Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Good afternoon, Ms. Fortier.
I have a lot of questions to ask you about the budget, which I have dissected, but first I am going to address the question of French.
I know that improving the status of French in the public service is one of your objectives. In recent months, there have been newspaper articles about how francophones are often bilingual but anglophones aren't. Using French on Zoom has been difficult. For example, even plumbers in remote regions like Port-Cartier on the North Shore are being asked to be bilingual, in case there are anglophone prisoners. The same requirement does not exist in Ontario or the Prairies, for example.
In 2016, $50 million was spent on francization courses for public servants. How can the effect of those courses on anglophones' level of bilingualism be measured, at the end of the day?