First, as a lawyer, I think what Canada needs, and what we need as francophones, as Acadians or as English-speaking Quebecers, are better rights. The only realistic thing to do is to amend the federal Official Languages Act. It would be unrealistic to consider constitutional reform. We need tangible results, and that will be possible if we amend the act to provide for a bigger or better framework for what the Canadian government does. So I propose that you focus your efforts on Ottawa.
Second, Mr. Arseneault, your predecessors in Parliament previously sketched out what part VII could be. I invite you to go back to tab 5 of the document. You referred us to page 21 of the act, but let's go instead to the middle of the next page, where the powers of the Treasury Board are listed. I want to raise a new point here. All of you have deleted the verb "may" from subsection 46(2) and replaced it with the verb "shall". Now I want to underscore some other words.
What can Mr. Brison do in his capacity as Treasury Board President. According to paragraph (a), he may "establish policies". Under paragraph (b), he may "recommend regulations to the Governor in Council". According to paragraph (c), he may "issue directives to give effect" to certain parts of the act. These are quite restrictive provisions, Mr. Arseneault. Under paragraph (d), the Treasury Board President may also "monitor and audit federal institutions" in respect of their obligations. According to paragraph (e), he may "evaluate the effectiveness and efficiency of policies and programs."
Let's take another look at these verbs and transpose them to part VII, or, even better, let's rewrite part VII to assign those obligations to the Treasury Board; let's transform the word "may" into "shall", and your successors will be dealing with much less serious problems in a generation or two. The structural problem at the federal level is federal-provincial/territorial accountability, but also governance. That requires the parties to shoulder their responsibilities.
I'm working from the assumption that Ms. Joly has the best intentions in the world. However, the current act doesn't give Ms. Joly or Mr. Brison the necessary powers to do what must be done for us as francophones.