As you know, 25% of all francophones living in a minority community in Canada are in New Brunswick. The 32 provincial organizations that we represent—and there are many more at the regional and local levels—were appalled when they heard the announcement.
As I said, as regards democracy, it gave us an opportunity to defend our rights when government did not interpret legislation in the same way as our community did. As someone said earlier, the law evolves and laws must also evolve. What was good in 1931 may no longer be good in 2007.
Therefore, we must move the legislation forward and it is crucial to have this program or some other program that would give us the same resources to defend our position in court when discussion, dialogue and diplomacy have failed to allow us to reach an agreement with the government.
Now, what can we do when things do not work out? We take our case to court, but, as you know, that is very expensive. Therefore, I think this is undemocratic and unfair for communities that do not have the resources or the money to take their cases to court, whereas the government goes to court at taxpayers' expense. Everyone should have an equal chance.