Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thanks to Mr. Fraser and all his associates.
I would like to return to the issue of potential amendments.
I entirely agree with you that deleting the preamble would strip the bill of an explanation that could be useful in interpreting the act, if it ever had to be interpreted, particularly before the courts.
I would like to try something. It will probably not go very far, but I am going to try it all the same. Perhaps we could do the opposite of what Mr. Gourde suggested and amend clause 4 to read "the individuals occupying the positions referred to in this Act shall be able to communicate with parliamentarians."
Why should we be so timid if we believe in bilingualism. Why not leave the door open to reinforcing bilingualism and making it more difficult to weaken bilingualism? That would also make it possible to amend clause 3 by providing that the Governor in Council may add offices but that it must go before Parliament if it wants to remove any. I think that is one way to show that this committee believes in bilingualism.
It has been suggested before us that it would perhaps be a good idea, for example, for the president of CBC/Radio-Canada and the chair of the CRTC to be required to be bilingual. I do not believe the government would go so far as to appoint someone who is not bilingual to CBC/Radio-Canada or the CRTC, but you never know because it has previously informed us that it is capable of doing some surprising things.
If we amended the bill in that manner, we would have even greater commitment to bilingualism. What do you think, commissioner?