It is important to consider that at the constitutional level, we made spectacular gains in 1982 thanks to the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, particularly section 23. This section concerns the elementary and secondary levels, but education does not start and stop there. There is a learning continuum.
The OLEP was created under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, and concerns elementary and secondary education. Nevertheless, it is essential that we begin with early childhood, especially when the rate of exogamous couples is as high as it is here in Ontario. Over 60% of francophone couples in Ontario are exogamous couples.
If we support the children of these families from early childhood on, we are sending an important signal that it is possible to have an education in French and that we can send children for their first year of schooling to a French school. It is not a panacea, but it would certainly help. It can't hurt. That is why it is important to consider early childhood education programs in a learning continuum.