Official Languages committee  People from the francophone school boards would tell you that all the students coming out of their schools are bilingual. In a community school, English is taught as a second language, certainly, but the value is in the community mandate of the school vis-à-vis the linguistic min

Official Languages committee  The concept of the community school is not just about building or adding a community centre or something like that. The idea is that a school employee is mandated to reach out to the community. That person becomes a facilitator, bringing the community into the school so that the

Official Languages committee  I quite agree. What those organizations tell us is that, on the ground, it is not necessarily always money that they need. What they need is support at the level of major institutions. In terms of bilingualism, they have to have the impression that it is alive and well nationall

Official Languages committee  The short answer is yes. We are doing that and we are working at various levels. As we have mentioned, we work with provincial and territorial governments. At that stage, we don't think that we are working closely with the parents from Whistler who want to have an immersion schoo

Official Languages committee  I do not have the data with me. That's a good question. Determining the number is much more complex than the 2003 action plan might have led us to believe. There is a lot of material there for discussion. The work that we have been doing since 2003 has certainly made identifying

Official Languages committee  In terms of eligible participants, the answer is no. And in terms of second-language learners, the answer is that the numbers have not doubled.

Official Languages committee  I cannot tell you off the top of my head.

Official Languages committee  We have some data on eligible students, but there is always a debate about the number.

Official Languages committee  Sure, no problem.

Official Languages committee  The relationships between the federal government, Canadian Heritage and the departments of education are good. Work is also going very well between the provincial governments and the francophone school boards. If we consider the fact that the francophone population is scattered a

Official Languages committee  The reason why the federal government got involved in these issues dates back to the early 1970s. It started from the acknowledgement that implementing a minority education system would cost much more than making do with providing education to young minority language speakers in

Official Languages committee  Formal negotiations with the provinces will begin in the next few months. The Council of Ministers of Education, Canada has already set up its negotiation committee. We have had some contact already. We are getting ready for the start of the next fiscal year. We have a schedule o

Official Languages committee  Thank you very much for having us here today. The official languages support programs are the most significant in terms of cost, and they are the oldest programs of the Government of Canada dedicated exclusively to promoting official languages outside the federal government. The