I don't really know where to begin, Mr. Rioux.
Things are going well in some respects, as you can see from the map of Canada's francophone schools, but poorly in others. We need a lot more early childhood spaces, for example, and we need the money allocated to the provinces and territories to be spent for the purposes for which it is granted.
You told me you had heard from representatives of the Conseil des écoles fransaskoises, which specifically proposes that a paragraph be added to the act under which the Government of Canada "ensure[s] that the funds transferred to the provinces and territories are actually spent as provided for in the agreements negotiated." If the act so provided, officials would have a completely different mission, and the debate itself in Parliament would probably be quite different as well.
I briefly want to add that the transparency and accountability issue obviously involves the minorities, such as the Fransaskois and the Franco-Colombians, but also concerns the majority just as much, perhaps even more so. In British Columbia, the Vancouver School Board is making cuts to immersion programs. And yet federal funding has remained stable, and the province is rich. How is it, then, that Ottawa winds up paying as much money as previously to fund fewer immersion spaces? Where does that money go? How is it that I'm the one asking the question? It makes no sense.
I don't think the revision of the act should concern only the linguistic minorities. It's a societal and national issue.