I'm going to tell you about scenario 2.
It must be understood that the official languages situation has evolved, despite persistent challenges, and that Canadian opinion is more in favour of official languages than ever.
Things have changed. We must fully consider the progress that has been made in the past 50 years and form a common understanding of the major challenges that remain on the ground and in the government's administration of the act.
The analysis of the linguistic environment that formed the foundation on which the act was created in 1969 is no longer valid. Consequently, we must base the exercise of modernizing the act on a new analysis and on the current state of Canadian society.
In other words, modernizing the Official Languages Act calls for a broad and popular democratic exercise in order to grasp the scope of the challenges, retake the country's pulse and reconnect to the reality of our communities. It is up to the government to renew its vision based on present circumstances and to exercise strong leadership in initiating this project.
The FCCF believes that the exercise of modernizing the act must be as broadly based as possible. We must engage all stakeholders in a genuine national conversation. Taking part in the discussion means engaging and feeling responsible for success. Actions will then follow words.
The development work done in cooperation with the first nations in order to introduce an act to protect aboriginal languages is a model of the way we want to be engaged. Let's draw inspiration from the model the government has advanced on that issue.
In scenario 3, the spirit of part VII of the Official Languages Act must take precedence. In our view, the notion that the intention to support and assist the development of the official language minority communities and to enhance their vitality is in fact the overall intent of the act is a promising and visionary idea. We must therefore do more and better in delivering on the promise to advance the official languages and promote the francophone and Acadian communities.
We believe that a promotion, awareness and public education campaign would have a positive impact on our entire ecosystem. Canadian public opinion on official languages is more positive than it has ever been.
Our citizens view official languages as a fundamental value and an asset that distinguishes us in the eyes of the world. We are eager to see a brilliant, jointly led campaign to promote it.
The act must increase the power of the Department of Canadian Heritage as the department responsible for implementing part VII. The department's horizontal capacity was severely tested by the implementation of interdepartmental approaches. It's hard for a department to be compelled to act as both judge and party.
Perhaps this reaffirmed role could be reinforced by a systematic whole-of-government official languages lens, somewhat like gender-based analysis plus.
Imagine us, for a moment, systematically examining how federal initiatives affect various official language minority communities. Then we would really be starting to get equipped. We would truly be acting based on a knowledge of and sensitivity to the official language minority communities.