Mr. Tabachnick said that youth sustain the educational sector—elementary, secondary, post-secondary, and the rest. We come at it as well from the community sector. Youth are our only anchor to sustain the vitality of our community in Quebec, so the more that youth are interested and engaged in Quebec, the better we are.
From that point of view, the education system is fundamental. We're all interested in youth, but they go through our schools, and as we close small schools, there is less capacity to help the students, to talk to them about the culture of the English-speaking community, the promotion of a cultural community under section 23. So it's not just about the English school, it's about our community in those schools.
We differ a little bit from the francophones in that English is not at risk, but the communities are at risk. The schools are fundamental to our community in those small places. We need to do more work to understand how to manage not just the schools but also the system so that we can reassure ourselves that 20 or 30 years from now we will still have an English-speaking community. It's mostly by the schools; we can't have immigrants and.... Also, people adhere to the English-speaking community not just because they have kids in school but they want access to health and social services and those things.
You know, by and large, the young people are our future. We need better data to be able to manage not just the school system but the vitality of our community.