We've had an Official Languages Act for 42 years. Governments, all governments, have timidly made commitments. We make commitments and provide funding, but when it comes to the federal government providing funding to a province, it has to include the official languages component or the linguistic duality clause, saying, “You know what? If we're going to provide you money for some legacy building, it needs to be bilingual. If we're going to provide money for celebrations, they need to be bilingual.”
Some people will say it's not possible across the country. Well, it is. As I said, there are 2.5 million of us. But when we did the Olympic relay, we reached 95% of the country; I can't remember exactly what it was, but we were within, I think, 10 or 25 kilometres of every Canadian across the country. All of the celebrations were done bilingually.
So that's important as well if we're going to give money to a province to distribute among the components. There are francophones in every province, every territory. We want to be part of those celebrations. We're proud to be Canadians. We want to celebrate, just like everybody else. We want to favour things where francophones celebrate but also where francophones, anglophones, first nations, and any Canadian can celebrate together, exchange, and dialogue. I think that's the important piece here.