Official Languages committee  What you say is really interesting. In Labrador City there is one major employer, which is IOC. Because the management is English-speaking, our francophone youth, for some strange reason, are put aside when they are applying for jobs. They are not hired over the English-speaking population.

Official Languages committee  May I speak? My colleague talked about the problems of the small anglophone communities in the Eastern Townships. What we're lacking on the Port-au-Port Peninsula and in the Eastern Townships are services, whether in English or in French. My community on the Port-au-Port Peninsula currently doesn't have a medical clinic or a doctor.

Official Languages committee  The situation is the same for us. No negotiations or evaluations have been started.

Official Languages committee  Mr. Chairman, first I would like to thank you for the opportunity to appear before this committee today. Knowing that I couldn't add anything new to the list of complaints you've already received, I preferred this morning to share with you examples of what managing the collaboration agreement and contribution agreements in Newfoundland and Labrador represents for us in terms of time and energy.

Official Languages committee  No, we do not have a francophone university or college here; we do not have this type of institution and that is, to some extent, a shortcoming.

Official Languages committee  Acadie.

Official Languages committee  There is no Acadie College.

Official Languages committee  I brought it up because it is a fairly unusual situation. I especially want Josée to tell the committee what ACOA staff said.

Official Languages committee  No, but I would like Josée to talk to you about ACOA, the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency.

Official Languages committee  I will begin and then perhaps Josée can expand on my answer. If you are wondering what kind of relationship exists between francophones and anglophones in a province or a city, just take a taxi. The taxi driver will tell you exactly what he thinks and will happily take charge of the conversation.

Official Languages committee  We have an excellent relationship with the provincial government. In my opinion, we have never seen such openness toward the French-speaking community. The advantage of being a small province is that you have access to the ministers. I refer particularly to the ministers who are of interest to us.

Official Languages committee  You were asking about future challenges in health care. We face every possible challenge you can imagine. Our job is to ensure that ultimately we have proper health care services for people in their own language, and there is no doubt that this is urgent. If a person is French speaking and ill, it is no easy matter to go somewhere and ask for healthcare and to end up speaking a language that is not one's own and trying to explain or discuss matters to ensure that one gets proper health care.

Official Languages committee  Exactly. The program is even used in cases involving health care. There is no doubt that it ought to be reinstated. I think that the nationwide reaction to the cuts speak volumes about how necessary the program is. That being said, I would like to return to the matter of health care system...

Official Languages committee  An online petition has been organized in the Atlantic region, on the Café Acadie web page at Acadie.net. For various reasons, our Federation has not yet made any representations. Firstly, our AGM is coming up soon and we decided to wait until then to properly address how we should react.

Official Languages committee  Exactly.