The next step is in Arabic it would be...? I would like to know.
The promotion of bilingualism shouldn't be based solely on commercial needs in Canada. If this issue depends solely on commercial requirements, we'll become a unilingual English country faster than we think, like the United States. We have to watch out for that.
However, it's not because they are engaged in commerce that business people are gods. When Staples advertises on television in Quebec, it's under the banner of Bureau en gros. Back home, since they don't know it's affiliated with Staples, that company loses money. When Pharmaprix advertises on Radio-Canada's national French-language television network, in particular, that company loses money in Acadia, because it's Shoppers Drug Mart back home.
If there is one thing this committee can do, it is to make people a little more aware. Anglophone business people are losing money from 2.5 million people. It would be surprising if they could lose 2.5 million consumers, including Manitoba and Saskatchewan, and for that to have no impact on their sales. If they want to reach people, they have to speak to them in their language. The rest of Canada is too often considered as though it were a homogenous anglophone population. I believe that a committee such as this has a responsibility with regard to public education.
Currently back home, there is the signage issue, for example. Some people say signage isn't important. However, if your language isn't displayed in the street, if your language is just good enough for your bedroom and bathroom, how can you develop any pride or reinforced identity. There too, I believe we should have a Canadian strategy that could simply say that bilingualism is good. Bilingualism brings in money and there are also ways to make money in French.
I am drifting away from my presentation, but we've also tried to create a mission in Quebec and to go and meet Quebec businesses like Cora, which is also called Cora back home. When Cora set up in Moncton as a unilingual English concern, it was completely abnormal. People have to be educated, and I believe a committee such as this one has a collective responsibility to create interaction between francophones and anglophones in Canada.
Let's at least capitalize on these two languages, and there won't be any problems. I speak nearly four languages, though perhaps not as well as Mr. Lueng, who speaks five. Whatever the case may be, I believe we have to avoid setting a bad example.