Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Mr. Manicom, you said you had just received the Commissioner's report about the French test for immigrants, and that the test costs more than the English test. That surprised me. In fact, it costs almost double. The French test can cost as much as $485, which is almost double the cost of the English test. In addition, there are only 12 cities that offer the French test, but half of those cities are in Quebec, while there are 33 cities that offer the English test. It can take up to five months to receive the results of the French test, while the time for the English test is only a few weeks. That is totally unacceptable.
You tell me you only received the report yesterday. In fact, people have been complaining about this since August 2015. So do not tell me you received the report yesterday.
Yes, you received the report yesterday, but you were aware of the situation well before that. You aware of it for a year. It was a very sure thing that the report was going to say that you were not abiding by the Official Languages Act. The two languages are on equal footing. You therefore cannot ask someone to pay double the price to take the French test, or to take a plane to do it. Think about the Yukon francophone communities. The people in those communities in Yukon have to take a plane to take the French test.
As Mr. Samson said, we want to make sure that francophones can settle in official language minority communities. Then they are told that the French test is not available, they have to take a plane to take the test and pay double the price of the English test. People are shocked, and you had known that since August 2015.
The Commissioner is making three recommendations. Of course, you will tell me that you are going to implement them very soon now, I am sure of it. How is it that you have done nothing since August 2015, when you knew very well that you were not abiding by the Official Languages Act?