Mr. Chair, I'm the first vice-chair of the committee, but I thank you nonetheless; it may be premonitory.
Mr. Théberge, Mr. Wolfe and Mr. Leduc, thank you for being here. We are always pleased to welcome you to the Standing Committee on Official Languages.
Commissioner, in your October 2024 report, you state that “[t]he 2021 Census provided much-needed evidence on rights holders”. A few lines later, things get worse. You encourage “Statistics Canada to continue to expand its analyses in this area … The modernized Act commits the government to restoring the demographic weight of the Francophone minority through immigration, but the government must also ensure that new generations are not lost to assimilation through majority language schools.” You conclude by saying that you are “pleased that the modernization of the Act includes the federal government's commitment to periodically estimate the number of children of rights holders.”
You know that I fought the battle between “counting” and “estimating.” My question is simple. How can we be happy with a simple estimate in the next census, instead of an enumeration?