At the same time, Statistics Canada has noted that for that 10-year period from 1996 to 2006 the number of bilingual high school students in this country has declined from about 23% or so to about 22%, so in some respects we were going in the wrong direction over that 10-year period.
We have to think these three things are somehow related: the number of bilingual high school students who are coming out of our country's public schools is declining; the admission requirements with respect to French are being relaxed; and graduation requirements with respect to a second language for entry into graduate programs are being somewhat relaxed. It seems to me that is all part of this same overall trend, which is a de-emphasis of the knowledge of a second language and a de-emphasis of a requirement for French.
Is this of concern to the association, and if it is, what sort of work is being done or what discussions are being had to take a look at this and address this?