Thank you.
First of all, I think we have been able to surmount the obstacles by working to develop linkages.
We have just returned from Acadie. We only just signed an agreement to develop a bachelor's program in forestry that will be jointly delivered by our college and the University of Moncton, allowing young Francophone students to take advantage of the expertise that exists in New Brunswick in that area and then come back home. I don't doubt they will come back. What is important, however, is economic development and stability. Those young Francophones will come back home even richer, because they will have learned about another culture or gotten to know brothers and cousins who are not that far away.
It is possible to break down those distances. We signed a similar linkage agreement with the Université Sainte-Anne in Nova Scotia. I am so proud that New Brunswick and Nova Scotia have their own Francophone university.
The Court Challenges issue is certainly of great concern to me. At the time, I worked with other colleagues on the Montfort file; I am from a family that has been defending the French fact in Ontario for 250 or 300 years. We need access to funds in order to do that, and the cost of preparing a case is huge. Whether it goes through the Association canadienne-française de l'Ontario, or the new Assemblée de la francophonie de l'Ontario which was created this summer, it is important that our minority community continue to have access to federal assistance.
I could spend a lot of time talking about the challenges we face because of the federal and provincial governments. Sometimes our agency finds itself caught between the federal and provincial governments on matters relating to health, education, community activities, and so on. We have to be relatively capable of meeting these kinds of challenges.
One of the problems I would like to raise has to do with learning a trade in Ontario. I am currently discussing this issue with Crown counsels with a view to showing that Francophones are subject to systemic discrimination when it comes to learning a trade in Ontario. I alone am handling this file, but I do hope to receive some assistance, in order to clarify the whole issue of trades training or vocational training, and the discrimination that I believe exists in that area in Ontario.
Literacy is a major priority for Ontario colleges. That may not be the case for colleges in other provinces, but in my view, literacy is important. I was recently told about a variety of cuts, including a $17 million budget cut that will directly affect the Coalition francophone pour l'alphabétisation et la formation de base.
I teach basic education, particularly in Northern Ontario. I have the highest complement of clients who have not completed Grade 12. I have to sit down with a father or mother who may have worked in a mine or in forestry, and talk about their sense of pride in trying to convince them to go back to school. That is not an easy thing to do. I have to sweet talk them, be supportive and convince them to go back to school. But I don't necessarily receive any money from my province for doing that work. I have to knock on a lot of different doors to get that money. It's a huge challenge.
My apologies for getting so passionate about this.