I understand my colleague's point of view, but the Conservatives have nothing to teach me about official languages.
You must know that, during the 10 years they were in power, they slashed more than $675 million from CBC. That had a direct effect on the vitality of minority language communities.
They also abolished the court challenges program, which is critical for the advancement of language rights in the country. The court challenges program is cut every time a Conservative government gets into power.
In addition, we know that the Conservatives eliminated the long-form census, which is critical for the understanding of language rights and the reality of language communities in the country. When no information is forthcoming from Statistics Canada, the government, Liberal or Conservative, does not have the data it needs to properly respond to the needs of our communities.
I understand my colleague’s comments and I respect her commitment. However, in reality, the facts speak for themselves. In official languages issues, we are investing $2.7 billion. We have modernized the regulations to Part IV of the Official Languages Act. We are going to modernize the act itself.
So I have no lessons to learn from my colleague.