The city of Ottawa is a very strong and powerful symbol for Canadians. It is the nation's capital, a city that should, in my view, reflect the country's linguistic duality, at the very least.
The bill passed by the province recognizes that the City of Ottawa's bilingualism bylaw satisfies the requirements set out in Ontario's French Language Services Act. I hope, then, that my provincial counterpart, François Boileau, will be dealing with the matter.
The preamble of the Official Languages Act mentions the national capital region. What I find a bit surprising is that Ottawa did not embrace the principle of linguistic duality on its own, before it was thrust upon the city. By the way, the municipality had access to funding to advance official languages but did not use the money.
How is it that funding to support the development of French-language services in the City of Ottawa is available, but no one applied for it. This is where the situation stands: the preamble of the federal act refers to the city's bilingual character, the provincial act officially recognizes it and the Department of Canadian Heritage has made funding available to support it.