Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I thank all the witnesses for being with us today.
I, too, come from the world of education—that seems to be a pattern today—more specifically, from the world of college education, in Quebec. I used to teach literature. I am therefore very sensitive to what Ms. Caron and Mr. Obed have said.
I have actually taught elements of culture and language, particularly to aboriginal students in my riding, namely Innu students. So I was able to see, for several years, the difficulties that the students were facing. They understood the language, but sometimes we tried to go very far in teaching literary works in French.
Mr. Obed talked about the difficulties on top of that, and I have seen them too. Quebec students who are not members of a first nation also have difficulties, but these are not necessarily related to remoteness, for example. As Mr. Obed mentioned, we want these students to be able to study at home, and that is sometimes very far away. Some of the students I taught lived more than 800 kilometres from the college.
I would like Ms. Caron and Mr. Obed to tell us how this affects other areas. One of the things they mentioned was housing. I am not going to raise the topic of jurisdictions, which is quite unusual for the Bloc Québécois, because I am speaking generally. There are children who go to school far from home. There is also the issue of cultural references.
I will now turn the floor over to the witnesses about the external needs that make us want to do better.
I would have liked to tell you about Kiuna College in Quebec, but I will come back to that later.