Yes, I think it's a natural place to locate multiculturalism. Some time ago, I think in part of 1995, multiculturalism was situated in the main ministry as the citizenship program, and that makes a lot of sense. First of all, CIC has a lot of resources to focus on settlement and integration of newcomers, but those programs end when people become citizens. We obviously want new Canadian citizens to have an active and ongoing sense of their citizenship. So the way I see it, once people have become citizens, the multiculturalism program is there to provide programs to promote more active citizenship and better integration. People aren't necessarily fully integrated into our society the moment they become citizens.
I recently met a Canadian immigrant of Indian origin who is a citizen who has lived here for 12 years and who has great difficulty speaking either of our official languages. So there's clearly a need for ongoing programming to assist people even after they become citizens.
Also, I think there's a natural linkage between multiculturalism, i.e., our model of pluralism, and citizenship. It's part of our national identity. So I want to focus more on promoting Canada's identity, our historic routes, our civic values, in the citizenship program, and I think that's a natural fit with multiculturalism.
I should add that in fact in the ministry we've co-located the multiculturalism program with the citizenship program under the same director general to help identify those synergies.