Thank you.
The FNCSF is a non-profit organization that represents the 28 French-language school boards in minority communities across Canada. The school boards provide French-language educational services to more than 150,000 students in some 630 schools in nine provinces and three territories.
With regard to the roadmap, the FNCSF is calling for a better distribution of federal funding for French first-language education in francophone communities to better respect francophones' rights and more effectively manage their schools.
The FNCSF, the Commission nationale des parents francophones, or CNPF, and the Fédération des communautés francophones et acadienne, or FCFA, have produced a report entitled “Objectif 2018/2023”. Unfortunately, the document is currently available only in French.
In the report, the three national organizations representing francophone parents, French-language school boards, and francophone and Acadian communities call on the Department of Canadian Heritage to make significant improvements in view of the signing of the next Protocol for Agreements for Minority-Language Education and Second-Language Instruction, commonly referred to as the OLEP. As you know, Canadian Heritage renews the protocol with the Council of Ministers of Education, or CMEC, every five years.
I will now ask Mr. Paul to go over the highlights of the joint FNCSF-CNPF-FCFA report, “Objectif 2018/2023”, and to present our recommendations for the renewal of the next multi-year action plan for official languages.