Thank you, Mr. Chair.
It is very simple. I understand what subsection 49(1) of the Official Languages Act contains. In reality, however, this is not a normal situation. We had five weeks of controversy and then the nominee withdrew her application because there was so much controversy. It had the effect of creating divisions in communities. The matter took up all their time. The communities felt trapped.
There will certainly be a new commissioner; we have no choice. What the communities want is to make their recommendations known to the Prime Minister before he starts any new procedures in this selection process.
Yes, Minister Mélanie Joly has met with the communities, but what did Sylviane Lanthier say when she came out of the meeting with her? She said that she still would have preferred to meet with the Prime Minister. What did Jean Johnson say after his election? He said that he wanted to meet with the Prime Minister. What did Jim Shea, the president of the Quebec Community Groups Network say? He said that he wanted to meet with the Prime Minister.
If this was a normal situation, we would just have to follow the process set out in subsection 49(1) of the act and there would be no problem. However, this is not a normal situation. It is an exceptional situation. We have had polemics for five or six weeks and it is still not over.
What are the groups representing official language minority communities telling us? They are asking us to set partisanship aside once and for all. Committee members have been tearing themselves apart on this issue for a month and a half. One of the first things to do is to sit down together and decide to put this all aside. A process like this makes no sense and cannot continue. We are certainly not going to let the communities suffer because of it.
All we are asking is that the committee should sit down together and send a clear message about what those communities want. They want to meet with the Prime Minister and tell him about their recommendations. They do not want to decide who the next commissioner will be; they just want to tell the Prime Minister about what they want in terms of the process, so that they do not feel left out of it. That's all. They want that to be done at the highest level of this government because official languages should also be one of this government's highest priorities, any government actually, no matter its stripe. That is what they are asking for, given that the situation is really different, exceptional and serious.
So I repeat my appeal. If you need to think about it, if we need to call each other in order to settle this, let's do it. Let's do it for the official language minority communities. They are saying that it is time for us to act and for us to come to an agreement, because this is hurting every community in the country.
We must not just be focused on subsection 49(1). We must also focus on our communities.