The Government of Ontario had answered that it was ready to collaborate with the federal government. The Attorney General of Ontario, the Honourable Madeleine Meilleur, had sent a letter saying that. She stated that she agreed with the conclusions of the joint report and was willing to cooperate with her federal counterpart. However, as we are speaking here about judges who are appointed by the federal government, the initiative belongs to the Attorney General of Canada. At the time we were in fact given a polite answer which consisted basically in saying that things were going well.
We were not satisfied with that answer, but I now hope that with the current government, the attitude to this file will be different. We hope that the conclusion of our joint report will be looked at so that the needs of each province are better understood and that there is a common vision of what a bilingual judge is. That vision can in fact vary, both at the federal and provincial levels.
In this regard, we would like to see harmonization and the participation of the legal community, including the francophone legal community in the provinces. This would allow us to determine that in a given region we need designated positions, whereas in other regions we would need to increase the number of judges. It would be up to the provinces to determine those needs, together with the chief justices of their courts. We would like to see memoranda of understanding between the federal and provincial governments to ensure that the process is launched.
I know also that my New Brunswick colleague, Katherine d'Entremont, had at the time received a very favourable reply from her government. What had to be done was precisely that the federal government take the initiative.