Thank you very much, Mr. Blaney.
Welcome to our guests.
First of all, I would like to point out that there is a Franco-Ontarian fund, the Jean-Robert-Gauthier Fund, and there is in this context a yearly literary essay competition. This year, a Laval University student, Mr. Melkevik, won the prize. In his essay, published last April 21 in Le Droit, he writes something I would subscribe to. It applies to you all. He says that the state must grant special consideration to francophone minorities: francophone communities outside Quebec must be protected, encouraged and supported.
I personally come from Ontario. I was born in Hawkesbury. I worked for a long time and with great interest among French-speaking communities in a minority setting in Canada. One of the positions I held involved Franco-Saskatchewanian school management. It was a very rewarding experience. We all know that in 1931, the Conservative government in Saskatchewan abolished French-language schools. It was not until 1995 that they were allowed to reopen. In 1968, immersion schools were created in the province, but there had not yet been talk of creating schools where French was the first language of instruction.
I have the following question for Canadian Parents for French. I would like it to be perceived as a possible solution and not so much as an attack or condemnation. I'm giving you the example of Saskatchewan because of the French fact and because your activities cover the entire country. Of the 10,000 students who could be registered in French-language schools in Saskatchewan, only 1,000 are. The other 9,000 mainly go to English-language schools or immersion schools.
The problem we had at the time and which remains, was to convince people in immersion schools to redirect FL1 students, in other words those who speak French as a mother tongue, to schools where French was the primary language rather than keep them in immersion schools. We believe, and I'm going to say a bad word now, that that amounts to total assimilation, given that these young people end up serving as models for young anglophones learning French. I do not object to anglophones learning French, but that should not happen on the backs of French-Canadian or minority French-Canadian communities.
I know that you have established a partnership with the Fédération des communautés francophones et acadienne, and that is very good. Partnerships lead to solutions. I would like to know whether you, at Canadian Parents for French, are prepared to tell people within provincial school boards to redirect these students towards schools where French is the first language of instruction rather than to keep them in their own school boards despite the fact that one student represents $5,400 in income? Are you prepared to do that much to support the French fact?