The federal government hosted two symposiums on research in the area of official languages. If memory serves me correctly, they were in 2008 and 2011. In both cases, it was agreed that the government, academia and the communities needed to work together more closely. It didn't happen, though. Academics and communities work together from time to time, but there's room for a lot more collaboration.
We live in a knowledge-based society, and if society is to have a proper vision of itself, if it is to grow and move forward, it needs access to accurate data. That's an area that has suffered serious neglect, as I mentioned at the beginning of my remarks. We are operating in the dark, feeling our way along, without really knowing where we are going because we haven't recognized how vital research is to the implementation of the Official Languages Act, specifically part VII, which deals with community development. Before we can determine the best way to meet communities' needs, we have to identify what those needs are.