Okay.
It varies from province to province. Our experience is very different from that of Anglo-Quebecers, who live in a single province. Francophone communities are spread out across the country outside Quebec. As a result, the situation can vary dramatically by province and territory.
Let me just say that some provinces provide more extensive services in French. There is just one province, New Brunswick, that is officially bilingual. The other provinces have French-language services acts, such as Ontario. Others have policies pertaining to French-language services, such as Manitoba and others. The availability of services in French and the way in which the province or territory offers them varies. The same is true at the municipal level. To my knowledge, three provinces currently have bilingual municipality associations or groups of municipalities that offer services in French, but they do not necessarily do so because they are required to by law. These provinces offer services in French because they have francophone communities and because they wish to offer services to them. I am referring to Ontario, Manitoba, and New Brunswick. I do not have sufficiently detailed information to add anything further in this regard.
To return to what I said earlier, I would say that the main concern of the Fédération des communautés francophones et acadienne at present is to identify what actions the federal government can take and, since it already has tools to enhance the vitality of official language communities, how it can use and apply them. I am referring to the Official Languages Act. It is not fully implemented but should be to ensure first that the federal government fulfills its own commitments across all provinces and territories. This is very important. In so doing, we believe that the federal government would also set the right tone and could then be an official languages champion and encourage the provinces to do more in this regard.
As to francophone communities, the conference of francophone ministers is held once per year to address a range of issues related to living in French across Canada, including Quebec. The federal, provincial, and territorial ministers review all the laws pertaining to French-language services in various provinces and discuss ways of improving them. The provinces compare notes and make slow progress. They do make progress, though, and actions can be taken. In this regard, the federal government has a key leadership role to play to ensure that the provinces and territories continue to participate in this movement to promote linguistic duality right across the country.
Such promotion could enable the 2.6 million people who want to live their lives in French in Canada to do so, and to have the space to do it in as many sectors as possible. This also includes education, health services, economic development, cultural life, and so forth.