From our perspective, there have definitely been some regional variations that were much appreciated, and we expect to be able to continue this positive effort with the Department of Canadian Heritage. The mechanisms of the agreement that were established jointly with the Department of Canadian Heritage work very well. The community is satisfied with those mechanisms. It isn't the Fédération des francophones de la Colombie-Britannique itself that is responsible; it receives a mandate to executive them. There is a vast community forum that includes the member associations of the federation and non-members. There are indeed more informal groups. The cooperation is thus even greater. We have a big legislative assembly that deliberates, and a provincial cooperation committee is then elected. We've developed mechanisms, and that works well.
The Department of Canadian Heritage has let us negotiate with it, and we are very satisfied with that. We are very much attached to a particular situation in British Columbia: one person among us works for the community, and her goal is to achieve greater interdepartmental cooperation. So we have an employee, in the context of this agreement, whose work is to assist the Department of Canadian Heritage in achieving greater cooperation among the various federal departments. That's very useful. A bridge is being built between one person from the Department of Canadian Heritage and another from the community. That's very effective. It helps the departments and the community to stay in touch, to see what the priorities are and to collaborate better.
We have another situation that is dear to us: we are building ever closer ties with our provincial government. It is very important for British Columbia that we be able to innovate and be a bastion of innovation and that we test new approaches that go beyond the usual framework. We are convinced that the department shares our opinion on that.