Thank you.
You talked about Sault Ste. Marie. Earlier. I went to Sturgeon Falls about a month ago and was surprised to see that 80% of people were speaking French. I went into stores where they were speaking French. In fact, everywhere I went, people were speaking French. In the spring, I went to Sault Ste. Marie and met with Francophone groups who were wearing a small pin that said “Bonjour”. You saw it, did you not? It's not much, but people suggested that I wear it. When I got to the Sault Ste. Marie airport, a lady came up to me and said “Bonjour, monsieur.” I asked her how she knew that I spoke French, and she said it was because of my pin. That is one way of allowing Francophones to recognize each other.
Also in Sault Ste. Marie, they are in the process of setting up a community centre that will bring together all the different organizations in a single venue. People will be able to know who they are, come together, and feel supported. In fact, because Francophones are scattered here and there, they don't have an opportunity to meet. They don't know one another. Since the City of Sault Ste. Marie declared itself to be unilingual Anglophone, Francophones are almost afraid to speak French. I agree with you in that respect, Mr. Larouche.
The action plan has been in place since 2003. What do you suggest we do, under this plan, to help a community like Sault Ste. Marie to come out of its shell? I certainly don't want to insult anybody, but you yourself said this, Mr. Larouche: people are afraid to speak French. That's terrible.
In Toronto, Ms. Barbot said that we shouldn't talk about Francophone minorities anymore; instead, we should talk about official languages. I agree with you, Mr. Hubert, that the Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages should probably no longer exist because we should no longer be coping with this kind of problem. Our country was founded by two peoples: Francophones and Anglophones. If everybody respected those two identities, we wouldn't have this problem and we would probably have better institutions for our young people. They would be interested in attending Francophone institutions just as much as Anglophone ones.
So, what do you suggest that we recommend?