Thank you for that excellent question, Ms. Lattanzio.
I hope our study helps in outlining some potential solutions. What the FCFA intends to do, as my colleague Mrs. Cardinal explained at the outset, is propose to the government the wording of provisions that might be used to amend the Official Languages Act. We will determine the precise form that wording will take in light of the findings of our study and of the interviews we conduct in the following weeks.
The idea that immediately comes to mind would be to include in the Official Languages Act one or two sections, even a short division on the framing or inclusion, by reference, of regulatory provisions respecting bilingual labelling and packaging.
Official languages regulations do exist, respecting the labelling and packaging of consumer products, food and drugs in particular. It's very important that this appear in the regulations. However, regulations are a fragile instrument in that they can be more easily circumvented by the Governor in Council acting alone without the approval of Parliament. Legislating by regulation thus results in a degree of fragility.
On the other hand, if we want to include new provisions in the act, it's up to Parliament to vote on those additions and to amend applicable provisions. That's why we anticipate that statutory amendments would provide better protection for bilingual labelling standards. The FCFA may draft its proposals to that effect.