Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I would just like to say I don't quite understand why Mr. Coderre might be opposed to the motion. I do understand the argument about les champs de compétence, the areas of responsibility. But I think what's important here is that there is federal money going to the Province of Ontario, and there's been a change in policy. I don't think many of us know, or any of us knows the details about this. I think the aim of this motion is to have people come in front of us to simply explain what was happening originally, what is happening now, why there's been a change, and what the impact on the schools has been, and to just gather information.
We do this for many other topics, for many other studies that we do. For example, CBC has champs de compétence as well. They made certain decisions. We asked them to come in front of our committee to explain why they made such decisions. What was the impact? What did we think the impact was? What was some of the feedback we had received? What did they think about that? It was to enter into dialogue with the key stakeholders on these issues.
This argument of champs de compétence has never stopped this committee before, certainly not from having productive discussions with key witnesses about a matter of key importance. I just wanted to explain. I think what I see here is that this motion allows the committee to gather very useful and important information regarding a subject that touches on second-language training in the province of Ontario using federal money. As Mr. Chong rightly pointed out, federal funding is supporting this. If there is a change in the policy, I myself would like to know what the change is exactly and why the change was made. I'd like them to explain that. Then I'd also like to know from the schools, particularly the smaller schools, what the impact is on them. I see this as giving us an opportunity as a committee to work together and to gather useful information.
Thank you.