Thank you for asking this question, which is so important. There are various aspects to the answer.
For instance, OECD's international investigations assess the levels of literacy and numeracy, whether it be in computer science, math, science or another field. The results of those investigations conducted under OECD's PEICA were published last fall. Canadian Heritage, Statistics Canada and other departments have joined forces with our community organizations, including Réseau pour le développement de l'alphabétisme et des connaissances, and with FCFA to see how those data could help us better understand the specific needs of our communities, in order to develop retraining and equivalency programs.
There are linguistic data, but the resulting analysis will not have sufficient sampling of our francophone minority communities to make it possible to know the needs that vary, depending on whether the communities are rural or urban.
Two or three years ago, the same problem came up when Employment and Social Development Canada, Industry Canada, Canadian Heritage and Statistics Canada joined forces to conduct a study on francophone companies to find out how the francophone business community was doing. Unfortunately, it was not possible to put together the databases, because not all the investigations that were carried out included linguistic data. Once again, we do not have access to information dealing specifically with the communities.
It is important to include research that enables us to understand our own challenges and circumstances. That is the only way the federal, provincial and territorial governments can fully understand them as well. We are dealing with a serious challenge.
I hope that answers your question.