Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I'm proud to be here today on behalf of the 4,000 learners enrolled in the Francophone program across this province. We're happy to identify certain aspects of the Action Plan for Official Languages that are priorities for us.
The Conseil scolaire francophone de la Colombie-Britannique, or CSF, is convinced that, under its mandate to contribute to the development and linguistic and cultural vitality of the Francophone population of this province, it is providing for the education of our province's Francophones and strengthening linguistic duality in the country.
It's important to emphasize that CSF stands out at the national level, since it's considered the most culturally diversified board in French Canada. The board serves a mixed population that comes from 72 countries and speaks a total of 58 languages. Another essential point to bear in mind is that more than 80% of our children come from exogamous families, including my own two children.
Through our activities and strategic orientations, we directly reach two or your three targets: education and development of the community aspect in our schools. In addition, by promoting Francophone education, we're providing the federal government with the next generation that will provide the federal public service with bilingual staff in this province.
I can definitely cite the example of the daughter of one of the former chairs of the Conseil scolaire francophone, Ms. JoAnne Hennessey. She now works for the federal government in British Columbia, after going through the Francophone system in this province.
We support this major initiative by the federal government since it provides the school board with access to essential tools and funding enabling it to achieve its objectives as identified in our strategic orientations.
If we want to continue growing and providing a French-language education to the largest possible number of Francophone rights holders, it's important that we be able to provide the Francophone community of our province with high-quality schools. On the one hand, we have to establish new structures in certain communities where French-language instruction has never been provided and build new schools where the facilities that have been leased to us are inadequate. On the other hand, as a result of our growth in certain centres, it is essential that we be able to expand our facilities or build new schools, in order to meet the constantly increasing demand and ensure our institutions are visible by providing them with a strategic location. Let's not forget that we have experienced the highest growth rate of any provincial school board and that it is important that this growth not be halted by non-existent school infrastructure.
Unless we receive federal government support for the construction or acquisition of certain schools, as has been the case in recent years in Surrey, Kelowna, Victoria and North Vancouver, and the upcoming construction of the first French-language secondary school in Vancouver, our growth could well be slowed, and we may not be able to meet the expectations of a growing Francophone community that at least has a French-language school system. Since census data suggest to us that we're only reaching a fraction of eligible Francophone students, we think it is important to afford Francophone students the opportunity to study in French. If the Government of Canada still hopes to increase the percentage of eligible students enrolled at Francophone schools outside Quebec, it is essential that that population be provided with a system of high-quality schools that can serve that population.
The creation of the Conseil scolaire francophone has been made possible by parents' desire to educate their children in French. Our parents and community partners feel that strengthening our community and preparing our children for school call for the creation of a system of French-language child care centres and community spaces. You've already heard that today, and you'll be hearing it again a number of times.
Since the Conseil scolaire francophone is established in the various regions of the province, we feel that our schools have a role to play in our communities. These institutions must become community spaces, community schools capable of serving the Francophone community and of providing essential services for the development of our community and reinforcement of the Francophone community. Child care centres and preschool programs are still an essential component of francization.
For our school establishments to become community schools and provide essential services, it is important that the CSF and the Francophone community have access to a funding program that promotes and facilitates the creation of Francophone community spaces and child care centres.
Today, we see that schools that have Francophone child care are guaranteed of being able to recruit student rights holders, and our kindergarten classes are overflowing. However, this essential service is not offered in all our communities. To that end, the CSF is working in close cooperation with the Fédération des parents francophones de la Colombie-Britannique.
We believe that the future of our Francophone community depends on our ability to reach our children, from the cradle, and that francization must occur as soon as possible, since everything in child development occurs before the age of five.
The school board wishes to conclude its presentation by emphasizing its support for the government's action plan for official languages, since it recognizes how important it is to support Canada's Francophone communities and recognize the importance of linguistic duality.
We recently celebrated our tenth anniversary and are constantly expanding our school system throughout the province thanks in large part to the federal government's support. We therefore take this opportunity to thank you for your past support and emphasize how important it is to continue further strengthening and developing our Francophone community in this province.
My colleagues, Jean Watters, director general of the school board, and Paul de la Riva, the board's director of communications, will no doubt be speaking during the question period.
Thank you.