As for whether part VII should have its own regulations, one thing is certain. Justice Gascon made it clear that something had to be done and that a positive measure had to be defined. That's something the committee could examine as part of its study on the modernization of the Official Languages Act.
What constitutes a positive measure? How it is understood and what it means depend on the person interpreting it. A federal institution may define a positive measure as anything that is not negative. Communities, however, interpret it as an obligation on all federal institutions to adopt policies, funding and programs tailored to the specific needs of minority communities. That's what part VII means to us: an obligation to consider all government initiatives from a francophone standpoint. Right now, that's not what's happening, quite the opposite.
From time to time, federal institutions reach out to the FCFA, via meetings or telephone calls, in order to document the activity as a positive measure towards the implementation of part VII. That's unacceptable.
Instead, they need to be taking account of the francophone perspective, genuinely consulting communities on all federal initiatives and policies, not just with respect to the action plan. For example, the federal government has been investing billions in infrastructure for the past few years. What share of that investment has gone to francophone communities? Federal officials refer us to our provincial governments to make sure their infrastructure priorities include our projects. In other words, those agreements do not help us, so we need dedicated funding under all federal initiatives.
We also need all federal-provincial-territorial agreements to have binding language clauses, and I'm not just talking about clauses requiring the consultation of minority communities. I am talking about clauses that specifically lay out the obligations to be met and the proportion of funding to be spent.
That's what positive measures mean to official language minority communities.
Are regulations governing the implementation of part VII necessary? As everyone knows, regulations are easy to change, so at the very least, part VII should establish fundamental principles that are clearly defined.