One of our government's priorities is to hire more millennials. The average age of new employees in the public service is 36. We have to do more to attract them to the public service.
The percentage of bilingual employees in the central public administration has gone from 35% in 2000 to 41% in 2010. There has been some progress, but we have to do more.
We have to give public servants even more opportunities to become bilingual earlier in their careers. There are the traditional schools in Saint-Jean, Montreal or Chicoutimi. People can also use technology, which is more advanced than it used to be. That's very important.
But the problem persists. Our country has to do more to increase bilingualism everywhere in the country, and not only in the public service. We have to work on this with the other levels of government and the Department of Canadian Heritage. It is very important to continue our efforts to make the public service more bilingual. That is one part of the solution, but we have to do more throughout the country to increase and promote bilingualism.
I'm sorry, Mr. Généreux, that we don't have more time to talk about it.
It's a subject I'd like to have a longer discussion on with you as well.