Absolutely. I see this as a series of, if you like, cascading incentives. I think that as an employer, the federal government should be sending that message to universities, and universities should be sending that message to secondary schools. Often students are making key decisions about the courses they're going to take when they're in grade 9. Sometimes they will be told by academic counsellors, no, that's not one of your stronger subjects. I've had immersion students say to me they've been told by their teachers in their last year of high school not to take the immersion exam but to take the core French exam because it's much easier, and they'll ace it, that all the universities care about is the marks. Well, that is a set of incentives for mediocrity. I think there should instead be a set of incentives for excellence. As an employer, the federal government has a series of rights and obligations, if you like, to convey to universities what it needs. Universities should be sending a message to students that they value those students who have gone to the effort of persisting in going through immersion and taking a more demanding program, and that they will take that into account when they evaluate their applications.
On October 28th, 2014. See this statement in context.