National Defence is indeed an important issue. We had at least one presentation from the Department of National Defence during the first session. The policy at the time had failed, as we know. The commissioner said that. We all know very well that the procedures and programs offered by the Canadian Forces as well as their way of promoting the French language in the armed forces have not worked.
The department just launched a new program; I think that the new approach was implemented last spring. We are at the initial stages of the process. We know that the first attempt did not work.
What I'm saying is that I think defence needs time to implement the new program they were briefing us on when they came before the committee last time.
Perhaps it was during the month of May. It is only a matter of a few months. The new program was just launched. It is too early to discuss the results.
The Court Challenges Program is also an important issue. Our committee did a great deal of work on this issue. I remember that we debated it with every community that we visited during our trip across Canada. We prepared a report with recommendations to the government. We did debate this issue at the time, before tabling our report in the House.
Then, just before summer, a study came out. We debated this at length with the witnesses at the time. Mr. Godin and Mr. Nadeau suggest that we should continue. Let me emphasize that this is an important issue which is currently before the courts. There are also other issues. We must study them. As far as I am concerned, I think that we did a great deal of work on the Court Challenges Program, and there are other, equally important issues.
This is why I suggested a new approach, for determining the important issue for minority official languages communities. There are several important issues at stake.
I like what you said about the priorities for the communities. We live in minority language communities. We would like to know how we can help these communities.
During the first session, we also discussed the issue of the young generation. We have not really begun our work in this regard. We are still discussing the next generation of workers in our communities. It is still a worrisome issue. Immigration could be one solution. Minority language communities are still discussing immigration and various ways of integrating immigrants, especially francophones. The coming generation consists of children and young people. Will they stay in their communities? How can we promote language, etc.? This is another concept. Post-secondary studies for youth is also an issue. During our trip, I learned many things, and heard witnesses who said that the coming generation was very important. We are talking about young people in minority language communities. This topic is my second suggestion.