One of the difficulties in evaluating the results of promotion is that it's difficult to know what impact one has had. One of the things that I've often felt, from my interventions with ministers or government departments, is that you're never sure which finger on the button made the elevator come. Was it my intervention that led to the...? I'm referring to the complaint process rather than the promotional process, but was it my investigation that led to the government's decision to keep the maritime rescue sub-centre open in Quebec City? Was it MPs who mobilized, was it the community that mobilized, was it the minister who decided this is what needed to be in? Ultimately, it was a decision by the.... Did the Prime Minister's Office intervene? I don't know.
I know that we did our investigation and I had conversations with the fisheries department and the coast guard, but it's very difficult to.... If I've given a number of speeches, or if we've given promotional material to school children, it's difficult to know what kind of effect that's going to have. I mentioned the example of a colleague of mine who became convinced of the importance of both official languages when he was a volunteer at the Canada Games in Winnipeg as a teenager. Who knows whether the volunteers for the Canada Winter Games in Prince George, or the Canada Games in Sherbrooke, may have their minds opened to the presence and importance of both official languages? I find it very difficult.
In terms of breaking down our promotional activities, one thing that we are doing in respect to immigration, though I wouldn't say this is a promotional activity that is directed specifically at immigrants, is that we're doing a study on immigration in conjunction with the Commissioner of French Language Services in Ontario. It's one of the themes that we will be discussing in next year's annual report. I've spoken to the minister, I've met with immigrant groups across the country, both English-speaking immigrants in Quebec City and French-speaking immigrants in Toronto, Winnipeg, and Regina. It's hard to measure precisely what the impact is of those interventions, but certainly it's one of our priorities.