Official Languages committee  There would definitely be a way to gather that type of information.

Official Languages committee  But there would have to be a will to conduct that type of survey and to gather that type of information. Francophiles often say they are open, regardless of the language of service. That's not always the case of individuals of francophone stock. I'm sorry, but I don't remember your last question.

Official Languages committee  At Statistics Canada, as I mentioned to Mr. Godin, we conduct an enormous number of surveys on various topics. When we conduct surveys, often funded by various federal departments, we are able to ask the same questions in all provinces and of all respondents. To minimize the volume of responses, of course, we often try to use administrative files.

Official Languages committee  Yes, you're absolutely right. This is a phenomenon that we've been observing for the past 10, 15 or 20 years. Francophones are clearly migrating from the rural to the urban areas. What we often observe is that the youngest, as in all communities, regardless of language group, leave the rural areas to go and live in urban areas in order to study.

Official Languages committee  —all the communities. I'll briefly mention an interesting observation that came out of a study that we conducted on health professionals and the official language minorities, at Health Canada's request. In a city like Toronto, nearly 25% of doctors were able to hold a conversation in French, despite the fact that the weight of francophones is nevertheless quite low in that city.

Official Languages committee  That's it. I don't have the exact number, but there are quite a lot of Chinese parents who choose to send their children to immersion schools because they figure that may be an economic advantage for their children.

Official Languages committee  We have those figures in the administrative files of the Tourism Division and of the Education Statistics Centre at Statistics Canada. We know how many people attend those schools by region. However, we don't have those figures by mother tongue of the parents. That aspect is more often anecdotal.

Official Languages committee  Of course there are surveys at Statistics Canada. There are tonnes of surveys and there's the census. However, to answer your question, I would say that one of the difficulties lies in the fact that these statistics are usually gathered by means of provincial administrative files.

Official Languages committee  Absolutely. I'll try to send you the figures we have on the subject.

Official Languages committee  Right now, I would say that question is related to the amendment to Part IV of the Official Languages Act. To date, we've used the first official language spoken as a criterion. Moreover, there are people who believe that we shouldn't be concerned with statistics, that we should instead simply stick to the communities, to the schools, etc.

Official Languages committee  Indeed. We know that nearly 45% of francophones outside Quebec live in municipalities where they represent less than 10% of the population and that 60% of those francophones speak English as their main language and mainly identify with the anglophone group. That's a challenge and also an issue.

Official Languages committee  Quickly, I would say that you've raised a very current and extremely complex issue. If we had the day, perhaps we could examine it. I'll give you just one example. In the survey on the vitality of the official language minorities conducted in 2006, we surveyed 31,000 children outside Quebec who are considered anglophones, since English is their mother tongue, and who use that language most often at home, although those children regularly use French at home, with the French-speaking parent, and they attend an immersion school or a French-language school.

Official Languages committee  That's a very good question. I don't remember the number off the top of my head. We could easily provide you with that information. There is indeed an interest. It's a phenomenon that we've observed. Sometimes, when we look at statistics, we of course get the impression that people whose mother tongue is English tend more to attend French immersion programs at English schools.

Official Languages committee  I'll answer you very quickly as follows. When we conducted the survey on the vitality of the official language minorities in 2006, nearly 50% of francophones outside Quebec stated, based on their experience, that they identified with both the francophone and anglophone groups. A kind of bilingual identity has emerged in Canada outside Quebec, and I would say that it's quite an issue.

Official Languages committee  We noticed that immigration outside Quebec represents 2% of francophone immigration. We have to see what's going on in the field, more locally. For example, we recently learned that a population of 400 Rwandan immigrants settled in Winnipeg. Those immigrants know French and want services in French.