Thank you, Mr. Chair, and thank you all for having taken the time to meet with us here today.
I'll be quite brief, as the chair has asked, so that we can move on to questions. I think that we could talk about the various issues a little later.
You asked a few questions, when you invited us here. I think that, generally speaking, the communities had a good experience with the Canada-community agreements, nevertheless, various quite serious problems remain with regard to the way those agreements are managed, particularly with regard to some of your questions.
I have held this position since the first agreement was signed, in 1994; I saw the evolution. I was around even before the agreements, so I remember how things worked previously. I can tell you that there has been progress, but, at the same time, not enough of it, for example with regard to funding. I know that this issue is often raised, money really does make the world go round. I think that there are very significant challenges with regard to funding of the agreements. Our communities need funding that is not forthcoming in order to fulfil demands and implement initiatives.
I think that organizations feel a little bit like the air is being squeezed out of them. Currently, due to a lack of funding, we don't have the capacity to innovate, to expand or keep our staff. We know that this is a very significant issue. As you know, we feel that we're doing important work for Canada and for our communities. We are present in each of our communities, which is very important for our provinces and territories. To this end, we need financial support.
I would go even a little further and say that, in our communities, we represent the heart of the francophonie, but we also welcome a new and different francophonie. For example, in our region, we are seeing more and more francophone immigrants. We need resources to take in these immigrants. We are getting some from the Canadian government, but mainly from the province of Manitoba, in our case.
We also need money for people who are learning French in Manitoba. For example, there are 105,000 people who speak both official languages. We must be able to present our culture to these people, to provide them with services and programs, among other things. All these things are very important and are related to the funding our organizations receive.
With regard to accountability, red tape remains and has been around for years and years, and centuries and centuries. Frankly, there are no more excuses for it. It is now May 1 and we still haven't heard about our funding, which started on April 1, and we don't expect to hear about it for some time. We feel that this situation, which has existed for quite some time, is not normal.
With regard to all the reports that we have to write, once again, they take resources and expertise. We want to do professional work. We believe in being accountable and all that it entails. In our opinion, it's extremely important to be accountable, but we need resources to do so.
As far as managing our priorities, I think it is important that there be more coordination with regard to all the agreements in our communities. We are talking here about the Canada-community agreement, but we also have other agreements, such as the Canada-province agreements. We need to be much more strategic with regard to our agreements. We need to keep the bigger picture in mind. The community must be able to have the bigger picture, both to be effective and to ensure long-term planning. So, in our opinion, managing priorities means taking into consideration all these factors and ensuring that we have a real place at the table. We don't just want to be consulted, we want to be part of the decision-making process in relation to all these agreements, be it in the area of education, the Canada-province agreements or the Canada-community agreements. So we feel that managing priorities is extremely important.
Finally, we recommend to the committee that the next agreements be truly negotiated with each of the provinces and territories so that those agreements meet the needs of each jurisdiction instead of having a one-size-fits-all or a cookie-cutter approach.
In our opinion, it's extremely important to have agreements that truly meet our needs on the ground. However, this will require additional investments in some regions for all kinds of reasons: be it that there are more needs, that those needs are greater, etc. I think that we have to address that issue in that context.
On that note, Mr. Chair, I want to thank you and I will now give the floor to my colleagues.