There's no doubt that you're right when you say you're a catalyst. The question for this committee is whether you'll be a catalyst in both official languages, from A to Z, perfectly. Do you need some help from the government to be a perfect bilingual catalyst? This is the question of this committee. There was very little in your brief.
Tell us that we will be safe in that—not only about the Canada Games but about sports in general, because big mistakes have been made, even recently at the Olympics. We don't want that any more. This committee would fail in its duty if we did not recommend to the government that everything possible is being done to ensure that both official languages will be respected. That will be the question for you.
I would like to put my questions one after the other, because we have little time, Mr. Chair.
Mr. Corbeil and Mr. Nault, from Statistics Canada, thank you very much for this presentation. It was excellent. The fact that French is losing ground is to be expected, given the hundreds of thousands of new Canadians who, for the most part, do not speak French. However, the fact that bilingualism among Canadians outside Quebec is on the decline is very worrying. It is very worrisome that the rate of bilingualism is declining among the young. And so I would like to know whether you can help us to understand this phenomenon, using some very specific statistics.
For instance, we know that in the case of exogamous couples, when the non-francophone parent speaks French, the rate of transmission of the French language to the children is much higher than when the non-francophone parent does not speak French. Do you have any specific statistics on that for us? That would help us a great deal, as a committee, to pinpoint the problem. It is at the heart of the problem, in my opinion, insofar as the future of bilingualism in Canada is concerned. Anglophones and francophones intermarry, and they have to be able to transmit their dual linguistic heritage to their children. We need your help in that regard.
Also, you told us that the regular French as a second language program is on the decline. From 1992 to today, I believe, we went from 1.8 million to 1.38 million, i.e. a decrease of 23%. Can you tell us in which provinces this happened, for the most part? This would help us to speak to these governments. I understand that this falls under their jurisdiction, but our role is to ensure that French is taught everywhere in Canada in the regular curriculum, and not only in immersion schools. As for immersion schools, if I am not mistaken, you have all of the necessary figures to show us how things have increased. Those are all of my questions for you.
Thank you, Mr. Wilson-Smith and Mr. Jedwab. I found your presentations very impressive.
Very quickly, I have one question. You seem to be well equipped within your organizations. You are not asking for anything at all. Nevertheless, in order to ensure that the message regarding history and research on Canada will be well conceived in both languages, what recommendations would you make to the government?