Heritage committee  Yes.

Canadian Heritage committee  Well, basically, if you recall, there was a big cleanup to be made in the government's finances in the nineties. There were deficits; deficit after deficit. I think the rationale of the government was that every program had to be cut to do its share of the hard work that had to be done.

Canadian Heritage committee  I'm going to ask Suzanne to answer your question.

Canadian Heritage committee  In Cochrane and Iroquois Falls, it nearly had to shut down. Service Canada had to introduce a project, but there wasn't any administrative staff to run it. We're talking about providing training and services to communities that are still hard-hit by the lumber crisis, which has also hit Smooth Rock Falls.

Canadian Heritage committee  In Témiscamingue, there's the Foire gourmande, a tourist and gastronomical project that was developed on both sides of the border by the Anglophones and Francophones of Temiskaming in Ontario and the Francophones of Témiscamingue on the Quebec side. It's a success. These people won the gold medal for the tourism project of the year in Quebec.

Canadian Heritage committee  You're entirely right: it's constant. You know, the organizations in the field are the ones with the biggest problems, whose existence is very precarious. We've been doing this work for 10 or 15 years, since the major government cuts started. We nearly shut down operations in 1998.

Canadian Heritage committee  We're envious, but that's a good thing. Despite what can be said about the Government of Quebec, it treats its Anglophone minority well. They've had their education system in both languages for a long time, from primary school to university. In Quebec, the Anglophone minority has all its essential institutions, be they hospitals or community colleges.

Canadian Heritage committee  And it was staggering, Mr. Bélanger. We in the real North, in the really remote regions, were never consulted. I'm talking about Kirkland Lake, Elliot Lake, Timmins, Cochrane-Iroquois Falls, Hearst and Kapuskasing, where 70,000 Francophones live. We were never consulted.

Canadian Heritage committee  That will be in effect in January for Service Canada.

Canadian Heritage committee  Service Canada provides all the services, such as manpower training and so on. Government officials have already been advised and they were surprised. For example, people from Kirkland Lake requested a review of the proposed projects and they were simply told that, from now on, there would be no possible review because the officials would henceforth be working in the provincial government.

Canadian Heritage committee  That's new.

Canadian Heritage committee  It's new for me too. I wasn't aware, and that concerns us very much. We already had trouble working with Service Canada on the proposed projects. It isn't easy. At the time of the cuts in the 1990s, we were told that, under sections 41 and 42 of the Official Languages Act, which concern the joint effort between the departments, there would be specific things for us and that the departments would have an obligation to propose concrete things to the organizations representing Francophone society.

Canadian Heritage committee  None.