First of all, these questions warrant far more detailed and lengthy answers. It is not easy to simplify things. Even what Mr. Castonguay raises is part of a larger debate, and it is very difficult to condense that into a short analysis. All of that to say that the context in which we are appearing as guests today does not necessarily allow us to really go into detail, in the absence of an in-depth debate on these issues.
Like Mr. Castonguay and Ms. Lamarre, I can summarize the different categories. Citizenship and Immigration Canada's website basically deals with two categories. There is the language spoken on arrival—French, English, English and French, or neither English and French. And there are the figures provided each year by Citizenship and Immigration Canada.
That is not what Statistics Canada offers. It offers a different approach. First of all, it reassesses the situation every five years. There is a category for mother tongue, which is the language first learned and that you continue to understand. There is the language most often spoken at home. In 2001, there were different categories for the language most often spoken at home, which was a little confusing. There was also the language spoken regularly. So, there were three or four different categories for the language spoken at home. There is also knowledge of the official languages: do you know one or the other official language. There, again, there are several categories. There is the language spoken at work, the language most often spoken in a workplace. There are different categories, so it is easy to get lost in that data set.
Very often, the choice to emphasize one indicator or another will have an impact on how you see the status of French or other languages in a given context.
In Montreal, the status of the French language is very often measured in relation to its status on the island of Montreal. And one may wonder: why the island of Montreal? Why select that geographic area, rather than the Montreal metropolitan region? That is another question. Why not include Longueuil with the island of Montreal, and remove Dollard-des-Ormeaux? Why is it more appropriate to include Dollard-des-Ormeaux in an urban centre, as regards the status of a specific language? There are a lot of factors. And I do not think we can really reach any solid conclusions in a discussion that is limited to quick questions and answers.