Yes. The old protocol presents a big challenge. Many education ministries will be reluctant to make changes. We met with some ministry officials this summer. I know this won't be the case for all of them, but the fact is some of them may be more comfortable sticking with the status quo. They may very well wonder why the process should change when it has been the same for the past 30 or 40 years. Here we are, proposing a different way of doing things. Yet, there's nothing revolutionary about it.
This is something only we can ask for. The anglophones couldn't make this request: they have immersion schools. Nor could post-secondary institutions. I am talking about the OLEP priorities. They could try asking for it, but they wouldn't have any legal basis. The only ones covered by section 23 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms are the French-language school boards. We were granted the right to manage our schools, and pursuant to that right, francophone schools can make their own decisions on language and culture. They can decide for themselves where to spend the money and how to set their priorities.
If section 23 gives us the right to manage our schools, why is it not respected when setting priorities that will be paid for using federal money? That's really what it boils down to.