I think certain things in the act need to be changed. We could also include some elements resulting from court decisions, such as the need for an active offer. Further, we could probably come up with a better definition of Treasury Board's internal monitoring duties. It is up to Treasury Board to monitor the implementation of the act among public servants and in government. For its part, Canadian Heritage is responsible for the application of the act outside government, and in other governments and minority groups. I do not think that needs to be changed to make a single body responsible for all that. I think the current division of responsibilities makes sense. I do not know how we could change the act to enable Canadian Heritage to withhold funds or take other measures in instances where entities do not comply with agreements.
As to the Northwest Territories, I think the federal government provides 95% of their funding. So it has to have some control over how they do things. I don't know if you are aware, by the Supreme Court of the Northwest Territories issued a decision three months ago. Alberta's chief justice, Mary Moreau, was presiding. She ruled that they were in violation of nearly every section of the Official Languages Act. It was a very long and very detailed decision. At the end, she went so far as to order that a government committee be created and public consultations held in order to come up with a work plan to correct these deficiencies.
As to the judiciary, I think the government needs to think carefully about what it wants. Does it want to limit the application of the Official Languages Act to trial courts in criminal cases? Even if it wanted to do just that, the question arises as to whether judges should be required to publish their decisions in the litigant's language. Right now, they are not required to do that. The Federal Court could also be required to publish online all its decisions in both official languages at the same time. Right now they are published in one language first, and then in the other language later on, or not at all if the decision is not of a fundamental nature or something like that.
I do not recall all the internal rules precisely, but I think we need to determine exactly which changes have to be made in each area.