Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
I would like to welcome all the witnesses here today.
It was Mr. Benoit, I believe, who talked about the reality we're dealing with here in Canada. I have been a member of this committee for one year. We looked at postsecondary education and determined that it was hard to find bilingual employees in Canada. There are 5,000 positions to be filled even in the federal public service. All committee members have understood, through listening to the witnesses, that the reality in Canada is as follows: there aren't enough people who speak both official languages.
Thank you, Mr. Benoit. I want to focus on the reality of the situation. You have 26,000 employees and you have to find bilingual staff. That's really a tough job. Imagine: we can't even find enough to fill 5,000 positions in the public service.
As I like statistics, I would like to know what you have done, in concrete terms, over the past year. I would like you all to tell me how many employees and volunteers you have found in the past year, how many you have now and how many you'll have once the Olympic and Paralympic Games have begun.