Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Minister, thank you for being with us today.
Early childhood education is beyond important. It is essential to the survival, vitality and development of our minority communities. If we fail to squarely address early childhood issues, we are heading for certain assimilation.
In his 2016 study on early childhood, the former Commissioner of Official Languages Graham Fraser mentioned that several francophone communities, particularly in New Brunswick and Ontario, were resorting to bilingual immersion programs because of the shortage of access to French-language early childhood services, which has very serious consequences. Recently, the newspaper Le Droit published an article entitled “Services à la petite enfance en français: faire face à la pénurie sans précédent”. It discussed access to early childhood services in French.
What work have you done with Minister Joly, through the action plan, to solve this problem? The action plan does not mention early childhood.