There are two reasons for that. First, I think that education at the primary and high school levels is jealously guarded by the provinces. It's under provincial jurisdiction, whereas at the post-secondary level—research, grants and so on—collaboration with the federal government is generally accepted.
The second reason is that I am seeing a certain cascading influence that the federal government is having on universities. In fact, the government and the deputy ministers play a recruiting role by sending the message that the government, as the largest employer in Canada, needs bilingual employees. This may bring universities to send the message to high schools that they need to stress French or English in francophone institutions.
One of the problems is that the rate the students drop French after grade nine in Ontario is very high, given that it ceases to be mandatory. As Mr. Dion mentioned, there is no obligation in western Ontario. So there students drop it.
A high school student told me that his teacher said that, at the end of high school, the students should choose to take a core French exam rather than an immersion exam because it was easier. So they would get a better mark. He said that the universities only look at the grade when evaluating admission applications. I think that just encourages mediocrity. Universities should look at the pool of candidates and consider the ones that have taken more difficult courses as major candidates.
In fact, more and more, we are seeing universities recognizing the importance of this pool of immersion students and even competing for them. For example, there are programs to attract them at the University of Ottawa. Glendon College, on the York University campus, conducts a campaign to recruit immersion students.
But too many universities only look at the numbers, which doesn't concern them. Others do not see the need to provide students with those opportunities because they say that the federal government will take care of them if they hire them as employees.