I feel that at a federal level there needs to be a change in policy or a reinvigorated application of current policies to support bilingualism. I think there are multiple ways in which the federal government, including the Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages and Heritage Canada, could support that.
It could support it simply through publicity that talks about the importance of knowing French and other languages in a Canadian context, within a global context. I think as English Canadians we are complacent about these issues because we think everybody knows English and therefore we don't have to worry. I think that's a really dangerous assumption.
I also think that the federal government could possibly either develop policies or enact policies that provide resources at a national level to tackle some of the issues that communities with French immersion are facing.
These are big issues and we have a lot of competencies in our various provinces, but there is no way in which those competencies are working together to provide support for French immersion programs, French immersion teachers, and French immersion students.
My sense is we could move forward if it were possible to create some kind of centre that would provide resources to support immersion education, because I see it happening in other countries.