Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I understand the principle here. If federal funds are not used for their intended purpose, particularly for French second-language instruction or, in this case, French first-language instruction, then we have to know what is going on. I know that, at one point, the Fédération de la jeunesse canadienne-française had done a study in that regard, a study entitled À LA COURTE PAILLE, which showed that in British Columbia, for example, federal funding had been allocated to neither French as a second language nor French as a first language instruction. No one knows what the money was used for exactly. This is a major problem, both in terms of education and French as a second language or French as a first language scholarships. We should indeed be concerned when funds are not used for the intended purpose.
That said, I have noted that Mr. Chong spoke about private schools. We could at least invite witnesses here to explain how the system works. Do we also want to consider public schools? Do we want to include school boards and therefore deal with public schools?
Here is how things work: the federal government gives money to the province; the provincial Ministry of Education redistributes that amount according to how its school boards are structured; and school boards decide to provide a given school with more funding or cut funding for another school altogether. We end up by looking straight at how the province's system works. Indeed, the following question arises: what to do about the private and public sectors? Is Mr. Chong referring to both? We would have to meet with people who could explain how federal funding is distributed to the provinces, how the federal government can follow that money, and if there are ways to encourage provinces to respect their agreements. We agree on the fact that when we deal with provincial areas of jurisdiction, we are no longer dealing with our own.
The issue is worth raising. We could talk to the people whose job it is to ensure that federal funds are channeled to the province, to know how the funds are distributed and whether results are obtained. Are there accounting records proving that the money was sent? Are the provinces required to keep such records or not? You understand what I am talking about. We cannot simply be told that this is none of our business and that we are outside our jurisdiction.
There you have it, Mr. Chair.