Thank you.
While I respect the objective of the motion, I'm not going to support it either. I have two reasons. First, it doesn't distinguish between whether it's a person in management, a person in rank and file.... It doesn't distinguish between anything. It just says it's a person.
It would actually disable a person who was fully competent in one of Canada's official languages from being appointed. I don't think the wording of this thing is even constitutional. It would disable the government and the minister from appointing somebody who was fully competent in the official language of French or fully competent in the official language of English, because what's sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander. We must strictly ensure that all departments are functional in both our official languages, and we must ensure that all people who enter the public service have the ability to work and learn to work in both official languages, but I cannot accept that a citizen who is fully competent and functional in one of our official languages, whether that person speaks English fluently or French fluently, cannot be appointed by the government.
This resolution might be reworked so that I could support it, but it's got to come right down the middle and not be worded the way it is now.
Thank you.