Okay.
CPF (Ontario) has requested the creation of an FSL advisory committee at the Ministry of Education, but one does not yet exist. Regular communication, status reports, and recommendations continue to be forwarded to the attention of the Minister of Education.
The issues presented in these reports have not been addressed in the Ontario action plan, and no responses to recommendations have yet been received by our office. However, CPF (Ontario) continues to work with parents, teachers, school boards, other parent groups, the francophone community, and FSL researchers to further enhance FSL programs in Ontario schools in 2006-07. Our expanding partnerships will benefit FSL students and contribute to their success as they use their second official language.
Canadian Parents for French (Ontario) would like to put forward the following recommendations to the Standing Committee on Official Languages.
Recommendation 1 is that the committee recommend that each provincial ministry of education create a department dedicated to the administration of French second language programs in the province to develop new policies and monitor FSL program access and implementation, and that this department be adequately staffed with personnel having French second language expertise in order to meet the objectives of the province's action plan.
Recommendation 2 is that the committee recommend that each provincial ministry of education establish a French second language advisory committee, comprising FSL education stakeholders, to adequately address the consultative process as articulated in the province's action plan and the Canada-Ontario agreement, a component that Canadian Parents for French (Ontario) deems necessary.
Recommendation 3 is that the committee recommend that each provincial ministry of education modify the reporting framework for school boards to include detailed and transparent accountability for all annual second official language/French second language funding in their annual financial reports, and that measures for compliance be clearly communicated to school boards as an expectation of the ministry.
Recommendation 4 is that the committee recommend the continued monitoring of provincial action plans to meet the objective of Plan 2013 and achieve linguistic duality for young Canadians, and that the committee recommend the renewal of federal-provincial agreements as an ongoing commitment of the Government of Canada towards linguistic duality.
Our final recommendation is that the committee recommend that Canadian Parents for French (Ontario) continue to receive funding from the Department of Canadian Heritage to further enhance opportunities created for students to learn and use their second official language in contexts outside of school programs.
Thank you. Merci.