You mentioned the agreements with the communities. That's a problem we pointed out, but we also noticed—and that was somewhat related to the work you've done in this committee—that the minister acknowledged that there was a problem, and efforts were made to improve the situation. We recognize that in the report, but, for that reason, we are asking the minister to report to us at the end of the fiscal year on specific measures taken to ensure that phenomenon does not reoccur.
You mentioned the 11 universities, pilot projects. That's a step in the right direction, and I hope we can send the message. There's one thing that I tried to repeat to the deputy minister and officials, who themselves are recruitment officers for the government: tell the universities very clearly that between 12,000 and 15,000 new positions open up in the federal government every year, 5,000 of which are designated bilingual positions. I believe you yourselves emphasized in your report that the government is the largest employer in Canada requiring bilingual employees. It's very important that we send the message to the universities that they have a role to play in this system.
You know, this is a dynamic that has been around for 40 years: as a result of the Official Languages Act, governments tend to emphasize to the public that they don't have an obligation to learn the other language; the institution has an obligation to be bilingual. Official bilingualism isn't a problem for people; it's only the institution that should change. As a result, every time there is a change, it becomes an obligation if a position has to be filled, whether it be in the public service, in the Canadian Forces or the positions of political party leaders. We're currently having a discussion about the importance of linguistic duality in the judicial system. We tend to say whoa!, because we've been told for 40 years that that isn't our problem. However, there are some key positions, and it's important that the people who fill those positions speak both official languages. For this to work, there has to be a kind of promotion of the importance of linguistic duality in Canada.