We have been working on this for four years. Our approach involves doing pilot projects here and there in the regions. So people see progress being made. They reacted well to the plan because in their view, it provides for more action and more longer term support. So there has been no criticism of the plan in the daily and weekly newspapers outside Quebec, quite the opposite.
Now, I think it is time to deliver the goods. One thing that is felt to be crucial is the establishment of intra-provincial networks so that we can see how things are going. At the same time, something has to be done about the attitudes of people living in our communities, for the reasons I mentioned before. We have to make sure the people come and have a positive experience.
All that means a lot of work. But it looks like the communities are on board. It also entails—and this is not necessarily easy—a redefinition of our communities' identity reference points. It is no longer about the Canadian born, old stock francophones that our communities were talking about 10 or 15 years ago. The Francophonie has changed.
Had nothing been done, there would has been a crisis in Toronto and Ottawa. Indeed the Africans came, largely from Sub-Saharan Africa, and demanded to participate in our communities. Our communities were reluctant to alter their identity reference point. That is happening now, and it is moving at an incredible pace. I think that in 20 years, when people talk about what our communities are currently going through, they may say that they went through their own little quiet revolution.