Good, there's plenty of time.
Everybody knows the PICLO agreement, which is IPOLC in English. We had it for two years, and it was largely through this IPOLC agreement that the funding was established between Canadian Heritage and Canada Council. They needed an oversight group to make sure the money was managed properly; they brought together people from the different disciplines, and it was because of that encountering of people in different disciplines, which had not happened before, that we decided maybe it was time to have this summit in 2004.
ELAN's been around for two years; we're just now starting to build some solid infrastructure, and this IPOLC agreement expires next year, so we would really like to recommend that it be extended for at least another three to four years.
In the film and television sector they're just now signing the first IPOLC agreement. Again, it's the same situation: it's almost going to be cancelled before it begins.
There is a second recommendation I'd like to make. When the support for official minority languages was structured, there were regional or provincial programs and there were national programs. To separate the small groups from the large groups in the national programs, in most cases there's a criterion for eligibility that says you have to be present in at least three provinces. That makes a lot of sense if you're francophone, but it doesn't make a lot of sense if you're anglophone.
We've actually had people say to us, “Well, are you present in three provinces or more?” We say, “Well, what other provinces can we be minority anglophones in?” We had a lot of trouble getting people to address this rule. I suspect that if we're going to include anglophones under the minority language provision, somebody should revisit that rule. When we went to get funding for our website, an exception was made, but we shouldn't have to do special pleading and lobbying just simply to be considered eligible for a program like that.
We know that in the francophone sector there have been a number of multipartite agreements. Those would be very helpful for us. We're sort of late getting started, but we'd find it very helpful.
We know that the National Arts Centre has been very supportive of minority languages in its Atlantic Scene and Alberta Scene. We're not so sure the minority community in Quebec is getting the same kind of attention, so that could be examined while the programming is still ongoing.
Finally, a number of work groups have been established in the francophone artistic community, and something similar would be very beneficial in helping the English community to get organized, make some contacts, and take its future in its own hands.
I trust I haven't gone too far over the five minutes. Thank you for your attention.