Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Putting it another way, it's hard to go to war without ammunition. But that's exactly what you're doing. I remember accompanying Jeannine Séguin, president of the Fédération des francophones hors Québec at the time. She is someone who speaks out loud and strong, who makes appropriate demands. She was explaining to Serge Joyal, who was then Secretary of State for La Francophoni, that it first had to be understood that groups like Alliance Quebec—today the Quebec Community Groups Network—and the Fédération des communautés francophones et acadienne du Canada represent the Canadian and Quebec social fabric.
Today, if we used the same language, if you were representatives of banks, of GM or oil companies, you would be telling us how you would manage the billions of dollars or the tax credits that are granted to you by the Canadian government.
However, it's quite the contrary; it's still the same debate. I remember interdepartmental debates that took place in the mid-1980s to ensure that money didn't come just from Canadian Heritage or from the Department of the Secretary of State, as it was called at the time. People wanted the Canadian government to help all the communities fighting against assimilation or for rights in Quebec and in all of Canada. At the time, I was president of the Fédération des francophones de Saskatoon, which was experiencing the same thing.
At the time, the Chrétien-Martin government cut our funding. They wanted to cut our budget by 52%. Ultimately, it was cut by 37%. We know how hard it is to retain staff in that kind of situation. People don't wait forever. You yourself said that employees are being asked to go on employment insurance. If they're on contract, they can't get it.
We read the report that was written on the collaboration accords. I'm one of those who proposed the subject to the committee, and my colleagues agreed to discuss it. We know the solutions. The problem is systemic. We know that. I want to thank Mr. Godin for suggesting that we conduct this emergency meeting.
For the government and Parliament to understand, what solutions are the Fédération des communautés francophones et acadienne du Canada and the Quebec Community Groups Network proposing? You talked about multi-year agreements. What elements should be put in place so that we no longer have to meet on this subject, so that it works on its own?