Order, please.
First, I'd like to welcome you to the Standing Committee on Official Languages. For those who don't know me, my name is Yvon Godin, and I'm the member for Acadie—Bathurst, a riding in northeastern New Brunswick.
I'd like to introduce the members of the committee. They are Sylvie Boucher, parliamentary secretary to the Minister for Official Languages and La Francophonie, and Steven Blaney, both members of the party in power; the Honourable Raymond Simard and Brian Murphy, both members of the Liberal Party, which is the official opposition. I am the member for the New Democratic Party. The Bloc québécois isn't represented here this evening because Paule Brunelle had to leave early to go back to Parliament.
It's really a pleasure for us to be in the Winnipeg region. As you're no doubt aware, the Official Languages Committee has been in existence for 25 years. The committee has decided to do a national tour to meet people in the regions. We thought it was important to go into the field to see what was being done there and to meet with people. People don't always have the opportunity to travel to Ottawa to attend the committee's proceedings. We feel they're more comfortable talking to us when we're one their home ground than when they come to meet us in Ottawa.
I can tell you that the committee's tour has been profitable. The purpose of the tour was to hear organizations and people tell us about the 2003 Action Plan for Official Languages. Where does the plan stand? Has it been beneficial? How could it be improved? Do you have any recommendations to make in the areas of health, immigration or other official languages fields, such as the one represented by the Fédération des associations de juristes d'expression française de common law, which is here today?
Here's how we'll be proceeding. You each have a period of five minutes to make your presentation. You might say that five minutes isn't very much, but, as you'll see, with questions, that five minutes will be much longer. We're somewhat familiar with the official languages situation, but the purpose of the meeting is to ask you questions and then to prepare a report that we'll table in Parliament so that it can take a position on it.
Sylviane Lanthier has just arrived. We had planned to meet until 10:00 p.m., but I believe people will agree to adjourn the meeting at 9:00 p.m.
I've received a note stating that Michel Tétreault has to leave at 8:00 p.m. To give him a chance to speak, I invite members who have questions to ask him to do so once he has made his presentation. You have five minutes, and the members will also have five minutes to ask their questions and hear the answers.
We'll start with Charles Gagné, who is President of the Conseil communauté en santé du Manitoba.