Thank you.
The aim of my brief presentation is to draw your attention to one of the important elements of the action plan. As Bruce just pointed out, a significant percentage of the $750 million was earmarked for programs under my purview. With your indulgence, I will therefore make a few remarks on this subject.
Canadian Heritage has managed programs supporting official languages for almost 40 years now. The resources granted under the action plan allowed us to strengthen mechanisms that were already in place. I think it is important to bear that in mind. Although certain provisions of the action plan created entirely new initiatives, Canadian Heritage used the additional funding to strengthen existing mechanisms.
In the interest of succinctness, there are two official languages support programs. One is called the Development of Official Languages Communities, and one of its major components addresses education in the minority language, i.e., French outside of Quebec and English in Quebec. This program also supports communities through their community networks and supports provinces in the provision of provincial and territorial services to minority communities. That is the first program.
The second program is called Enhancement of Official Languages and primarily focuses on second-language learning. In other words, it focuses on knowledge and understanding the other language. The action plan also provided new funding for this program.
To conclude, the action plan aimed to address specific challenges that had been identified at the time, including primarily, but not exclusively, those relating to education. Page 12 provides you with an overview of some of our objectives, including recruiting and retaining entitled students in French-language schools in minority communities. That was one of our principal objectives. Other objectives included improving access to post-secondary education, raising standards in post-secondary education and developing school community centres, which are key to recruitment and retention in a number of communities. All of these measures fall under the education component of our support program for French-language minorities outside of Quebec and English-speakers in Quebec. The plan also allocated support for provinces for the provision of new or improved community services. Obviously, I am referring to provincial and territorial services.
Obviously, this involved significantly less money than was allocated for education; if memory serves me well, it was around $19 million over five years. In terms of community support, the plan also provided resources to community networks for individual projects relating to culture, community radio and communication. With regard to the enhancement of the official languages program, the program focusing on second-language learning, our objectives included improving teaching skills. As there is a shortage of qualified teachers, particularly for teaching French to English speakers, we also focused on modernizing second-language teaching methods.
That completes my brief overview of what the action plan for official languages entailed for Canadian Heritage.